Repeated botched policies forced three Spanish conquests of Granada in 75 years

Evidence

The surgical excision of the focus of insurrection, something that might have been possible at the outset, became no longer feasible, and a massive and bloody campaign of repression was the only way ahead. This present volume opened with the Castilian forces obliged to undertake after 1492 a second conquest of Granada in 1500 as a consequence of ill-considered policies as a consequence of which Cisneros had driven the Muslims into a rebellion they had not sought. The year 1569 now brought the need for what amounted to an expensive third conquest of the Kingdom of Granada within three-quarters of a century. And it was Philip himself who authorized this third conquest to be executed in such a destructive way. On October 19, 1569 (in circumstances at Galera that will be described below), he had declared guerra a fuego y a sangre (“war with fire and blood”), that is to say, war without quarter (in Clausewitzian terms “true war”). Philip proclaimed for his troops campo franco—he removed all restrictions on plunder and rapine, and he suspended the levying by the commander of his one-fifth share of any booty taken. Small wonder that many Moriscos preferred to fight on to the death with desperate courage rather than ever surrender. The countryside became littered with smoldering ruins. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1029