The Formation of North African Otherness in the Canary Islands from the 16th to 18th Centuries

Abstract

The current study of the North Africans of the Canary Islands during the 16th-18th centuries represents a contribution to the question of the development of the Muslim stereotype in Spain. This population with origins almost exclusively in north-western Africa, an area known at the time as Barbary, was forcibly relocated to the islands. Most of the Old Christians at the moment of the Royal Decree of 1609 expelling of the Moriscos from the Peninsula declared that the Moriscos of the archipelago were good Christians and loyal vassals. The archipelago was hence the only area of the Spanish Crown where they were not expelled. Fear served the monarchies of new emerging modern state to secure power and fashion a proto-national identity that differentiated individuals of different cultures and religions. The Moriscos of the archipelago were therefore throughout three centuries one of the main collectives singled out for religious, political and economic reasons.