AHC: Venetian Superpower in 1500's

What if Venice successfully held it's Mediterranean territory against the Turks, and became a naval superpower, reaching the America's before the Spanish. I assume this would end with them controlling most of Italy and the Adriatic Sea.
 
Could they somehow manage to gain and maintain control of Gibraltar? That's the only way I see them successfully being able to expand into the new world without being blocked by Spain.
 
Could they somehow manage to gain and maintain control of Gibraltar? That's the only way I see them successfully being able to expand into the new world without being blocked by Spain.

There's no incentive for Venetians to seek an alternate trade route, they've already benefited from the existing trade route, that's why Columbus and other Italians like Cabot worked for Spain, Portugal and England.
 
There's no incentive for Venetians to seek an alternate trade route, they've already benefited from the existing trade route, that's why Columbus and other Italians like Cabot worked for Spain, Portugal and England.

Well then what needs to happen to give them that incentive? How can they be cut off/undercut from the existing eastern trade route?
 
There's no incentive for Venetians to seek an alternate trade route, they've already benefited from the existing trade route, that's why Columbus and other Italians like Cabot worked for Spain, Portugal and England.

Also, location, location, location. The Serene Republic was an Eastern Med power ( or was until the Ottomans wrested it from them). States positioned on the Iberian peninsula and the British Isles were ideally positioned to exploit the Americas and trans-oceanic trades routes.

No way that Venice was going to have control of a western Med base like Gibraltar. It wasn't the bloody Roman Empire. It couldn't have achieved control of the Italian peninsula let alone achieved dominance in waters controlled by Spain.
 
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