A thread on the Reconquista. I will explain in detail how the Iberians purged islam, islamic culture, arabic & muslim population from Iberia. You'll see many parallels to modern & medieval India. You will also see how a population is subjugated & controlled top-down.

At the peak of muslim rule in early 12th century, as much as 5.5 million of the 8 million of Spain were muslim. This had fallen to 600k max by the end of the 15th century. This number was zero to none by the 1650s-1700s. Let's see how the Spaniards achieved this.

Spain was ruled by the Visigoths before the Moorish conquest who had converted to catholicism from arianist christianity. They had dropped their teutonic tongues in favor of the vulgar latin spoken in Iberia. They had mostly assimilated as visigoth iberians. Spain was conquered

very fast. within a few years berber converts & arabs had taken over Iberia. As muslim rule was consolidated in al-andalus, many ethnic spaniards converted. Islamic culture, language, food, music percolated into Spanish society. A minority was ruling a majority (catholic)

The Moors were seen as cruel, barbaric, savage, sexual deviants while the christians were civilized peaceful & harbingers of chastity.

Not all of Spain had fallen, the northern kingdoms of Asturia were a christian haven and the last stand of the moorish assault on iberia. Many catholics escaped there for safe haven. Around this time, latin christendom was becoming increasingly militant.

many christians lamented on how spanish youth had become fascinated, enthralled with arabic poetry fearing it to be a gateway to islam. fearing how it would eradicate latins' prestige & kill christian culture @nivrittijnandev

Muslims had always been tolerated, never accepted. There was zero religious obligation to tolerate them. Soon, reconquista picked up and iberian rulers started uniting, defeating the moors regularly.

At the same time, al-andalus broke up into small taifas ruled by governors. Muslim unity was in scatters while Christian on the rise. The muslims invited the almoravids, fanatic islamists from north africa to fight the iberians. In 1212, a coalition of the iberians defeated..

a huge muslim army. One by one, the muslim cities fell to the christians. the fall of seville in 1248, conquest of valencia & algarve under James the Moorslayer (Santiago Matamoros) put christians in control. castile and aragon were united in a personal union & so began

the process of purging islam from iberia in full force. now, the goal was

1) keep muslims distinct, increase differences in the 2 groups 2) state sanctioned oppression of muslims forcing them to convert or be killed 3) conquer all muslim states

granada was conquered in 1492

James the Moorslayer restricted muslim freedom, made laws preventing contact of christians with muslims. Jews & Muslims were forced to identify themselves with distinct clothes & beards. The goal was "otherness" of the enemy.

Sexual relations between muslim men & christian women led to the man being literally chopped up in pieces while the woman was burnt alive. the other way round was begrudgingly tolerated.

The dynamics had shifted from a muslim state ruling a christian populace to a christian state. Blood purity laws became common, linking old christians to the pre-islamic past of Spain. at the same time, spain was purging jews (wont go into details) the same way it would purge

the mohammedans 150 yrs later. spanish muslims looked just like average spanish christians (leaving aside the north african, sub saharan slaves) so the identification was based on culture, food, dress, customs (Eating halal, having arabic names) etc

so for now spains rulers were considered with segregation of the 2 groups to increase radicalization & hostilities. assimilation was bad, was negative atm. soon, isabella hired an archbishop called cisnero who was obsessed with converting moors in granada

conquered granada was rapidly converted, 3000 moors in a single day were baptized.

rebellious muslims were given 2 options - convert to christianity or be killed. within 3 months, granada had become a completely christian city under the pogrom & campaign of archbishop cisneros on isballeas' orders

the converted muslims were called "moriscos" –– the christian rulers had zero delusion that these converts would never fully assimilate. however, it was important to remove islam in paper from spain. isabella then issued orders to convert all of castile

muslims were given 2 options again - convert or die. immigration was made virtually impossible. this was to extract labor taxes from them while make them christian. those who left had their children stolen and raised christians.

now, ALL of spain was nominally christian. however, the moriscos were recent converts who had ties to arabic culture, ummah, spoke arabic & had been muslim for 500 yrs. the 1st part was converting muslims. the second part of the plan was assimilation of the converts or expulsion.

morisca women were preventing from using henna, prohibited from giving moorish names & circumcision was banned. the brilliance was 2 fold

first you wanted to "other" the muslims, to create hostilities & convert them. now once they were converted you wanted to "one" them,

although the moors rebelled & killed some christians, they faced immense backlash in a quasi-crusade. thousands were killed & converted

mosques were converted into churches, quran was burned and resistance all across spain was crushed. mass baptisms made them nominal christians, then those morisco christians were assimilated.

assimilation was via a dominant majority demanding the complete eradication of the cultural, religious & linguistic characteristics of the minorities. everything that made the muslims separate had to disappear.

removal of islam nominally was essentially, no king held any delusions that the converts were loyal to christians

there was a strong divide between old christians & new converts. the converts often practiced taqqiya and routinely engaged in arabic, islamic culture. held ramadan fasts & refused to go to confession.

they met in secret, refused to eat pork, and the women offered the most obstinate resistance to catholicism. many were scared of eternal damnation so continued being muslims in private

arabic literature was completely purged although many moors kept writing in arabic secretly as a form of cultural resistance.

cities streets were renamed in former islamic granada, buildings reflected castilian tastes & spanish immigrants were sent from all parts of the country to assimilate the population

in 1568, the moriscos rebelled and took many towns. killed thousands of christians. they had support from muslims in north africa & had all stayed loyal to islam after a hundred years. the rebellions' brutality shocked christian spain. it was crushed brutally

by the 1600s, philip III was convinced the final bit of the muslim presence could not be eradicated, they had to be expelled. 1609, the edict of expulsion was passed & around 40-50% of the moriscos were forcibly expelled.

morisco women married to old christian men were allowed to stay, many other moriscos integrated in old christian society were allowed to remain too. the rest faced forceful expulsion