No ethnic cleansing of Moriscos from Spain

Just read an article in HISTORY TODAY bout this terrible episode of Spanish hist during the 16th-17th C. WI it hadn't happened ? How would Spain's economic growth have not been stunted by the mass expulsion of the Moriscos (who comprised the majority of the agricultural workforce in Aragon & Castille, & whose interests were supported by the local noblemen on that economic basis) due to the Spanish Crown's desire to keep Spain completely Catholic ? What other factors would've changed ?
 
Might have to go back earlier than the rise of Castile and Aragon. As such, King Manuel I of Portugal was a bit more reluctant to follow Spain's example in the early 1500's. You could have either Portugal dominate the southern Iberian Peninsula during the last centuries of the Reconquista, or have different dynasties take power in the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon.
 
Might have to go back earlier than the rise of Castile and Aragon. As such, King Manuel I of Portugal was a bit more reluctant to follow Spain's example in the early 1500's. You could have either Portugal dominate the southern Iberian Peninsula during the last centuries of the Reconquista, or have different dynasties take power in the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon.

That seems a bit radical. Couldn't the Spanish kings who existed in OTL make a different decision?
 
Probably different kings would have to face same problems and choose similar solutions. To save them you would have to make them not seem a threat to the security of Spain. They were perceived as ottoman colaborationists and that was really their problem.
 
Not sure about the Moriscos, but if they keep the Sephardim they keep a valuable trade and liaison network that could be of real political and economic advantage to the crown.
 
The Spanish could just have deported them and the Sephardim to the Antilles or Jamiaca, where they could manage or work the plantations there. Won't have much trouble from them, then. I doubt that such a scenario could compel the Ottoman Turks into sending an expeditionary force to the Carribbean, where they could enlist the help of the colonial Moriscos and Jews into helping them establish a Carribean outpost for the Ottoman Empire......or could it?:rolleyes:;)
 
Last edited:
Top