The forced expulsion of the Moriscos, Spain's Muslim converts to Christianity and their descendants, ordered by Philip III between 1609 and 1614. Moriscos had already been forcibly converted from Islam a century earlier and remained under suspicion of secretly practicing their former faith; the expulsion drove most of them to North Africa, ending organized Islam in Spain after nearly nine centuries of Muslim presence.
Facts
Disputed
Death TollThe contemporary chronicler Pedro Aznar Cardona's own 1612 figure: over 50,000 Moriscos killed resisting expulsion inside Spain between October 1609 and July 1611, plus over 60,000 more dying during passage abroad by land or sea, roughly 110,000 total, about 17 percent of the Morisco population as reported in Majid (2009). This is Aznar Cardona's own stated absolute count, near-contemporary to the events, not a figure derived by this atlas. Death TollHenry Charles Lea's 1901 claim of a 67 to 75 percent Morisco death rate, which Majid's own 2009 chapter explicitly calls "difficult to verify," the same maximalist role Lea plays elsewhere in this database (his estimate of the 1391 Massacres death toll, likewise flagged as later regarded as inflated). Lea states a rate rather than an absolute count; the figure here applies his own upper rate, 75 percent, to the entity's already-recorded upper displaced total of 300,000, yielding 225,000. This is disclosed as a computed application of Lea's own cited rate to a total already recorded here, offered as the outlier upper pole against Aznar Cardona's grounded contemporary figure, not as Lea's own quoted absolute number. Displaced (Low Estimate)Historians' estimates of Moriscos expelled range considerably; this reflects the lower end of figures modern scholarship favors, with some estimates running higher. Displaced (High Estimate)The commonly cited upper bound in general accounts of the expulsion; a small minority of estimates run higher still. Status
Official RecognitionNot formally recognized by any body 1 Predates the modern legal concept of genocide and crimes against humanity entirely; some modern historians characterize it as an act of ethnic cleansing, but no international body has ever ruled on it. Recognition BasisDocumented in modern scholarship, including one of the sources already cited here, Matthew Carr's "Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain, 1492-1614," whose own title reflects a characterization some modern historians apply to the event. Unlike the parallel 1492 Jewish expulsion, no Spanish government redress law or international determination exists for the Moriscos: Spain's 2015 citizenship law for Sephardic Jewish descendants has no Morisco counterpart on the books. 1 The Event
When It Happened Victim GroupThe Moriscos, Spain's Muslim converts to Christianity and their descendants 1 Perpetrator RegimeThe Spanish Crown under Philip III 1 Connections
Conducted By
Source Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain, 1492-1614Matthew Carr
Corresponds To
Source Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain, 1492-1614Matthew Carr
Originated In
Source Expulsion of the Moriscos (Wikipedia)
Persecuted Group
Source Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain, 1492-1614Matthew Carr
Sources
1. Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain, 1492-1614
Matthew Carr, The New Press, 2009
2. Majid, Anouar, "We Are All Moors: Ending Centuries of Crusades against Muslims and Other Minorities" (2009)
Anouar Majid, University of Minnesota Press, 2009
Expulsion of the Moriscos (Wikipedia)
Originated In: Spain, Lead sectionQuote, Originated In: Spain, Lead section
The Moriscos were descendants of Spain's Muslim population who had been forced to convert to Christianity.
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