AHC: English Tangier survives

"The Portuguese rule lasted until 1662, when it was given to England's King Charles II as part of the dowry from the Portuguese Infanta Catherine of Braganza, becoming English Tangier.[6] The English gave the city a garrison and a charter which made it equal to English towns. The English planned to improve the harbour by building a mole. With an improved harbour the town would have played the same role that Gibraltar later played in British naval strategy. The mole cost £340,000 and reached 1,436 feet (438 m) long, before being blown up during the evacuation.[7]

An attempt of Sultan Moulay Ismail of Morocco to seize the town in 1679 was unsuccessful; but a crippling blockade by his Jaysh al-Rifi ultimately forced the English to withdraw. The English destroyed the town and its port facilities prior to their departure in 1684. Under Moulay Ismail the city was reconstructed to some extent, but it gradually declined until, by 1810, the population was no more than 5,000..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangier

Basically, English Tangier was abandoned because (1) it was clear James would inherit the throne and so Tangier got caught up in Parliament's reluctance to subsidize a "Papist", and (2) Tangier was getting much more expensive to defend anyway against the Moroccans once the latter united under the Alaouites. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Tangier

AHC: Is there any way the English (and later the UK...) hold on to it to this day? Maybe when they acquire Gibraltar, they see Gibraltar and Tangier as strategic "bookends"? Or might they on the contrary think, "now that we have Gibraltar, we don't need Tangier" ? After all, unlike Gibraltar, Tangier was not a natural fortress. So it does seem likely that the English would abandon it or swap it sooner or later, [1] but that's why this is a challenge...

[1] Indeed, perhaps what needs explaining is why, given the expense, the English kept it for more than two decades. National pride may be one reason, but another was suggested by a friend: "maybe Charles liked having that garrison: a loyalist royalist standing army of tough seasoned soldiers, small and distant enough not to freak people out, but close enough to bring home fast in the event of another Civil War..."
 
Prevent the Glorious Revolution (either by getting rid of his convertions or have his crush the traitors and use their estates to bolster his finances) buys us some time and gets rid of the damn immediate problem. The longer term problem is... with Gibraltar, Tangier is obsolete. And on top of that, if you butterfly away English control of Gibraltar, Tangier is important but now English money needs to be sent to invest and... yadda. Maybe have the crown richer so they can buy off the problem?
 
Prevent the Glorious Revolution (either by getting rid of his convertions or have his crush the traitors and use their estates to bolster his finances) buys us some time and gets rid of the damn immediate problem. The longer term problem is... with Gibraltar, Tangier is obsolete. And on top of that, if you butterfly away English control of Gibraltar, Tangier is important but now English money needs to be sent to invest and... yadda. Maybe have the crown richer so they can buy off the problem?

No it doesn't. Tangier was abandoned in 1684, a year before Charles II's death and James II's accession. I actually explored this in A et D. Basically you need to break the Moroccans. Best bet is to kill Sultan Ismail Ibn Sharif and replace him with either a weak ruler or a civil war. Keep Tangier until the mole being built there was finished and the town would be able to play the same role as Gibraltar. Now I'm not sure if this would keep the English from trying to acquire Gibraltar in the Spanish succession war. I wonder if controlling both ends of the Straits would lead to an attempt to force other countries to pay a tole or tax, though I'm not sure if the two points aren't close enough to do that.
 
No it doesn't. Tangier was abandoned in 1684, a year before Charles II's death and James II's accession. I actually explored this in A et D. Basically you need to break the Moroccans. Best bet is to kill Sultan Ismail Ibn Sharif and replace him with either a weak ruler or a civil war. Keep Tangier until the mole being built there was finished and the town would be able to play the same role as Gibraltar. Now I'm not sure if this would keep the English from trying to acquire Gibraltar in the Spanish succession war. I wonder if controlling both ends of the Straits would lead to an attempt to force other countries to pay a tole or tax, though I'm not sure if the two points aren't close enough to do that.

Tanger is just outside the straits. What Britain might need to control the straits is Ceuta and Gibraltar. Just Tanger is not enough. It is also harder to defend than Gibraltar which is like a peninsula.

And forcing countries to pay is not a good thing for Britain. There are a lot of nations in the Medditeranean Sea. Economically it is not smart.
 

raharris1973

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The English gave the city a garrison and a charter which made it equal to English towns.

This makes me wonder - did the town's population at this time consist of mainly English Protestants, Portuguese Catholics or Moroccan Muslims?
What was the ethnic affiliation of any local Mayors?

Same question would apply to the Portuguese era in Tangier, did Portuguese takeover lead to expulsion of the pre-takeover population.
 
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