Empire building drained the resources needed for conversion of Spanish Muslims

Evidence

Castile had just suddenly found itself at the hub of a world empire, and although that certainly did bring in vast new sources of income, at the same time vast amounts of money were soaked up in the administration and defense of the empire, and serious inflation was created. The surplus income available for new purposes such as evangelization was in short supply throughout the century. More important, the Spanish church suddenly had to send priests and religious to hundreds of new posts in many parts of the globe, and in particular, missionaries were needed for preaching in the Indies. Whatever the financial means available, trained manpower could not be improvised overnight. The church was under strain and could not provide enough missionaries. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 367

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader pattern of empire stretching religious institutions too thin — echoes arguments about why colonial conversions were shallow in many other contexts.