The expulsion of the Moriscos from the Catalan Countries: ideology and history Authors Manuel Ardit i Lucas Abstract The expulsion of the Moriscos from the Catalan Countries, particularly from the Valencian Country, has been interpreted in various ways. Historians who have dealt with the subject have tended towards one or two main positions that can be termed Moriscophile and Moriscophobic. The former considered that the expulsion of a very active Islamic minority brought about a serious check to the process of capitalist development. The latter, taking for granted that the Morisco minority was not so economically important, believed their expulsion did not have such an influence, and even that if they did have an influence, it was in the opposite direction. Both interpretations were heavily charged with ideological presuppositions. The present article attempts to settle the question more objectively by analysing the changes that took place in the population structure in the wake of the expulsion, the evolution of agricultural production during the entire Modern Age, and the changes in the structure of land ownership. The results seem to endorse what we have called Moriscophobic interpretation. This is because the population structure, the evolution of agricultural production, and changes in the structure of ownership seem to point to an acceleration in growth of the capitalistic economy after the expulsion. Downloads Text complet Published 2009-12-21 Issue No. 2 (2009): Catalan Historical Review Section Contents License Submission of a manuscript to Catalan Historical Review implies: that the work described has not been published before, including publication on the World Wide Web (except in the form of an Abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, or thesis); that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; that all coauthors have agreed to its publication. The corresponding author signs for and accepts responsibility for releasing this material and will act on behalf of any and all co-authors regarding the editorial review and publication processes.If an article is accepted for publication in Catalan Historical Review, the authors (or other copyright holder) must transfer to the journal the copyright, which covers the right —not exclusive— to reproduce and distribute the article including reprints, translations, photographic reproductions microform, electronic form (offline, online) or any other reproductions of similar nature. Nevertheless, all articles in Catalan Historical Review will be available on the internet to any reader at no cost. The journal allows users to freely download, copy, print, distribute, search, and link to the full text of any article, provided the authorship and source of the published article is cited. The copyright owner’s consent does not include copying for new works, or resale.In these cases, the specific written permission of Catalan Historical Review must first be obtained.Authors are requested to create a link to the published article on the journal’s website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: ‘‘The original publication is available on LINK at http://revistes.iec.cat/chr/. Please use the appropriate URL for the article in LINK. Articles disseminated via LINK are indexed, abstracted, and referenced by many abstracting and information services, bibliographic networks, subscription agencies, library networks, and consortia. ISSN: 2013-4088 (electronic edition); 2013-407X (print edition)