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Spain's Moriscos were Christians — or at least baptized ones. Converted descenda
1609 Event

September 11

Spain Expels the Moriscos: Forced Conversion Wasn't Enough

Spain's Moriscos were Christians — or at least baptized ones. Converted descendants of Muslims who'd been forced to choose between faith and expulsion a century earlier, they'd built lives, businesses, and families across Valencia and Aragon. Philip III expelled roughly 300,000 of them between 1609 and 1614. Valencian landowners immediately protested: Morisco tenant farmers had been running their estates. The agricultural economy of eastern Spain collapsed for decades. A decision framed as religious purity turned out to be an economic catastrophe.

September 11, 1609

417 years ago

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