Any land anywhere on Earth.Do you mean as in Europe (or the Caucasus), or counting things like Spain's empire in the new world?
Isn't it contradictory to say that your Iberian area must be in the name of Spain? Isn't Portugal Iberian?Create the largest area controlled by Iberians. It can be in the name of Spain, or by independent Spanish kingdoms.
Iberia in the Caucasus also counts. But it must be actual Iberia, not Colchis or Georgia.
It can be in the name of Spain. It can also be by independent Spanish kingdoms.Isn't it contradictory to say that your Iberian area must be in the name of Spain? Isn't Portugal Iberian?
Portugal-Spain as a personal union was around from 1580 to 1640. Didn't really work terribly well (not helped by "Spain" itself being more personal union than one kingdom).
It actually worked quite well while it lasted. Precisely the problems come when the count-duke (not count Dooku) of Olivares attempted to unify the tax and levies policies for all the kingdoms. That's what ignited the breakup with Portugal and the short-term exit of Catalonia.
I think it can hardly get any wankier than that.
As i see it, that's the essence of a smoothly working unionThat sounds less like a smoothly working union and more like "so long as the precious autonomies were respecting, there were no major problems".
No, the fact that Aztecs and Incans were conquered isn't implausible at all. A civilization that was nearly 1000 years ahead of them technologically should make short work of them.Don't see how the conquest of the Aztecs and Incas are ASB - those aren't even high end improbable.
-Successfully invade England, and though the British Isles needn't be under direct rule, it would exclude England from the Americas and from disrupting Iberian control of trade. For a while, anyway.
What is extremely implausible is the bizarre way they happened, with many coincidences that sped up the conquest. These conquests happened basically on the march, with the smallest consideration for logistics. And their speed allowed Spain to inherit the empires rather than having to whittle them down (well, eventually they had to, but when the Spaniards already had a strong position within them).
Give me some examples of situations comparable to the conquest of those two empires, and i'll lift my reluctance about the plausibility of Spain conquering AmericaI don't think those are bizarre at all. Disease certainly isn't. Nor is foolish rulers.
Give me some examples of situations comparable to the conquest of those two empires, and i'll lift my reluctance about the plausibility of Spain conquering America![]()
j/k lol
Highly unlikely but entirely possible circumstances at work.
The unlikely part would be if for no apparent reason Spain just stumbled into them without any of the factors in play, and then those factors magically emerged at the prompting of Cortez and his ilk.
Yes, Cortés and Pizarro were at the very least very perceptive on assesing the political situation of 2 entities they had just found, that was their biggest trump card. They understood the type and structure of the polities they were dealing and took advantage of a momentary weakness. Probably chances like that have happened other times in history, but the people involved didn't see them as such until it was too late.