AHC: Aragonese Algeria and Tunisia

I doubt Aragon would go for more than coastal control : they had neither ressources to undergo an hinterland conquest that hugely backfired with Portuguese in Morroco, neither interest doing so (Aragonese/Catalan thalassocracy being more tied to control over Western Mediterranean.

While the absence of an Ottoman hegemon on Mediterranean could allow an Aragon separated from Castille, ITTL, to maintain a presence on main IOTL Algerian and Tunisian harbours; this same absence would most probably take away one of the main reasons why Spain went for Maghrebi harbours in first place.

Eventually, I could see some hold-out points, as IOTL that Aragon would feel itself forced to defend against hinterland tentatives for not much good reason safe prestige (unless we're arguing of a much stronger Morroco ITTL, but it could make conquest of harbours more had than IOTL).

It would probably require some different PoDs, early ones with that, and some disregard for sound geostrategy.
 
Well as a possible way to get that you would need a Spare healthy(ish)Habsburg Prince, you might have to change a chromosome on one of the many daughters born or have a one of the Emperors to the unthinkable and legitimize a bastard or take a couple of steps back and have Ferdinand III's son Charles Joseph live long enough to father a male heir so you could have a extra cadet Branch of Habsburgs.

So that in 1714 the War of Spanish Succession ends with the Splitting of Spain back into the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon, were Philip V gets Castile and the Spanish Colonies across the Atlantic while abdicating any claims to the Throne of France, Unnamed Habsburg Prince becomes the King of Aragon and its Mediterranean possessions while abdicating any claims to the Throne of Austria, while the Spanish Netherlands become the Austrian Netherlands.

Later after the Napoleonic wars Aragon could push for control of Algeria and Tunisia before the french can get their teeth into it
 
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