Spain once planned to drown the Moriscos by scuttling their transport ships

Evidence

In 1581 when Philip II was in Lisbon, regulating his newly-acquired kingdom of Portugal, a junta of his chief counsellors, including the duke of Alva, the Count of Chinch´on and Juan de Idi´aquez, concluded to send the Moriscos to sea and to scuttle the vessels, reserving only those who could be catechised and those who desired to stay, for it was not deemed wise to add to the already numerous population of Africa. It was resolved that when the fleet returned from the Azores the matter should be executed by Alonso de Leyva, but it was abandoned, because when the fleet arrived it had to be sent to Flanders. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1361

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to debates on genocide and population transfer in early modern statecraft; also to the theme of state violence rationalized as religious purification.
• DEEPTHINKING: The junction of crown policy, clerical counsel, and maritime logistics as an instrument of mass murder — worthy of sustained reflection on how ‘solutions’ escalate when exile itself becomes a disposal problem.