Portugal Dominates Iberia

[Malta Shah]

What would the relationship be for Portugal and Portuguese culture compared to 'Spanish' political, economic, and social development if Portugal had managed to unify the Iberia Peninsula in the early 16th Century? Such as if Afonso and Princess Isabella managed to get together if the former had not died.

[Delvestius]

Well, the Galicians surely wouldn't be complaining, now would Navarre if I had my guess. Aragorn may have a bit fewer good things to say about it, but if it can be managed then we could definitely see a world colonized predominately by this new Iberian state, and France and Britain only being able to get the areas they passed over, or ones they could take.

[Anticlimacus]

Most surprisingly it would still be named... Spain.

When Isabel and Fernando started to use this term for their unified kingdom, the portuguese crown complained about it as it was a term that they considered denominated the whole Iberian peninsula.

PD By the way it is Aragon and not Aragorn, nor Legolas.

[miguelrj]

Originally Posted by King of Malta

What would the relationship be for Portugal and Portuguese culture compared to 'Spanish' political, economic, and social development if Portugal had managed to unify the Iberia Peninsula in the early 16th Century? Such as if Afonso and Princess Isabella managed to get together if the former had not died.

I find it hard to have Portugal dominating Spain with a PoD in that specific time frame. One has to somehow overcome the demographics of Castile to achieve this.

Needless to say that - and I know you know this, I'm just pointing it out - when a king marries a regnant queen it doesn't mean his realms will dominate hers. Or even that when the King of the Scots becomes King of England, Scotland doesn't (and didn't) get to dominate England.

The best bet is to have the king of this sea-leaning *Spain choose Lisbon as its capital. Its location is an excellent position to lead a seaborne empire and Philip II considered doing that move IOTL. But even so we have to screw Castile further to achieve a Spain dominated by Portugal.

A victorious Portugal in the War of Castilian Succession may weaken the power of a large slice of Castilian nobility and make the bed for a Portuguese-led *Spain. And even so, Portugal won't get to dominate Castile the way Castile got to dominate Spain.

[Max Sinister]

I also find this would be very hard to achieve. You would need a lot of events coincidentally happen in a way that benefits Portugal and damages everyone else.

Like this: Navarre not only survives, but becomes bigger. Catalonia+Aragon stays independent, or becomes part of France, or dominated by the latter, but without France trying to go further. Castille falls apart into several states who hate each other so much that they never unify and often make wars with each other, weakening them all. At least one Islamic state should also survive.

While Portugal never has a truly bad king, but several good ones, who conquer Galicia and other areas. At the end, they should control at least one third of the peninsula.

And at the end, a Portuguese king manages not only to become head of a Hispanic confederation with Lisbon as a capital, but also makes this rule hereditary.

[Malta Shah]

Well...I'm mostly trying to go back and revisit my "Colombo: Servant of Portugal" TL and I am worried about Portugal being unable to hold onto its Caribbean + All of South America. One of the more immediate Butterflies I had was Afonso living and to eventually succeed as Ruler of *Spain and hopefully making Spain more *Spain with Portuguese influence and to make the New World more Portuguese.

[Delvestius]

Perhaps a linguistic endeavor to blend the two languages and institute an "Iberian" language would help unification, but it'd be a hard time to get Castille and Andalusia on board with that...

[LSCatilina]

Originally Posted by King of Malta

What would the relationship be for Portugal and Portuguese culture compared to 'Spanish' political, economic, and social development if Portugal had managed to unify the Iberia Peninsula in the early 16th Century? Such as if Afonso and Princess Isabella managed to get together if the former had not died.

16th century is defenitly too late for having Portugal influencing determinally the whole of iberic peninsula. In fact, it's the quicker way to have spanish influence being more important in Portugal.

Funningly, the most probable answer is the same than "WI England won HYW?" "They would be integrated into the most populated and dominant country".

Such union would turn Portugal as a western Aragon, that would be hispanized around the 17/18 centuries.

Now, you'll have several changes, critically in the trade and colonial influence of Portugal in the world : Spain would be virtually without concurrence to India (no european concurrence, moreover) and could have its own colonial progress less quick, at a slower pace.