Spain Expels the Moriscos
A century after forcing Muslims to convert or leave, Philip III orders their converted descendants out too, expelling as many as half a million people in five years
Quick facts
- Decreed
- 9 April 1609, by Philip III
- Estimated number expelled
- 300,000 to 500,000 (disputed)
- Expulsion period
- 1609-1614
- Declared complete
- 20 February 1614
What happened
On 9 April 1609, King Philip III secretly signed a decree to expel all Spaniards of Muslim descent, the Moriscos, whose ancestors had been forced to convert to Christianity after Islam was outlawed in Spain in 1502. The decision came after centuries of restrictive measures against religious minorities, Jews first and then Moors, and after a January 1608 Royal Council meeting where mass slaughter of the Moriscos was proposed before expulsion was chosen as the preferred solution instead. The Royal Council, led by the Duke of Lerma, formally decreed the expulsion on 4 April 1609, and it was publicly announced in Valencia that September; a sermon soon after claimed the Moriscos had conspired with the Ottoman Turks to invade Spain. Estimates of the total expelled between 1609 and 1614 range from 300,000 to half a million people, out of a Spanish population of roughly 8 million; contemporary accounts describe tens of thousands dying during the expulsion itself or in the passage abroad, and many who reached North Africa were abused or killed by the Muslim communities they landed among.
Why it matters
The expulsion drained Spain of a population that had powered much of Valencia's agricultural economy and other key sectors, worsening an economic decline that had already begun under Philip II. On 20 February 1614, the Royal Council declared the expulsion complete, more than nine centuries after Islam had first entered Spain.
How we know
The University of Minnesota Press's scholarly account of the expulsion, drawing on the American historian Henry Charles Lea's 1901 study The Moriscos of Spain and contemporary Spanish sources including Pedro Aznar Cardona's 1612 treatise, documents the decree's signing, its public announcement, and the estimated death toll during the expulsion.
Sources
- University of Minnesota Press (Manifold digital edition). We Are All Moors: Ending Centuries of Crypto-Religious Persecution · Reputable sourcemanifold.umn.edu · The domain "manifold.umn.edu" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- University of Minnesota Press (Manifold digital edition). We Are All Moors: Ending Centuries of Crypto-Religious Persecution · Reputable sourcemanifold.umn.edu · The domain "manifold.umn.edu" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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