I'd assume that'd delay the colonization of the Americas, because instead of Columbus discovering natives wearing gold jewelry he'd discover a bunch of trees.
Se Deus quiser, há-de brilhar! - Uma História do Império Português (Updated 03/18)
- Thread starter Gintoki Sakata
- Start date
Lusitania
Donor
That is what I think. The first expedition be a disappointment but he get a second as Portuguese reaching India probably be a few years ahead of iotl (I think 1495-1496 my guess not trying to influence author) but anyway even if there is a delay a second exposition be sent. They probably sail south after making landfall. Reaching as far south as Cuba, chances they get something, but weather and such might force them to seek shelter in Azores on return home. Which would make for interesting diplomacy.
in meantime Portuguese from Azores could also chart the area after Columbus. Might discover Bermuda which could allow Portuguese to claim it and setup fort.
Agreed. If he sails from there, he will reach St. Lawrence/Newfoundland area...
But, what about Castillians? How would they do it?
I presume that Portuguese will have someone like Cabral who will "stumble" on South America a few years after Cabot/Columbus?
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Either French Eastern Seaboard or the South (like Floride in @Gabingston's timeline) could be one of the possibilities. England/Great Britain might even take a small piece, probably even dividing Canada between France and Britain, with the latter (or France) taking California. After all, Francis Drake did claim California OTL as New Albion.
Bermuda would definitely be Portuguese TTL, and will still have the same name OTL, since the island's namesake Juan de Bermúdez (João de Bermudes TTL) is from Huelva, which is Portuguese land. In addition, Portugal's OTL claims to Barbados will be fully realized TTL, as both island will serve as crucial stops between Newfoundland, Metropolitan Portugal and Brazil.
While Christopher Columbus will sail for either France of England TTL, his younger brother Bartholomew might serve for Castile and help assist with the Castilian colonization of Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and Cuba.
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I think that it would be a smart thing to first see how will the end of Reconquista in Spain play out- fall of Granada. Would maybe Portugal have any role in it? Maybe get some territory- like say western shore of Gudalquivir? Or is that too strategic for Castille to let go? ( they would have Cadiz and Sanlucar left as port ) Or maybe exchange Gibraltar for western shore of Guadalquivir? After all, Castile more needs Gibraltar than Portugal and Portugal more needs to expand Huelva than Gibraltar. Sort of to set up starting points for both Portugal and Castille.
Also, considering that Castille ITTL is at least 1/3 weaker than in OTL ( no Leon and Galiza ), they might really NEED help there. Especially if no union with Aragon.
I wonder, is it possible to reach America by using Basque ports?
Also, considering that Castille ITTL is at least 1/3 weaker than in OTL ( no Leon and Galiza ), they might really NEED help there. Especially if no union with Aragon.
I wonder, is it possible to reach America by using Basque ports?
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Hmm, about French colonies, I think it will eventually everything end like in OTL, because the England will have a stronger navy ( being an island nation and being able to put more money into the navy, having no land opponents ) and will take the French colonies away.
I didn't know that Portugal had claims on Barbados in OTL?
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No the Portuguese made a treaty with the kingdom of sunda against the kingdom of demak in which Portugal would help defend sunda and get the harbor of kelapa(the old harbor of Jakarta) and a 1000 sacks of pepper per year.
This was in 1522, however problems in goa delay the send of portuguese solders.
When they arrived the forces of demak had conquered the harbor and the Portuguese couldn't conquer back the harbor in their several attempts.
Probably we'll end up with a Canada divided between France, Great Britain and Portugal TTL as a result, although I do have plans in mind for what would be colonized TTL.
Barbados was initially claimed by Portugal from 1532 to 1620 since the Portuguese explorer Pedro Campos (whose info about him is scarce that he even doesn't have his own Wikipedia page in Portuguese) discovered the island OTL.
There were a few unfinished TLs that that focus on this topic, since in the planning thread I made before writing this TL I mentioned about Portuguese Java a bit through a better and stronger Luso-Sundanese alliance.
@kasumigenx
Yes, that is indeed possible if Portugal presents itself as the successor of the defunct Maharajah, Prabu Udara since he made an alliance with him.
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If you want to change a part of your timeline this would be a suggestion.
1517, the Portuguese-Majapahit alliance wins at Daha with Demak defeated.
1520 The Portuguese-Majapahit alliance expels the Bruneians in Selurong(1), a Majapahit Mandala in the North of Borneo.
1521 Sunda is made a client state by Portugal
1522 Portugal effectively gains control over the Majapahit Empire as it becomes dependent on Portugal
1536 Prabu Udara dies, the Portuguese completely gain control of Majapahit in spite of a revolt, the Muslim part of Java is forcefully converted to Catholicism.
1. Luzon
1517, the Portuguese-Majapahit alliance wins at Daha with Demak defeated.
1520 The Portuguese-Majapahit alliance expels the Bruneians in Selurong(1), a Majapahit Mandala in the North of Borneo.
1521 Sunda is made a client state by Portugal
1522 Portugal effectively gains control over the Majapahit Empire as it becomes dependent on Portugal
1536 Prabu Udara dies, the Portuguese completely gain control of Majapahit in spite of a revolt, the Muslim part of Java is forcefully converted to Catholicism.
1. Luzon
This is definitely a good timeframe for how the Portuguese will gain control of most of Nusantara and Luzon. Magellan and Albuquerque TTL will play a major role in Luso-Majapahit relations and solidifying Portugal's presence in the East Indies.
In addition, I think the Rajahnate of Cebu and the Confederacy of Madya-as could be under loose Portuguese suzerainty for trading purposes for around two-three decades before being transferred to the Castilian sphere of influence in the late 16th century.
I saw the map on your DeviantArt page, which I frequent a lot to get some inspiration from your works and it's how I envisioned the maximum extent of Portuguese Asia (but with the Malay Peninsula, Formosa and the Ryukyu islands)
This timeline is not dead and never will be. This piece of work is a lifetime dedication and I post frequently or sporadically depending on my circumstances with school and work. I got a load to study for my finals last spring semester (Java application project, Scientific report, Trigonometry final), but hopefully I'll post frequently again this summer.
The next chapter will come in a week or two (or even sooner) on the state of the Portuguese army before the Granadine War, and we will begin to see Portuguese terços forming earlier, with its predecessors seeing action in Morocco in the chapter after the next one.
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I think that Portuguese South Africa is also a must. Plus at least 3/4 of South America.
Great. Keep with the good work.
Also, some sort of explanation what happened to Isabella of Castille after the defeat and what happened to Castille and Aragon after that ( at least to me that remained in the fog somehow ) would be nice.
And good luck with your studies.
Footnote - How I envision TTL's Portugal
As I am still making some revisions before I upload the next chapter, given the recent circumstances of the OTL world (without explicitly mentioning it as I prefer not to talk about current politics here on AH.com), here's my thoughts about what TTL's present day Portugal would look like.
Even though I still have a long way to go with this timeline, with the amount of history books and articles I read on Portuguese interaction with other peoples, the idea of Lusotropicalism and the OTL Estado Novo's overseas policy, as well as Lusitania's Lusophone World TL, TTL's Portugal in 2020 will end up being very similar to the Portuguese Federation from the latter but as a constitutional monarchy, as a multiracial and pluricontinental nation, where diversity among the many ethnicities of the Empire, whether they be Portuguese, Mi'kmaq, Guarani, Ashanti, Zulu, Arab, Berber, Konkani, Sundanese, Japanese, Maori or any other ethnicity would unite against an enemy and/or overcome the country's challenges.
Although there will be a lot of butterflies, there will be a government in the early-mid 20th century similar to the Lusophone World TL's progressive Estado Novo, where there is rapid investment and modernization in both Metropolitan and Ultramarine Portugal, and although in my TL there is still decolonization in some parts of the empire, the Portuguese Empire still remains largely intact. In this case, for example, I am sort of toying with the idea of Alberto Fujimori and Nelson Mandela (both in their TTL forms) as Portuguese Prime Ministers TTL. But again, I have to admit that this is too early to tell.
Even though I still have a long way to go with this timeline, with the amount of history books and articles I read on Portuguese interaction with other peoples, the idea of Lusotropicalism and the OTL Estado Novo's overseas policy, as well as Lusitania's Lusophone World TL, TTL's Portugal in 2020 will end up being very similar to the Portuguese Federation from the latter but as a constitutional monarchy, as a multiracial and pluricontinental nation, where diversity among the many ethnicities of the Empire, whether they be Portuguese, Mi'kmaq, Guarani, Ashanti, Zulu, Arab, Berber, Konkani, Sundanese, Japanese, Maori or any other ethnicity would unite against an enemy and/or overcome the country's challenges.
Although there will be a lot of butterflies, there will be a government in the early-mid 20th century similar to the Lusophone World TL's progressive Estado Novo, where there is rapid investment and modernization in both Metropolitan and Ultramarine Portugal, and although in my TL there is still decolonization in some parts of the empire, the Portuguese Empire still remains largely intact. In this case, for example, I am sort of toying with the idea of Alberto Fujimori and Nelson Mandela (both in their TTL forms) as Portuguese Prime Ministers TTL. But again, I have to admit that this is too early to tell.
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Chapter 9 - A Standing Army
Chapter 9 - A Standing Army
- An initial overview -
- An initial overview -
By the late 13th century, the kings of Portugal needed more revenue due to escalating military costs due to the changing art of war, especially in its technology. Chain mail began to be replaced with more expensive plate armor, forts are being redesigned to better withstand sieges, and the recruitment of besteiros, or crossbowmen into the Portuguese army at the time intensified. Although the process of recruiting crossbowmen was complex, it became a foundation for a standing army, and the weapon itself became one of the most important ranged weapons in Medieval Portugal. Units of crossbowmen were raised on a quota basis by the municipalities, and recruited mostly from sons of tradesmen, and not by the nobility.
By the time of the 1383–1385 succession crisis, although the Portuguese army under João I still consisted of feudal levies, the use of crossbowmen became a game changer in the Battle of Aljubarrota in 1385. During the battle Nuno Álvares Pereira used well-trained crossbowmen in favorable defensive positions to inflict a devastating effect on slow-moving Castilian knights. Thanks to having a smaller army than Castile at the time, the organization of the Portuguese army became more coherent and perhaps had the potential to modernize, but this did not last long.
Cannons, such as these 16th century ones in Fort São Sebastião in the island of Moçambique were crucial in siege warfare
In the early 14th century, revolutionary gunpowder weapons like handguns were introduced, but were too cumbersome for the time and took a long time to gain acceptance. But by the start of the 15th century, the use of cannons started to become more dominant in the medieval Portuguese army, especially in siege warfare. The production of firearms and artillery were kept strictly under royal control, with the central arsenal dedicated to its production founded in Barcarena in 1479 under Afonso V’s reign. Portuguese cannons were used to great effect during Afonso V and João II’s expeditions into Morocco, with the latter intensifying the use to capture key enemy forts in coastal Morocco during the Granadine War at the end of the 15th century.
- The Knight and Squire Charters -
Like other European rulers at the time, the Portuguese kings mostly relied on professional forces from the Royal Guards to foreign mercenaries and soldiers from the Orders of Christ and Avis. The Portuguese nobles still believed that the knights were still the best warriors on the battlefield, and that the mixed use of pikes and arquebuses (The future model of the Portuguese terços) were just utilized by medieval peasants, and that knighthood is considered the “mirror” of the warrior.
The status of knighthood in late medieval Portugal was confirmed by charters, the oldest dating back to 1484 under João II’s reign. Although in the late 15th century, as the art of war began to gradually change to the terço model, knighthoods were still granted in conjunction. The possessions in Morocco were the main breeding ground for knights, as they garrison the possessions of Ceuta, Tânger and Mazagão, going on mounted patrol and plundering cattle from the surrounding villages with little resistance, due to the lack of organization in the Wattasid government. Morocco was also used to promote household servants, both royal and noble to the knighthood.
Knighthood was also granted for other kinds of military service in India, tropical Africa, Java and Brazil, as well as a reward for other types of services to the Crown, the latter in part due to the focus on merit beginning in the last decades of the 15th century as a result of military reforms, from a merchant from Porto to a woolmaker in Badajoz. There are also uncommon racial features of some of the people who were granted knighthood. One Francisco de Meneses from Tânger was a mourisco, a Catholic convert who adopted his surname from his godfather and a Pero Gonçalves, was a mulato. There were also cases of Asians in the late 16th century being promoted to the knighthood, with several cases of freed Javanese slaves being promoted in Sofala and even a charter granted to a Japanese adventurer in Goa.
The charter knights aren’t exactly nobles. Pedro Fernandes da Alcáçova, for example, was granted a coat of arms by João II in 1491 during his service as the secretary to the treasury. He was knighted two decades earlier by Afonso V for his service during the conquest of Arzila, but this charter made him as an “armigerous nobleman,” a plebian from the third estate by origin. Furthermore, knight charter mentioned anything about hereditary right to the title, and contained a provision that the title’s future holders (rightful descendants by direct line) are of armigerous nobleman.
Royal proclamation of the late Middle Ages always addressed “fidalgos, cavaleiros, escudeiros,” implying a clear social difference among Portuguese knights. The various identities, origins, occupations and motives for knighthood give a definite evaluation on the status of Portuguese knights in the early modern times, and how these promotions were a clear sign of a rudimentary merit system that focuses on talent.
Squires were clearly recognized by the Crown as a separate status, with the oldest charter being granted in 1462. The total quantity of the squire charters were significantly smaller than the knights’ charters, and were eventually stopped during Duarte II’s reign. The early charters were usually granted to people who belonged to deceased potentates’ households, such as Henry the Navigator during Afonso V’s reign. Rarely was a squire ever promoted into the knighthood in Portugal. Over the many charters granted during João II’s long reign, only 23 charters were granted to squires that were promoted to the knighthood, with 6 of those being noble squires [1].
Some Cortes articles imply that the status of the Portuguese squire was also a step in the young Portuguese nobleman’s career at court. In the first cortes during João II’s reign, the eldest heirs of destitute noblemen were requested to be raised at the royal county as pages and to not be promoted to squires too early, suggesting that the pages be trained in military life rather than in court life. On the other hand, most of those who were promoted to squires came from rural residences across Portugal, with several living in Madeira, the Azores, Cape Verde and after 1477, the Canaries. Only two lived in the cities of the First Bench, which were the five main cities in the cortes, one in Lisbon and the other in Évora.
- A new kind of warfare -
One of the consequences of the victory of the Portuguese and La Beltraneja’s supporters at the Battle of Toro in 1476 was keeping up with the recent developments in warfare around that time. Although the Portuguese won the battle, the Castilians used small firearms that have been used with great efficiency, inflicting serious losses on the Portuguese cavalry. During Afonso V’s last years, he has learned from the mistakes of not adapting to the developments at the time and his successor began to strengthen Portugal’s military capabilities.
A depiction of the Portuguese handgunners in one of the Pastrana tapestries
João II then followed the medieval conventions of consolidating the cavalry network of coudelarias, territorial cavalry and horse breeding divisions, and between 1481 and 1492 appointed a great number of heads, or coudeis and administrative clerks to the coudelarias. Seeing the impact the Castilian small arms had on the Portuguese cavalry, he issued 619 individual and 37 collective (based in main cities and smaller towns) handgunner charters across Portgual, Galiza and Leão to confirm these privileges. This was one of the clear signs how enthusiastic the king was in adopting firearms early. Although João II still occasionally issued crossbowmen charters to individuals, this practice was largely stopped by the early 1510s [2].
The use of handguns and pikes in the first major battle of the Italian Wars, the Battle of Fornovo
In addition to the adoption of firearms, the use of piked mass formations began to appear. The conflict between France under the House of Valois and Habsburg Austria over influence in Italy in 1494 brought many soldiers of fortune across Europe, with a fair number from Portugal arriving, bent to learn about recent developments in warfare. This was the beginning of the use of combined arms of pike and shot. The age of the terço português had begun.
- The Council of War and the fate of the Military Orders -
Despite adapting to the ever-changing art and technology of warfare, the Portuguese nobility were worried about the increasing royal control over the affairs of war. Great noble families still have the capacity to field significant forces, even at a significant disadvantage to the increasing power of the Crown. After the Battle of Alfarrobeira in 1449 which challenged Afonso V in his early reign and the downfall of plots against the crown such as the Bragança conspiracy of 1483, the Viseu conspiracy the following year, as well as the half-hearted Beja conspiracy of 1496, it demonstrated that the King is in charge, and no Portuguese noble would ever dare to challenge the royal authority, at least for the time being. From the reign of Afonso V, the royal family was usually protected by a 200-strong royal guard, which would eventually expand as time passed.
In 1494, six years before the Granadine War, in order to prepare for future wars and overseas expeditions, João II would establish the Conselho da Guerra (Council of War). The council would consist of seven key figures, 3 nobles and 3 non-nobles, including the King himself, primarily responsible for the royal affairs in the army and navy, and among this main role, they also:
- Appoint officers based on a rudimentary merit system, rather than from the nobility [3]
- Oversee the officers’ activities, making sure that they focus on key objectives as the wars progress, and to punish them for misconduct and corruption
- Maintain logistics and formulate projects in military infrastructure, such as forts and food supply for invasions, as well as maintaining weapons and firearms factories
- Instill military discipline and morale among the Portuguese army, providing training for more men to be prepared for future conflicts, thanks to the expanded population base in Galiza and Leão
The crosses of the Military Orders of Christ and Avis, respectively
In addition, the military reforms under João II would initiate the integration of the Military Order of Christ and the Order of São Bento de Avis into the Portuguese military. These two military orders emerged shortly after the end of Portugal’s Reconquista, a mere corporation of knights which proclaimed loyalty to the Crown, but more absorbed in administering their estates. The Order of Avis is notable for bringing João I as the first Avis king of Portugal in 1385, while the Order of Christ is notable for its crucial role in the early stages of Portuguese exploration, with Henry the Navigator becoming the governor of the order in 1419. As governor, he obtained a bull from the Papacy the right to control the rights and revenues of the Catholic Church outside of Portugal.
These two military orders played a role in the early expansion of the Portuguese Empire, and also forged an strong crusader-like attitude which marked Portuguese anti-Muslim mentality that was developed during the Reconquista. Although Henry the Navigator’s past governorship of the Order of Christ began to change things up in favor of the crown, João II and his successors would prefer that the Crown should have the rights and revenues for the Church in the Ultramar, rather than having it held by the Military Orders; that is in other words, complete absorption.
[1] During OTL Manuel I’s reign, 608 were granted, with 14 squires granted to the knighthood, 3 of them being of noble blood. All of the six charters made during João II’s OTL reign were already knights.
[2] OTL, João II was aware of the developments in firearms and knew that they largely replace crossbows when the Castilians conquered Granada in 1492, but decided not to adopt them largely since he shrewdly thought that he could replace crossbows with firearms at any time and that what actually mattered was a standing defence organization. Here we see TTL’s João II being more forward thinking with adopting firearms.
[3] The nobility still has some major roles in both the army and the navy, mostly from the ones who support the royal cause, but the line between the nobles and the commoners would eventually blur by the end of the 16th century.
Note - Finally, after two months (due to preparing and taking finals in college at the time), this chapter is finally finished. This is in fact one of the hardest chapters to think of for this TL so far in terms of researching and writing it, given the scarce info about the Portuguese army in the late 15th century (I got a significant amount of sources from JSTOR and Osprey Publishing), but we're seeing the development of the Portuguese army in a more prepared and more forward direction before the invasion of coastal Morocco in the Granadine War, which will be covered in the next chapter. Any feedback and suggestions on this chapter (especially about what to do with the military orders) and the upcoming Granadine War? (conquest and integration of coastal Morocco).
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