What if:-?
On the Noche Triste the Aztecs wipe out Cortez's army. They get horses and guns. Assorted pirates and adventurers take servide under the Aztec Empire in exchange for gold. Aztecs get enough of a European type army and navy to see off later Spanish etc attacks. Actec Empire persists (it is hoped without human sacrifice).
This deflects Spanish etc expansion and colonization. Spain takes Morocco. This starts a scramble for the Middle East. There is a crucial naval battle against the Ottoman fleet, and after that the Middle East is open. (Greece etc get indepdence sooner than OTL and with less trouble.) This catches the native population of the Middle East low (due to the long Turkish misrule), and in most fertile areas the natives are soon swamped by European setlers. Algeria is French majority. The Nile Delta is British majority, plus Hindu Indians brought in by sea from Gujerat etc to make numbers up. No need to dispossess natives, as OTL at the time much of the Nile Delta was uninhabited swamp. Jewish settlement in Palestine starts sooner and is bigger and includes Transjordan. French majority in Syria, and Germans around Aleppo. British majority in Iraq, much of it in land got by Fens-style draining the southern marshes and lakes.
With so many Europeans about, oil is discovered in Arabia sooner than OTL, attracting oil money, which soon funds terrorism to try to drive the Europeans out. (Think OTL Israel but across the whole fertile Middle East.) Trouble escalates until the final retaliation and a March on Mecca. The advance gets beseiged in Medina until Britain intervenes. The advance continues. The Battle of Mecca lasts 17 days and leaves little standing. Nearly every man of fighting age in Arabia answers the call to try to defend the holy places, but most fall in battle.
Patching up the holy places ready for the next Hajj is used as a cover to smuggle weapons in. Native rebellion, which is put down after 8 days. The Hajj is not allowed again after that.
On the Noche Triste the Aztecs wipe out Cortez's army. They get horses and guns. Assorted pirates and adventurers take servide under the Aztec Empire in exchange for gold. Aztecs get enough of a European type army and navy to see off later Spanish etc attacks. Actec Empire persists (it is hoped without human sacrifice).
This deflects Spanish etc expansion and colonization. Spain takes Morocco. This starts a scramble for the Middle East. There is a crucial naval battle against the Ottoman fleet, and after that the Middle East is open. (Greece etc get indepdence sooner than OTL and with less trouble.) This catches the native population of the Middle East low (due to the long Turkish misrule), and in most fertile areas the natives are soon swamped by European setlers. Algeria is French majority. The Nile Delta is British majority, plus Hindu Indians brought in by sea from Gujerat etc to make numbers up. No need to dispossess natives, as OTL at the time much of the Nile Delta was uninhabited swamp. Jewish settlement in Palestine starts sooner and is bigger and includes Transjordan. French majority in Syria, and Germans around Aleppo. British majority in Iraq, much of it in land got by Fens-style draining the southern marshes and lakes.
With so many Europeans about, oil is discovered in Arabia sooner than OTL, attracting oil money, which soon funds terrorism to try to drive the Europeans out. (Think OTL Israel but across the whole fertile Middle East.) Trouble escalates until the final retaliation and a March on Mecca. The advance gets beseiged in Medina until Britain intervenes. The advance continues. The Battle of Mecca lasts 17 days and leaves little standing. Nearly every man of fighting age in Arabia answers the call to try to defend the holy places, but most fall in battle.
Patching up the holy places ready for the next Hajj is used as a cover to smuggle weapons in. Native rebellion, which is put down after 8 days. The Hajj is not allowed again after that.