AH Challenge: Portugal part of the British Empire!
- Thread starter Admiral Canaris
- Start date
I suppose you could throw in a Personal Union when they signed that four-hundred-year-long alliance thing.
Perhaps an even worse Lisbon Earthquake that cripples the Portuguese utterly? Add in some aggressive manoeuvrings by the Spanish (maybe the Austrians too through the Habsburgs) or maybe the French? Could that lead the British in to taking Portugal under its protective sphere of influence, more so than in OTL?
Not a bad idea, but Spain wasn't Hapsburg anymore by the time of the Lisboa Earthquake.
Napoleon and Britain divide the world, maybe, with Portugal the one British foothold on the continent? (I am horrified to admit that I know absolutely nothing about Portugal during the Napoleonic Wars.) In the scenario I'm picturing, Portugal might well retain its formal sovereignty, even its own empire, and be nominally a junior partner with Britain, but functionally merely a privileged status within the British Empire. It could easily end with a union of the crowns. Portugal didn't have Salic Law, did it? The first time either royal family has only an heiress, marry her to the heir of the other, and their son is King of England, Scotland, and Portugal.
Come to think of it, a lot of PODs going back to the Middle Ages could yield a union of the English/British and Portuguese crowns. Turning that into a permanent union of the kingdoms is dicier, though. Was there ever any long-enduring union of non-contiguous kingdoms?
Drat!
I knew I was missing something there...
Ah but that's because it was Bourbon. Even worse as that linked it to France.
Definite reason for Britain, and the HRE and just about everybody else to step in if Spain, egged on by France, tried to 'restore Iberian unity'. [Although you already had the marriage linking Austria and France which could be a problem].In that case, a major war to secure Portugese independence from Spain, possibly causing further devastation and Portugal would need some protector. Religion is a problem but otherwise, Britain, as the premier naval power and with its trading links is the only power to play the role. Getting it formally part of the empire is another step but might occur.
Steve
PS The earthquake was 1775 wasn't it? Get a crisis erupting very quickly and a major European war as a result and you might have some significant butterflies on events in N America.
Duh. The memory is definitely going.
Sounds like it could be linked into a slightly different 7 Years War then.Steve
We're still allied with them. Ever since 1200-something or other and been invoked several times.
I'd suggest a similar very early union of the two nations, since IIRC the alliance was cemented through royal marriage. Although it'd be quite tricky to maintain and could change the subsequent empires considerably.
It would be increasingly interesting to see England involved in a HYW type conflict over Castile or Aragon (strong dynastic ties between Portugal and those nations carry over into England so England has a claim to Spain).
Wasn't the initial origins of the alliance something to do with John of Gaunt having a claim to the throne of Castile and being married to a daughter of the king of Portugal. Never read it but think "A Trans-Atlantic Tunnel" was an earlier what if by Harry Harrison in that John is successful in his claim and resulting in a universal empire. Don't need to go that far but possibly something could be made from that. Although its more likely then that England is a part of the Portuguese/Castile empire.
Steve
Steve
Well, the British did have a long presence in portugal fighting the French during the Penninsular war. I can see a spinoff of this leading to closer relations; perhaps Victoria marries Pedro IV of Portugal (later pedro I of brazil), and he either retakes the throne for himself with British aid or never loses it in the first place. And Portugal to my knowledge never followed Salic law.
I can think of a few proposals and attempts, but successful ones are hard to think of. There were the Hannoverians, who held both the UK and Hannover until Victoria's ascension split the lines of descent. There was also a proposal to marry Elizabeth I to king Erik XIV of Sweden, the extended Hapsburg Family, and probably some others (my memory of european dynastic relations is worse then it once was).
I think it's too late to that, there is already the religious issue to consider. Also, Pedro already had heirs when Victoria would be old enough to marry him.
Once I suggested it in another thread: Richard III wins in Bosworth and marries Joana, sister of John II of Portugal. If John's son Afonso still dies childless then Joana and her sons with Richard would be the next heirs of Portugal (assuming that she could give birth).
Yeah, it is kind of hard to have european States directly unite through dynastic marriages by the 19th century. I like the Richardian idea, though.