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On April 9, 1609, King Philip III of Spain decreed the Expulsion of the Moriscos ((スペイン語:Expulsión de los moriscos), (カタルーニャ語、バレンシア語:Expulsió dels moriscos)). The Moriscos were the descendants of Spanish Muslim population that converted to Christianity under threat of exile or death from Ferdinand and Isabella in 1502. Fighting wars in the Americas, and feeling threatened by the Turks raiding along the North African coast, it seems the expulsions were a reaction to a perceived internal problem of the stretched Spanish Empire. 〔 Dwight Reynolds, speaking on 'Bettany Hughes:When the Moors Ruled in Europe'. 〕Between 1609 through 1614, the Crown systematically expelled the Moriscos through a number of expulsion orders in Spain's various kingdoms, meeting varying levels of success. Although initial estimates of the number expelled such as those of Henri Lapeyre reach 300,000 moriscos (or 4% of the total Spanish population), the extent and severity of the expulsion in much of Spain has been increasingly challenged by modern historians.〔Trevor J. Dadson: (''The Assimilation of Spain's Moriscos: Fiction or Reality?'' ). Journal of Levantine Studies, vol. 1, no. 2, Winter 2011, pp. 11-30〕 Nevertheless, the eastern region of Valencia, where ethnic tensions were high, was particularly affected by the expulsion, suffering economic collapse and depopulation of much of its territory. Of those permanently expelled, the majority finally settled in the Maghreb or the Barbary coast. Those who avoided expulsion or who managed to return were gradually absorbed by the dominant culture. The last mass prosecution against Moriscos for crypto-Islamic practices took place in Granada in 1727, with most of those convicted receiving relatively light sentences. By the end of the 18th century, indigenous Islam and morisco identity is considered to have been extinguished in Spain.〔(''Vínculos Historia'': ''The moriscos who remained. The permanence of Islamic origin population in Early Modern Spain: Kingdom of Granada, XVII-XVIII centuries'' ) (In Spanish)〕 ==Background== Suspicions and tensions between Moriscos, who were called New Christians, and the other Christians, who were called Old Christians, were high in some parts of Spain. While some Moriscos did hold influence and power, and they had some allies such as the nobility of Valencia and Aragon who depended on them as a cheap labor force, their overall political and economic heft in Spain was low. Where sectarian conflict existed, old Christian communities suspected the Moriscos of not being sincere in their Christianity. This was often the case, since conversion was recent and carried out under duress. However many of these Moriscos were devout in their new Christian faith, and in Granada, many Moriscos even became Christian martyrs, as they were killed by Muslims for refusing to renounce Christianity. As such the conflict between Old Christians and New Christians was an ethnically inspired one. Several revolts broke out, the most notable being the 1568–1573 revolt against an edict of Phillip II's banning Arabic, Arabic names, and requiring Moriscos to give up their children to be educated by priests. After the suppression of the revolt, Philip ordered the dispersal of the Moriscos of Granada to other areas. Philip expected that this would break down the Morisco community and facilitate their assimilation into the rest of the Christian population. This may have happened to a degree to Granada's Moriscos, but not in Valencia or Aragon, where Islam was still widely practised and ethnic tensions were much higher than in the rest of Spain.〔Lynch, p. 44.〕 At around the same time, Spain recognized the loss of more than half of its holdings in the Low Countries to the Protestant Dutch Republic. The ruling class already thought of Spain as the defender of Catholic Christendom, and this defeat helped lead to a radicalization of thinking and a desire to strike a blow to regain Spain's honor.〔Lynch, p. 43.〕 Some critiques of Spain from Protestant countries included insults of the Spanish as corrupted by the Muslims and crypto-Muslims amongst them, which some of the nobility may have taken personally. The situation further deteriorated in the early 17th century. A recession struck in 1604 as the amount of gold and treasure from Spain's American holdings fell. The reduction in the standard of living led to increased tension between the Moriscos and Old Christians for precious jobs.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Expulsion of the Moriscos」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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