Mark, please keep in mind that the Moors ruled the Iberian Peninsula from about 700 A.D. until 1492, the time of El Cíd, Ferdinand & Isabel, etc. Seven Centuries. That’s about SEVEN TIMES LONGER than the mean & oppressive Europeans ruled their colonies in Africa, for comparison.

The Spanish Conquistadors sent to plunder the southern part of the New World had a Seven Hundred Year legacy of struggling with Islamic oppression. Of course we know that Islam in that period allowed Jews and Christians and others to continue living in their society… so long as they paid the Jizzya and submitted to Islamic domination.

Commenter j willie isn’t suggesting the Spanish included Islamic terrorists in their groups, but that their attitudes about their mission and tactics were profoundly pre-figured by their centuries of struggle to reclaim Spain from the Islamic occupation.