Like the Portuguese court, what if and how, the crown were expell from Spain, by Napoleon and maybe the wars go on longer or a liberal revolution keeps them from returning and forces them to set their Empire in America? Were would make more sense to set their capital, Lima or Mexico city? Both are in pretty loyal and conservative viceroyalties (elite-wise). Tough places like Buenos Aires and Caracas are going to be problematic anyways thanks to the british comercial influence on the local elites, but they could be subdued with policies of autonomy and free or relaxed trade, hell, just eliminating the old peninsular monopoly may be enough.
AHC/WI Exiled Spanish crown moves the Empire to Mexico?
- Thread starter EnvarKadri
- Start date
That's what the Spanish king Charles IV intended, but his scaping was detected by his son Ferdinand who launched a coup d'état known as the Aranjuez Mutiny. Charles planned to go to La Habana first and then to Mexico city to rule from there. As far as I know some ministers convinced him to travell all across the American territories from Mexico City to Buenos Aires to unite the overseas possesions with the crown of the fatherland. Probably the presence of the king in America would stomp any serious attempt of rebellion and maybe he could have raised an army in America to retake Spain from Napoleon. IOTL many Latin American independence leaders fought in Spain during the initial stages of the Peninsular War, maybe they could have been more loyal under the king. Even thought Charles was a slightly mentally handicapped and dependen on his prime minister Manuel de Godoy to rule instead of him. The AHC is the scaping going undetected by Charle's son.
Havana would probably be the best choice. When the Spanish regained Havana after the British conquest in 1762 they turned it into the most heavily fortified city in the Americas. Havana also has the advantage of major shipyards and Cuba is one of the richest provinces in the Spanish Empire.
Meanwhile depending on exactly when they're forced out many of the Spanish territories in the Americas have some rebellion or other occurring while Cuba is pretty loyal and has good lines of communication to both Europe and Spain's other lands.
Meanwhile depending on exactly when they're forced out many of the Spanish territories in the Americas have some rebellion or other occurring while Cuba is pretty loyal and has good lines of communication to both Europe and Spain's other lands.
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The thing is, population wise Cuba on its own is rather peripheral compared to the area around Lima and Mexico, in fact, if Cuba is more loyal than it should be a lower priority compared to core american continent territories.
That's true but Lima and Mexico are far removed from both each other and Europe. If his goal is to maintain control over all the territories and keep his hand in European politics at the same time then choosing something more central would very likely be the better option. Relocating to Lima would effectively remove him from European politics and Mexico City wouldn't be a huge improvement. Mexico City and Lima are large and regionally important population centers but for Charles' needs (at least to me) they don't seem ideal.
As Drex said, a traveling court could help quell unrest and probably would have been a good idea but if you're looking for a single administrative center then I'm not sure picking a place far from the Atlantic would be ideal.
Um, an Spanish América empire centered in Cuba is an interesting idea, tough the rest of the viceroyalties would want more autonomy, specially the more export oriented and those annoyed by the borboun reforms.
FillyofDelphi
Banned
In that case, what about Vera Cruz? Its continental and a major trade center, meaning the Crown would have immediate access to/control of the customs duties and material resources, its secure at the rear of the Carribean (They can forward-position to the Navy if need be too) which combined would allow them enough free strength to be able to surpress rebellious activity in Spainish America with their own own resources (a huge boost to legitimacy and permanency of control as opposed to leaning on the British military). There's also sitting on the flow of Mexican Silver to consider: given the Crown will need to facilitate the shift from the previous European supply of mercury to a new source in order to keep that cash cow producing, being directly on hand will probably quicken/smooth over the process.
I'd say Caribbean ports are out of the equation due to the danger of tropical diseases such as malaria and the tendency of the Spanish monarchs to always roam through the most interior part of the country if possible. Both Havana and Veracruz would be temporary capitals anyways as the court would have to reside there for a time before an eventual moving to Mexico or somewhere else. But I guess if the Rio de la Plata rebels (they rebelled partly because after the failed English invasions they discovered they were self-sufficient in military terms) the king would have to go to either Lima or Chuquisaca/La Plata.