AHC: Iberian conquest, partial assimilation of England

So basically what's needed is something to encourage large scale migration from Iberia to England a la the Saxon settlement?

Well, it seems then that the easiest route would be to use that idea Xwarq mentioned of having the Iberian Christians flee Muslim persecution. This seems to require a more aggressive/rapid Muslim conquest of Iberia, so how to bring this about? Sorry, not too sure about specifics.

Still, even with a larger invasion, that doesn't really mean the Iberians would flee to England of all places. Likely they'd just move further north into France or maybe even Italy, given the closer distances and similar climates.

Thus, the question now seems to be; how to drive Iberians out of mainland Europe altogether? What event(s) could possibly force a sufficently large series of migrations to an island nation, when there are far easier areas to resettle?
 
Hmm, maybe something with the Cordoba martyrs happening earlier. I know some of the Mozarab Christians were heavily involved in the resettlement of the Duero region but TBH Mozarab Christians really only started going north in big numbers once the caliphate went into death spirals because they'd culturally acclimated while preserving their own religion.
 
Perhaps after a more conclusive Muslim conquest of Iberia, a large revolt of Christians occurs in a large (third-or-half-of-Iberia-sized) northern taifa. After the revolt is put down the Christians are deported northward, most of them going to Britain because France is just too close to the Muslims, and their children are enslaved and raised as mamluks or whatever their al-Andalusi equivalent was.

But then again that probably wouldn't have enough of an influence.

I remember there was recent thread (last two months or so) that involved a POD of one of the King's of England threatening to convert to Islam. I don't exactly remember the context, but perhaps something like that.

EDIT: Here's the thread.
 
By having the Spanish Armada be tons luckier, of course. That oughtta be enough - virtually all Latin America mostly speak Spanish today despite the originally small numbers of Spanish rulers.

Of course, long distance sea travel back then was terribly dangerous, so we're talking about serious luck, indeed. But it's not impossible.
 
By having the Spanish Armada be tons luckier, of course. That oughtta be enough - virtually all Latin America mostly speak Spanish today despite the originally small numbers of Spanish rulers.

Of course, long distance sea travel back then was terribly dangerous, so we're talking about serious luck, indeed. But it's not impossible.
IIRC, a majority of Latin Americans didn't speak Spanish until widespread education in the 20th century.
 
So basically what's needed is something to encourage large scale migration from Iberia to England a la the Saxon settlement?

Well, it seems then that the easiest route would be to use that idea Xwarq mentioned of having the Iberian Christians flee Muslim persecution. This seems to require a more aggressive/rapid Muslim conquest of Iberia, so how to bring this about? Sorry, not too sure about specifics.

Well, it's not just about Iberians emigrating. There's also a big correlation with who is in control at the time. If Iberians flee to England and submit to the King of England as any migrants do, they will be Anglicised. Without official patronage of their language and culture, nothing will happen and the best they will be able to hope for is just that they can retain pockets of Iberianism via migrant communities which refuse to integrate with the locals - which isn't likely in this era. To suggest a scenario where an Iberian language and culture take over, you need England to be ruled by Iberians too - or at least a pocket of England, from which they can then spread (politically as well as culturally/linguistically). There's simply no reason for the native English to start speaking the language of the migrants if their overlords are English.
 
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