AHC: New World colonizer other than Britain has a former colony champion its cause in Europe

raharris1973

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This is in pre-1900 because I think the PoD would probably have to be 19th or 18th century, even if the full evolution of the situation in the title does not play out until the 20th century.

In OTL the 13 Colonies rebelled from the UK 1776-1783. One-hundred thirty-four years later, US troops came to Europe and fought alongside UK troops. They did it again 25 years after that, and then the US and UK joined in the NATO alliance in 1949.

It was a "special relationship".

Your challenge is to have a Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch or French colony in the New World win independence from the "mother country" but then by some point in the 20th century become a fighting ally with the mother country in Europe, Africa or Asia.
 
Easiest POD in my opinion: Due to different personalities from OTL, Brazil and Portugal are semi-amicably split between brothers/cousins, with Brazil probably remaining a kingdom.
 
Portugal was a combatant in WW1 while Brazil was neutral, and Brazil was a combatant in WW2 while Portugal was neutral. It shouldn't be beyond the bounds of possibility to get them to be combatant at the same time - probably August 1943, if the agreement to grant the British bases in the Azores is accompanied with at least a formal declaration of war on Germany and a brigade or so of Portuguese troops gets sent to the Mediterranean to fight with the Brazilians.
 

raharris1973

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Cool. Lusophone countries do seem the easiest. Now how could we do this with a Hispanic state and Spain?
 
Cool. Lusophone countries do seem the easiest. Now how could we do this with a Hispanic state and Spain?
What makes the Lusosphere the easiest is that it has a distinct identity from the Spanish speaking world and Brazil is enormous, just like the USA. It you had a stronger and more unified Hispanic America, there may be more of an interest in a "Special Relationship" with Spain. All we have in OTL is Mexico and while it is big, it had the misfortune of bordering the even bigger USA.
 
Wasn't the Cardenas administration in Mexico a big supporter of the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War?
 
Wasn't the Cardenas administration in Mexico a big supporter of the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War?

They were. Maybe you could have some alt-WWII where the Spanish Republic is a participant, against Sanjurjo/Franco/someone's Spanish Nationalists. In which case by the end of things, Spain is likely to be fighting alongside the majority of her former colonies (Latin America and the Philippines) on the side of the Allies. Maybe even an invasion of Spain by the middle/end of the conflict where among the Allied forces include significant amounts of Latin American units.
 
In the case of the Francophone world, Canada !ight be the most likely candidate. (Louisiana, perhaps not so much given the relatively small size of the settlement.) How this could be achieved is another question. Doors New France survive? Does Canada remain mostly French under Britain? Does Québec secede?
 

raharris1973

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Portugal was a combatant in WW1 while Brazil was neutral, and Brazil was a combatant in WW2 while Portugal was neutral. It shouldn't be beyond the bounds of possibility to get them to be combatant at the same time - probably August 1943, if the agreement to grant the British bases in the Azores is accompanied with at least a formal declaration of war on Germany and a brigade or so of Portuguese troops gets sent to the Mediterranean to fight with the Brazilians.

WWII is easier to picture I guess- Brazilian and Portuguese troop contingents fighting together on the Italian front by 1944.

For a WWI variant, while I know it is hard to get, people have imagined scenarios for a Central Powers Spain. If there is a Central Powers Spain, but an Entente Portugal, Portugal can be in a perceived state of danger, and perhaps that combined with the submarine threat, or that alone, could rally Brazilian participation to keep Portugal free from Spain?

Republicans win the Spanish Civil War. Mexico deploy troops to defend the Pyrennes after fall of France.

I wonder what other Latin American countries would be pro-Republic? Probably Cuba. Would any other political changes to Mexico have to be made to get Mexico precociously committed to fight in Spain before the US has entered the war?

I had the impression in the civil war that Mexico was pro-Republic, while right-leaning regimes (Argentina?) were pro-Franco.
 
I wonder what other Latin American countries would be pro-Republic? Probably Cuba. Would any other political changes to Mexico have to be made to get Mexico precociously committed to fight in Spain before the US has entered the war?

I had the impression in the civil war that Mexico was pro-Republic, while right-leaning regimes (Argentina?) were pro-Franco.

Other than the Soviet Union, Mexico was the only nation to support the Republicans. It wasn’t a lot of support, iirc several thousand 7mm Mauser rifles were sent, and the Mexican government had to endure international backlash just to do that.
 
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