WI Rhenish Moriscos

[Ridwan Asher]

IIRC, the Dutch were religiously tolerant towards anyone not a Catholic, and Jews did fairly well under the Republic. So I can imagine the Republic allowing the Muslims in the Spanish Netherlands to cross over, revert openly to Islam, and form military units to fight their Hapsburg oppressors, in exchange agreeing to swear loyalty to the Republic and not try to convert any Christians (Calvinist or otherwise).

Eventually, some of the more well off ones would engage in trade-Islam, like Calvinism, is a very mercantile oriented religion and the Muslims will have connections in North Africa and the Middle East that would benefit the Dutch. So I imagine you'd get a small, but influential, segment of wealthy Muslim businessmen in the Republic, and a larger population of farmers and soldiers, some of whom may immigrate to places like Brandenburg after the Thirty Years War if the rulers offer them a good enough deal.

I can't help but thinking how would this influence Dutch activities in Indonesia later on. Inevitably some of them will be invented in VOC or anything equivalent....

 

[Cuāuhtemōc]

I am sure that the Muslims would have a good place when it comes to the establishment of New Amsterdam in the Americas. They can supplement the Jews' role as those in control of commerce and trade in the colony.

 

[rad_vsovereign]

I'm pretty sure the Moriscos will cross over to more tolerant places at the earliest possible opportunity.
In fact, I'm betting that given the choice of the Dutch or the Spanish, they'd probably cross-over en-masse to the Dutch Republic.
OTL the Moriscos fought fiercely on the side of the Maghribi rulers and Corsairs against the Spaniards since they hate them so. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ksar_El_Kebir Moriscos fought on the center of the Sultan's line and contribute to the Moroccan victory (that ended with Portugal being a part of Spain.)

 

[Roberto]

IIRC, the Dutch were religiously tolerant towards anyone not a Catholic, and Jews did fairly well under the Republic. So I can imagine the Republic allowing the Muslims in the Spanish Netherlands to cross over, revert openly to Islam, and form military units to fight their Hapsburg oppressors, in exchange agreeing to swear loyalty to the Republic and not try to convert any Christians (Calvinist or otherwise).

Eventually, some of the more well off ones would engage in trade-Islam, like Calvinism, is a very mercantile oriented religion and the Muslims will have connections in North Africa and the Middle East that would benefit the Dutch. So I imagine you'd get a small, but influential, segment of wealthy Muslim businessmen in the Republic, and a larger population of farmers and soldiers, some of whom may immigrate to places like Brandenburg after the Thirty Years War if the rulers offer them a good enough deal.

Hm, that's pretty interesting, in the sense that the Moriscos would experience a population and power boom in the wake of the Thirty Year's War, especially if they go to places where there exists a vacuum for certain professions...

Ridwan Asher repeatedly makes a good point, that the Moriscos would also be involved to some extent in the East Indies. If the presence of muslims in the VOC facilitates relations between the company/the Dutch and the locals, we might also see a lot of Moriscos settling in the East Indies (IOTL there was a very high instance of Dutchmen living in Batavia with the company... Not sure how many actually settled there, but it must have been enough to have been influential, and probably much more so IOTL).

 

[htgriffin]

Maybe the Moorish community is used for military purposes? The males as soldiers while the women and young tended as the nurses and what not>?

That is what I was thinking at least in part. They organize regiments under the Dutch in rerturn for open (if perhaps low-key) worship as Muslims and over the following few decades hire themselves out to anti-Hapsburg nations as mecenaries to gain foodhold in the HRE

The muslims have yet another problem than the Jews lack: The Ottomans. Disliked they might be, but Jews never had a jewish empire skulking near Christian nations and plotting (no doubt with much maniacal laughter and the eating of christian babies) world conquest... and we all know the insane conspiracy theories than sprung up about the Sionist Illuminati Templars and all their assorted brethern.

Recall how many considered the Spanish and Austrians worse than the Turks to the point of having discreed alliances with the latter. Those are the areas that small Mosques would end up.

Another point, taking it as given that the Moriscos retain a knowledge of Arabic they will be influential beyond thier numbers in the whole Exploration/Colonization/Slavery matrix due to how widespread that language is.

HTG

 

[Valdemar II]

The problem with the Morisco in the Netherlands are that they really would lack a economical or social niche there, it was already home to rich farmers, it had mechants and moneylenders, while they could and likely would enter as many other immigrants from Germany and the Baltic, they would likely be assimilated as those other immigrants groups. To stay distinct they would have to enter a area, where there was benefits in (and it was possible) staying distinct and where there was room for growth. Which was why I suggested Brandenburg which allowed a high degree of religeous freedom to repopulate their country and where there would be benefits in staying distinct from the local peasant population, to avoid to get their rigths reduced to the same degree.