AHC: This Portuguese Empire

[Lusitania]

Plymouth was settled in `1620, New York was settled in 1624. Unless you have the British lease the Dutch Plymouth colony it is definitely staying British.

The Dutch sold New York and Hudson River colony to the British because the British were on both sides. If Portuguese settlement of Newfoundland and say lands around gulf started in the late 1490-1525 by Galicians /Asturians who being fisherman and whalers were left out of the souther and Asian adventures they could of expended into New England by 1600.

thus with Portuguese to north and if Dutch still claim and settle in sane area any English settlement to the north be an enclave and it make sense that majority of English colonies be to south Dutch.

 

[ruisramos]

First step is to make the metropolitan territory larger so a bigger population can sustain a bigger colonial push. Maybe Afonso Henriques is not defeated and taken prisoner at Badajoz would allow Portugal to take Andaluzia, a luckier/smarter intervention in Leon’s succession wars leads it to be split 50/50 between Portugal and Castile and, lastly the full incorporation of Galicia into the kingdom.

This enlarged territory/population would have made Portugal less dependent on appeasing the big brother next door (Castile) so no expelling of
The Portuguese Jews which will make Portugal stronger both commercially and in science/technology.

Then it is essencial to keep Portugal away from European politics/conflicts and limiting its interactions in Europe to commerce. Including dealing with politics in the rest o Iberia. This
would allow to avoid things like personal union with Spain for example, but it is the most difficult part to achieve.

By concentrating all the assets on colonial expansion and commerce is the only way to achieve this.