AHC/WI: The Aranda Plan/Chateaubriand's Idea Succeeds

I would like to pose a challenge of making the Count of Aranda's plan of a Spanish Federated Empire (proposed to D. Carlos III after the ARW) succeed.

Aranda had a perfectly well-founded argument for this in that, in a report he sent to Carlos, he informed him that the fledgling USA would "though now a pigmy" temporarily needing the support of France and Spain, "engulf Florida, interfere in Mexico and aspire to all the Spanish colonies in the Americas". His solution was the setting up of three monarchies in the Americas - one in Mexico, one in Peru and one in Nueva Granada, France would be granted trading privileges, whilst England would be rigidly excluded.

Among the advantages that would result from this plan had the contribution of the three kingdoms (as should be, one gold, one silver, and one in colonial genera), the cessation of continuous emigration to America, to prevent aggrandizement of the colonies, or of any other power that would settle in that part of the world, increasing our commercial and military marine, and added: "The islands have quoted above, managing them well and putting in good defense, suffice us for our trade, without other possessions, and finally would enjoy all the advantages that gives us the possession of America without any of the drawbacks. "

And Aranda was not the only statesman to propose this - Godoy proposed a similar idea (though with the exclusion of the French), the Plan of Iguala offered the throne of Mexico to first Fernando VII of Spain, then to D. Carlos, then D. Francisco and finally D. Pedro Carlos; and José de San Martin was considering such an idea as late as 1827.

Even Chateaubriand, when he assumed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for France in 1823, he attempted to make it palatable to the Spanish Bourbons that "Mexico and Peru were still both imperfectly sundered" from Spain" and that "by great care, reason and skill, it would perhaps be possible to establish in America great monarchies governed by princes of the house of Bourbon".

In his Voyages Chateaubriand states that the Spanish colonies would have benefited from being turned into constitutional monarchies both because of the superiority of this system to republicanism and because of its particular appropriateness to the Spanish character.

The Spanish Infantes available in 1776 (Parma and Naples not included):

Gabriel (b. 1752 (died in 1788 of smallpox with his wife and younger son)
Antonio Pasquale (b. 1755) married his niece in 1795, had a stillborn son shortly before she died in 1798.
Francisco Javier (b. 1757 (died 1771 of smallpox, but assume he survives it here).

Your objective is to export these infantes to the colonies and set up a Spanish Commonwealth (for want of a better term), bonus points if the monarchies can last to the present day.

Hope you enjoy.

NOTE: Aranda's idea for the plan was that Cuba, Puerto Rico and the East Indies remain directly under Spanish rule.
 

Skallagrim

Banned
A form of this was done in Thande's Look To The West, IIRC.

The practical problem might be getting a bunch of princes to voluntarily ship out to the colonies. Another might be to keep them in line once they're there. Eventually, the kingdoms might stop recognizing the 'high king'/emperor, and go at it alone.

A better alternative would be to use the same 'federal empire' structure, but keep appointing viceroys instead of using separate princes. In that case, the Emperor of Spain is also be 'king of Mexico', 'king of Nueva Granada' etc. But in actual fact, these kingdoms would largely autonomous.

The Spanish Empire as a relatively tight personal union, you might say.
 
I may be wrong, but my understanding of it was that Aranda wished to prevent what had happened in the US from happening in the Spanish Empire due to the fact that the king had no control per se over his viceroys.

OTOH he would possibly have still less over infantes - although Aranda suggested an arrangement of constant intermarriage between the new world monarchs and the Bourbon courts to keep the union bound together.

But I could also see a more peaceful split from Spain (a la Brazil-Portugal) and a more stable regime as opposed to a Revolution and constant coups and countercoups as often happened in the 19c Spanish New World, if/when it does come to it. Your infantes of the first generation are likely to still be "dependent" on Madrid and be viewed as Peninsulares, but future generations would be native born, if from imported mothers.

And if you think about it, in any of these kingdoms, would you rather pay taxes that will go to Madrid to support the court there that you never have/likely never will see, or pay taxes, fight for etc a king that has YOUR (i.e. The viceroyalty) interests at heart?
 
As Skallagrim and Kellan Sullivan have pointed out, the Aranda plan would be problematic.

Several kingdoms under different kings are very cool in practice, but given the vast distance, it will either end with the lot of them appointing an Emperor of the New World instead of staying loyal to a distant Spanish Emperor, or (more likely) with the several kingdoms splitting off and going their own way.

This could indeed mean a more peaceful split from Spain and more stable regimes for the Latin American nations afterward, and in that sense it would have 'worked'. But this is not what Aranda was looking for.

If you want his plan to achieve the goals he had in mind, you have to change the plan. I agree with the other posters: even though the viceroys were sometimes difficult to control, kings would be even worse. Keep the viceroys and reform that system. A Federal Empire of Spain, under one Emperor, could work out... of the various viceroyalties are given great autonomy. Eventually, it would end up being the Spanish Commonwealth. Which could be very cool. :cool:
 
So I've been thinking of this idea some more. Thanks to @Crying for reminding me that I already have created a thread on it.

I agree that keeping thieves honest and maintaining the loyalty to Spain in succeeding generations, particularly if the next generation of infantes/infantas are for all intents and purposes born in the new world. Their loyalty is going to be to Mexico or to Lima or Buenos Aires rather than Madrid. However, that said, can it be that the colonies are granted their independence/autonomy more gradually or rather that the wrenching away from Spain that happened in the 19th century is more gradual, and independence is granted and friendly economic/commercial/military ties are maintained? I'm thinking of what @Widukind wrote about eventually being a Spanish type commonwealth. The king of Spain is no longer sovereign over those nations, but there's no hard feelings between the motherland and the former colonies.

Also, education of the infantes/infantas? Done in the Americas? Or would they be sent to Europe for their education? Could the export of the first generation of princes lead to a raising of standards (of education, healthcare etc since they'd probably send to Europe for the best doctors, tutors, etc (AFAIK didn't one of the rulers of Brasil's daughters have a French governess and he himself had an English doctor or something) in the viceroyalties?
 
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