The many failures of “repopulation”: Settler colonialism, genocide, and the centralization of capital in the conquest of al-Andalus

Abstract

The textual record produced during the Latin Christian invasion of Al-Andalus used the terms “populate” and “population” to refer to the establishment of colonists in the occupied territories. However, modern scholars often employ the concept of “repopulation” to designate such processes of colonization. This paper examines archival documents, political treatises, dictionaries, and chronicles to trace the origins of the term “repopulation” – which was disseminated during the Bourbonic agrarian reforms of the eighteenth century – and its subsequent scholarly adoption. It continues with a critical review of the literature on the medieval processes of “repopulation”, laying special emphasis on the so-called “Theory of the Failure of the Official Repopulation” and the consequences its adoption has had since the 1980s for the study of the colonization of Al-Andalus. Lastly, the paper reexamines the discussion on medieval “repopulation” in the context of contemporary research on settler colonialism, the dispossession of colonized peoples by European powers, and the associated dynamics of capital centralization.