Moriscos

In the 1500s the Spanish began using the unflattering term Moriscos to refer to Muslims who had converted to Christianity. Two royal decrees, one in 1502 and one in 1525, ordered all Muslims living in Spain to become Christians or leave the country. Almost 400,000 Muslims chose to stay in Spain as Christians.

Moriscos were fairly rare in most regions of Spain. However, they made up some 20 percent of the population in Aragon and one-third of the residents of the city of Valencia. Most of them were peasants skilled in irrigation or in raising cereals and tree fruits, such as olives and oranges, on dry lands. The Moriscos of Granada, in southern Spain, also worked in the silk, construction, and leather industries. Culturally they were diverse: many had lived alongside Christians for years, while others had only recently come under Christian rule. Some spoke only Arabic, while others spoke no Arabic at all.

In the early 1500s, Spanish authorities tried to do away with many aspects of Muslim culture. They banned the wearing of traditional dress and regulated birth, marriage, and burial customs. After 1526 Spanish leaders used gentler means to persuade Moriscos to adopt the Christian way of life. Preaching by RELIGIOUS ORDERS such as the Jesuits* and Franciscans met with little success, however. In 1566 Spain began to enforce the anti-Muslim laws it had ignored for many years. This decision led to a Morisco revolt in the southern region of Granada, which lasted two years and resulted in the exile of 80,000 Moriscos.

Some Spaniards still felt that the Moriscos could be convinced to abandon their Muslim culture. Others called for more severe actions, such as deporting the Moriscos to the New World or even wiping them out completely. One proposed solution was to force all Moriscos out of Spain, but Spanish priests opposed this plan because they did not want Moriscos to settle in other Islamic lands. Noble landowners, who had come to depend heavily on the labor of Morisco peasants, also fought against the idea. Such resistance managed to block an attempt to expel the Moriscos from Valencia in 1582. However, anti-Morisco feelings still ran high in Spain. Some Spaniards accused the Moriscos of conspiring with Muslim and Protestant enemies of Spain. In 1609 King Philip III expelled the kingdom's Moriscos. About 350,000 people left Spain, most of them moving to North Africa. The expulsion severely damaged the economies of those regions that had once had the most Moriscos.