AHC: Spanish Yemen

[Tsao]

With any POD after 1800 and before 1900, make Yemen a colony or protectorate of Spain.

[Plumber]

Oh, that's an easy one. Spain gets Gibraltar back. With control of the Med, Spain gets Egypt and later on Yemen.

[Tsao]

Originally Posted by Plumber

Oh, that's an easy one. Spain gets Gibraltar back. With control of the Med, Spain gets Egypt and later on Yemen.

How does Spain get Gibraltar back?

[Anticlimacus]

Is it possible to have two PODs?

* The yellow fever that killed many crewmen in the Spanish Navy between 1802 and 1804 does not take place,
* Villeneuve is seriously wounded or killed while hunting on a Spanish noblemen cortijo,

You get more profesional crewmen on the Spanish ships and a more determined French command, leading to a Royal Navy defeat. If Nelson's death is not butterflied, the British could offer something to the Spanish in order not to make them cooperate in the French invassion of England: Gibraltar and something else.

[Tocomocho]

Yemen is only valuable as a stop on the way to India. Since Spain didn't have interests in India IOTL, you'll have to change that with either a very early POD, or force it post-1778 when the Treaty of Alcaçovas is definitely dropped (but this is really unlikely).

[Thande]

Even if Spain somehow got Gibraltar back, I doubt Yemen would be on their list of priorities when they have problems with their colonial empire and have few interests in the Indies (besides the Philippines).

The best way to do this is to have a big massive WWI-style war happen earlier on, perhaps in the 1890s, and Spain is part of a big alliance that wins the war against another big alliance. At the peace conference some of the losing alliance's colonies are taken away, and while the big boys in the winning alliance get most of them, junior partners are thrown some bones as well, and Spain happens to get Yemen. Like how Belgium got Rwanda and Burundi after WWI in OTL.

Given British commercial interests were already growing pretty well in Yemen by 1800, the most likely setup is for Britain to be the leader of the losing alliance.