Ottoman help in Iberia?

Could the Ottoman Empire had had enough influence in the Iberian peninsula to stall La Reconquista during any period of their existence.

I know that the Ottomans had a treaty with the Aceh Sultanate (if I'm not mistaken with the name/time period, but I know it was on the same island) for military assistance if necessary, even if only nominal or even an informal pact. Could they have done the same for Granada/Córdoba or did they in OTL? If so, when? Could that have stalled the Spanish advance south permanently or at least enough so that the identity of Granada was preserved until today? What effect that could have had on the colonization?

Thank you in advance.

Fox-Fire said:

Could the Ottoman Empire had had enough influence in the Iberian peninsula to stall La Reconquista during any period of their existence.

I know that the Ottomans had a treaty with the Aceh Sultanate (if I'm not mistaken with the name/time period, but I know it was on the same island) for military assistance if necessary, even if only nominal or even an informal pact. Could they have done the same for Granada/Córdoba or did they in OTL? If so, when? Could that have stalled the Spanish advance south permanently or at least enough so that the identity of Granada was preserved until today? What effect that could have had on the colonization?

Thank you in advance.

Click to expand...

It'd have to be Granada, since the Muslims had lost all the rest of Spain by the time the Ottomans came around. The timing doesn't really work - the Ottomans didn't start to move into the western Mediterranean until several decades after the fall of Granada. You'd need to either preserve Granada into the 1520s or so, or get the Ottomans moving towards the western Mediterranean several decades early. For the latter, maybe if you prevent Bayezid's defeat to Timur. If Timur dies in 1400, Bayezid probably captures Constantinople 50 decades early, and then can continue to expand. You'd need to gin up a war with the Mamluks as early as possible, to get the Ottomans into Egypt, and from there they can expand westwards into the Maghreb. Once they're in Algiers, some sort of protective alliance with Granada seems highly likely.

It's still unclear, of course, if such an alliance would actually preserve Granada for very long.

Maybe an expansionist Venice that decided that transforming Byzantium into a puppet was not enough and decided to cut down the disastrous Empire with a few... arrangements to the city.

Fox-Fire said:

Could the Ottoman Empire had had enough influence in the Iberian peninsula to stall La Reconquista during any period of their existence.

Click to expand...

No. Nasrid Grenade at the late XV century was alternativly a Morrocan sattelite state or a Castillan vassal almost since its existance.
Not only Ottomans didn't had the entiere control of Eastern Meditteranean basin (they would have that after their conquest of Mameluks), not talking of Western one that was an Aragonese playground, but they had no interest at all making even an informal treaty (and of course no way to enforce it.

Hell, they managed to have a brief zone of influence in northern Morocco, because the local sultan was being bullied by southern dynasties and had no choice if he wanted allies (not that it changed anything about his fate), and the Saadian eventually preferred to make agreements with Spain rather than a threatening Ottoman rule.

In 1490's, Grenada was dead meat, simple as that. It didn't managed to avoid several annexations, and the troubled situation it knew given perfect reason to Castille to take what remained.

jlk7e

Click to expand...

An earlier Ottoman move in Meditteranea could actually be less quick. More european focus on the basin (forcing them to takeover Grenada more quickly. They had the possibility to do so OTL, while didn't for inner troubles that are likely to be shut down if a real threat appears), Mameluks not weakened by their loss of Indian monopoly by Portuguese, Morrocean likely defiance...

jlk7e said:

The timing doesn't really work - the Ottomans didn't start to move into the western Mediterranean until several decades after the fall of Granada.

Click to expand...

And before they did, the western Mediterranean was an Aragonese lake (very overlooked fact)



That being said, after the Ottoman ascendance there was a clear suspicion/paranoia/conspiracy theory that the Moriscos were Turkish fifth columnists and they paid dearly for it.

LSCatilina's comment inspires this question: What if Castille for some small or middling reason had decided in the final two centuries of Granada's existence to just finish it off (two potential timeframes, the 1290-1310 or 1390-1410)? How would Castilian domestic policies, policies towards Jews, Muslims and converts from both groups, and foreign policies in terms of alliances in Europe, policies towards the Maghreb and policies towards Atlantic exploration have paralleled or differed from their OTL policies in the first century or so after 1492?