A non-Spanish conquest of Peru

What are the odds of a rival European power responding to the Spanish conquest of Hispaniola, Cuba and Mexico by undertaking a competing conquest of Peru before Pizarro's OTL conquest?

The Spanish undertook these conquests with a tiny number of men, suggesting to me that really any Old World power with ships could have done it.

I'm thinking France, England, Scotland, Venice, the Scandinavian powers, the Hanseatic League or even the Ottomans (if allied with Morocco) as possible contenders, given that Portugal was focused on the Eastward route to Asia...
 
What are the odds of a rival European power responding to the Spanish conquest of Hispaniola, Cuba and Mexico by undertaking a competing conquest of Peru before Pizarro's OTL conquest?

The Spanish undertook these conquests with a tiny number of men, suggesting to me that really any Old World power with ships could have done it.

I'm thinking France, England, Scotland, Venice, the Scandinavian powers, the Hanseatic League or even the Ottomans (if allied with Morocco) as possible contenders, given that Portugal was focused on the Eastward route to Asia...
The first 2 seems good, Portugual maybe. Problem is the first 2 are embroiled hard in Europe or internally and the third has Brazil,Africa and India to use its resources on. A Burgundian or Netherlands kingdom maybe?
 
The Spanish undertook these conquests with a tiny number of men, suggesting to me that really any Old World power with ships could have done it.

I think that if you were to read more about this time in history, you will find that it's not quite so simple. The Spanish involved in the conquest of Peru were almost all veterans of previous conquests in the Caribbean and Panama; they responded to other European interlopers (such as the French in Florida) with violence; they had established colonies relatively closer to Peru across the Isthmus, creating a supply chain that would be much less stretched out than that of any other European power; and finally, they got lucky and acted quickly to capitalize on their luck to take control of the Inca Empire's elite and recruit allies such as the Canari. Even then, they faced rebellion and some slightly different tactical decisions could have seen the conquistadors wiped out in the Andes.

Portugal is a possibility (in fact they attacked the Inca Empire IOTL with the aid of Guarani allies), but at this point in time they seemed more interested in controlling the coast than conquering vast inland empires; the settlement of Brazil came much, much later.
 
What about Austria? Could the Hapsburg arrange it so that each gets Mesoamerica and Andes? The Austrian one would be an effort pursued with the help of the Hanseatic cities and Netherlands.
 
(...)

Portugal is a possibility (in fact they attacked the Inca Empire IOTL with the aid of Guarani allies), but at this point in time they seemed more interested in controlling the coast than conquering vast inland empires; the settlement of Brazil came much, much later.

Do you have a source for this? I've never seen anything in this regard. That would be a very interesting PoD, to be honest.
 
There is an old article on JSTOR: https://www.jstor.org/stable/207290?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Looking at how dated it is, it's possible that more modern archaeology or historical research has superseded the claims in this article, but as you said it is an interesting idea.

Thanks, anyway, I'll give a look.

I do think that Portugal is in a better position than any other country than Spain, even if they still had not invested in Brazilian settlement, the very attempt of sailing west in the Atlantic demonstrated they harbored some intention regarding the Americas.

Let's suppose the Spanish fail to conquer the Inca/Tawantysuyu (sp?), I have no doubts that they would attempt again anytime soon, but perhaps for some time the Spaniards will focus on the Caribbean and the northern parts of South America and Central America. A more savvy Portuguese leadership might be interested in approaching the Inca (being them among the most "developed" of the South American Indigenous peoples), and instead of outright annexation, might be interested in a soft influence exactly to "cockblock" the Spanish interests in South America. This would be an interesting attempt of overturning the Tordesillas Treaty some centuries before it happened IOTL.
 
What about Austria? Could the Hapsburg arrange it so that each gets Mesoamerica and Andes? The Austrian one would be an effort pursued with the help of the Hanseatic cities and Netherlands.

Austria was Hapsburg as well as Spain, I think the deal was that it kept out of Spanish interests in perpetuity, in return for Charles V of Spain declining the throne of Austria. That deal was later broken when 'Belgium' and southern Italy passed from Spain to Austria, but that's another story. So in any case an Austrian Peru would have required the consent of Spain, which I find unlikely.
 
I think that if you were to read more about this time in history, you will find that it's not quite so simple. The Spanish involved in the conquest of Peru were almost all veterans of previous conquests in the Caribbean and Panama; they responded to other European interlopers (such as the French in Florida) with violence; they had established colonies relatively closer to Peru across the Isthmus, creating a supply chain that would be much less stretched out than that of any other European power; and finally, they got lucky and acted quickly to capitalize on their luck to take control of the Inca Empire's elite and recruit allies such as the Canari. Even then, they faced rebellion and some slightly different tactical decisions could have seen the conquistadors wiped out in the Andes.

Portugal is a possibility (in fact they attacked the Inca Empire IOTL with the aid of Guarani allies), but at this point in time they seemed more interested in controlling the coast than conquering vast inland empires; the settlement of Brazil came much, much later.

This is an excellent point worth developing. The question is whether the Spanish experience and established presence in the New World were (i) very helpful or (ii) essential to their conquest of Peru. I think (i) to be the case. Recall that the Spanish started out with a long supply chain and no experience of the New World and were able to take Hispaniola and Cuba in about a decade.

By that token, a relatively small force of say 1000 French or Ottoman marines could have taken Peru, I believe. Both states were sworn enemies of Spain and would have had a motive for doing this before the Spanish did.
 

Deleted member 97083

If they were really lucky, maybe that small city-state in Cusco could have united Peru.
 
Battle_of_Saint-Mathieu
Looking into the English as a contender...

If you look at the English and French shipping in 1512 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Saint-Mathieu both powers were certainly equipped to get a few hundred marines into South America. But to land in Peru without using Panama as a staging-post they would have required knowledge of Magellan's 1521 voyage around South America into the Pacific.

First Spanish contact with the Incas comes in 1526, and then the Spanish invasion takes place in 1532. So the only scenario of the English or French invading Peru before the Spanish is for (i) a window of peace between the two powers freeing up a few ships from their navies, plus (ii) knowledge of Magellan's route and possibly (iii) knowledge of Spain's first contact with the Incas.

There was plenty of information exchange between the royal courts (e.g. Henry VIII of England married Catherine of Aragon), so why not? If Henry was crazy enough to get through six wives and declare Protestant Reformation, the he was crazy enough to send about five ships to South America to find budget-quintupling treasures.
 

Deleted member 97083

There was plenty of information exchange between the royal courts (e.g. Henry VIII of England married Catherine of Aragon), so why not? If Henry was crazy enough to get through six wives and declare Protestant Reformation, the he was crazy enough to send about five ships to South America to find budget-quintupling treasures.
Going through six wives and creating a religious sect due to political expedience is crazy, but sailing across the Atlantic and around South America without a base, to attack an empire unprovoked because of indirect rumors of gold, is a whole different kind of crazy. It doesn't sound in character for Henry VIII.
 
Going through six wives and creating a religious sect due to political expedience is crazy, but sailing across the Atlantic and around South America without a base, to attack an empire unprovoked because of rumors of gold, is a whole different kind of crazy. It doesn't sound in character for Henry VIII.

You're probably right. Pizarro's invasion of Peru was by land, right? I guess the Spanish had no Pacific fleet at the time, right? If so, this whole ATL may have to start with an alternative Old World country taking Panama, Ecuador etc.
 
The prerequisite for the conquest of Peru is access to the Pacific. You could maybe get to Peru by going up the Amazon (the Guarani idea is hilarious), but the first Europeans to use the Amazon route, going in the other direction, were the Spanish after the conquest of Peru.

Yeah, the Straights of Magellan/ Drake passage or going across the Pacific from the other direction, both of these are really, really hard. The obvious solution is to start with control of Mexico and/ or Panama.

So the European power that gets Mexico will almost certainly get Peru too. Plus conquering Mexico brings experience at doing this sort of thing. So the POD is some other European power gets to Mexico first. Far and away the likeliest candidate here is France. And you probably have to go back to having another European power sponsor Columbus or someone like him.

But the best alternative candidate to conquer Peru is China.
 
So the POD is some other European power gets to Mexico first. Far and away the likeliest candidate here is France. And you probably have to go back to having another European power sponsor Columbus or someone like him.

What about another European power jumping into action in response to Spain's first New World conquest - Hispaniola? A French, English, Scandinavian or Ottoman Cuba, leading to Mexico?

(China's a different discussion altogether and I'm a believer in that nation's colonizing potential, per my previous posts.)
 
Top