AHC/WI: Basque Mexico

Albert.Nik

Banned
In this AHC,we need to make significant regions of Mexico Basque Majority wherever suitable. Basque have been under Spain always so they would come with Spanish peoples. So since Basque are a distinct peoples in Spain,they would colonize Mexico as it is very suitable wherever suitable and eventually make it either near majority or a majority with a large minority of others. Hence the range would fall in 45%-65/70%. The rest would be Spanish Mestizo or Amerindians. So how would this Basque Mexico be in the modern history of North America?
 
In this AHC,we need to make significant regions of Mexico Basque Majority wherever suitable. Basque have been under Spain always so they would come with Spanish peoples. So since Basque are a distinct peoples in Spain,they would colonize Mexico as it is very suitable wherever suitable and eventually make it either near majority or a majority with a large minority of others. Hence the range would fall in 45%-65/70%. The rest would be Spanish Mestizo or Amerindians. So how would this Basque Mexico be in the modern history of North America?

Does Basque need to be the official language? Antioquia in Colombia is mostly of Basque heritage, but the language is lost now.
 

Albert.Nik

Banned
Does Basque need to be the official language? Antioquia in Colombia is mostly of Basque heritage, but the language is lost now.
Yes. Since this AHC needs a significantly large Basque population majority in significant regions and almost majority or majority as per the given percentages in the OP.
 
"There are at least two things that clearly can be attributed to the Basques: the Society of Jesus and the Republic of Chile."

Basques made up almost 30% of Chile's population in 1800 and formed the basis of the oligarchy which would dominate Chilean politics and society well into the 20th century. Basque descendants are still about 30% of Chileans. But it made sense to speak Spanish instead of Basque, given they would deal with other Spaniards most of the time.

Mexico could probably be a similar case, but the size of the country (in terms of population, area, importance to Spain) compared to Chile would mean the number of Basques would need to be much greater to equal a similar proportion. There's also a lot more American Indians in Mexico than in Chile.
 
How many busques are we talking about? By 1820's Mexico's population was somewhere between 6 to 7 million. I guess what I want to know is when did the Basque start coming in TTL, that would help with seeing what the numbers look like and how that might impact colonial Mexico.
 
IS a different policy regarding the Americas from the Spanish Crown possible? OTL, Columbus heavily exaggerated the riches of his discoveries. If he dies on the tip or vanishes, initial interest for the Americas will be far, far lower.

If a significant number of Basque get to Mexico early enough, they could outgrow the natives through resistance to the virgin field epidemics that scourged Mexico. They reduced the population of Mexico from 22 million in 1520 to 2,5 in 1550 and then 1.5 in 1580. Mainly through Cocoliztli and Smallpox.
 

Ramontxo

Donor
Errr the Basque connection with the Land "Ama Lurra" (Mother Earth) means that while there was (very) significant Basque immigration and/or colonization both in America and in the Filipinas the idea of a different, second homeland there never arose. Part of it may be that until the Carlist wars in the Nineteenth Century (thought some people spoke of ETA as the last one) and the lose of the Fueros (traditional Basque freedoms) there were not really a "Basque Problem" or any Basque nationalism and then it was really too late for this kind of Idea...
 
IS a different policy regarding the Americas from the Spanish Crown possible? OTL, Columbus heavily exaggerated the riches of his discoveries. If he dies on the tip or vanishes, initial interest for the Americas will be far, far lower.

If a significant number of Basque get to Mexico early enough, they could outgrow the natives through resistance to the virgin field epidemics that scourged Mexico. They reduced the population of Mexico from 22 million in 1520 to 2,5 in 1550 and then 1.5 in 1580. Mainly through Cocoliztli and Smallpox.

The nobility are never going to let their peasents run across the ocean en-mass, nor are dirt farmers going to be able to find good work when there's a large native population already working to grow crops, at least in the type of village/smallholding life they have the knowledge and inclination to take up. I suppose you could have a large local Basque population in the coastal cities, considering they have a fairly good shipping/fishing tradition, but I imagine you'd have a better shot having one of those emerge in the southern cone rather than Mexico given the whaling industry that would be possible in the south Atlantic (The Basques were some of the finest whalers in all of Europe, so if Spain decided they wanted that industry down in the south that would be a convenient population to tap)
 
I suppose it possible, especially given the orecicious Basque involvement in transatlantic affairs, that their could have emerged a secondary Basque Homeland overseas. The Basques may well have been actively fishing off the Grand Banks in the 15th century, and a Basque-based pidgin was spoken there centuries later—a Basque Gulf of St. Lawrence, anyone?

The Basques as a major imperial oowet in their own right I do not see. Ignoring the extent to which the Basques were emmeshed in Iberia, I do not think they would have been capable of outcompeting the larger territorial monarchies. This is particularly the case with regards to a Mexico that would be, by virtue of its wealth and population, an obvious target.
 
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