The Spanish believed in the early 1600s that they had a foreigners problem: the Moriscos. Granted, many of them had lived in Spain for centuries, but culturally they were foreign, and suspect. Though they declared themselves to be Catholic they had once been Muslims, or their parents had been, or they still were – traitorously hiding beneath their false Catholicism. Who knew?

Additionally, the Moriscos worked hard — in their own fields, in the fields of great land owners, as tradesmen and shop keepers. They did work the Spanish would not do, poor or not. Why would a Spaniard work as hard as a slave or a Moor? As hidden Muslims they did not drink their share of wine or eat their share of meat — and so the burden of taxes paid on these consumables fell unfairly on the Spanish. The people demanded action: deport them all!

Able to stand such abuse no longer the Archbisop of Valencia, against the admonitions of the Pope, and causing great unhappiness amongst the landowning classes, ordered the Moriscos of Valencia to be expelled. In three days in 1609 they were herded to the harbor, harassed on the way, plundered and abused. They boarded the ships with only what they could carry, and sent back to Africa. When they arrived in a land few of them knew many were slaughtered as Christians, or starved to death in a strange land.

More banishment followed until some 400,000 productive inhabitants of three major areas of Spain were gone. Their land was scooped up by the Spanish but with no one to work it, it fell into disuse. The economy staggered and collapsed. The government grew more corrupt and the population, so proud of their newly enforced purity, was reduced to destitution, beggary, and theft.

But that wouldn’t happen here….

[source is Durant’s Story of Civilization, vol VII, The Age of Reason Begins ]