Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

Other developments affected Algiers corsairing in many ways. Between
1609 and 1614, the number of corsairs from Andalusian origin rose
dramatically after some 300,000 Moriscos were forced to leave the Iberian
Peninsula. 4
In a wave of terror, Spain moved to solve the ‘Moriscos problem’
by expulsion after failure of policies involving forced Christianization,
enslavement, or simply raids and genocide. 5 Those who could reach the shores
of safety at Algiers took with them deep grievances and nostalgia for their
centuries-old homelands now lost to Christians; consequently, many of them
became active corsairs either to avenge themselves or to rescue other distressed
Moriscos. 6
As they had already done during a similar campaign of terror
following Reconquista, the Algerian corsairs rescued their co-religionists at sea
but also on the Spanish coasts where they had been pursued and massacred in
thousands. Needless to say that in a climate where religious passions rose high
hostility between the two camps pitched and corsairing intensified.
Today, the expulsion of the Moriscos is “seen as a tragic tale of
mistaken assumptions and enmity on the Spanish side,” 7 but at the time, it was
a crucial and lasting element that shaped Algerian perceptions of Christians in
general. Spain’s enmity towards Algiers had a tremendous impact on Algerian
diplomatic relations with other Christian countries. Distressed and resentful,
the Moriscos played an increasingly important role in Algerian naval warfare
4 Mar Jonsson, “The Expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain in 1609–1614: the Destruction of an
Islamic Periphery,” Journal of Global History, 2 (2007), p. 195.
5 Stella, Histoires d’esclaves, pp. 67-68; Lane-Poole, The Moors, pp. 272-73, 277.
6 For details see Stephen Clissold, “The Expulsion of the Moriscos, 1609–1614,” History Today 28: 12
(1978), pp. 817–24.
7 Jonsson, “Expulsion of the Moriscos,” p. 195.
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