Which nations, dynasties, cultures, or peoples had the potential to establish lasting colonies in the New World, after 1492? For nations which attempted to colonise the New World but failed to establish a lasting colonial presence -- how might their colonies have been successful, and what would the consequences have been? For nations which had plans to colonise the Americas, but didn't execute them -- how might those plans have been successful? For nations which showed no interest in colonisation at the time -- what could have spurred interest in the New World, and make colonial expeditions more feasible?
I'll start.
The Saadi Sultanate of Morocco: Sultan Ahmed al-Mansour (r.1578-1603) was known to have an interest in seizing Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the New World. The idea wasn't ludicrous; Morocco had built up a substantive navy largely made up of Moorish refugees, and many of the adventurers known to Christians as Barbary Corsairs were essentially privateers on behalf of Morocco, the Ottoman Empire, or both. Ahmed al-Mansour also pursued relations with the great naval powers of the Ottoman Empire, France, and most famously England against Spain. In the latter case, he and Queen Elizabeth I established the Anglo-Moroccan alliance, which established trade relations dominated mainly by the sale of English arms, munitions, and naval-grade timber to Morocco. Numerous attempts at direct military cooperation with England were made, but none of them were seen through. Additionally, Ahmed al-Mansour invaded and conquered the Songhay Empire and established lasting Moroccan rule over Timbuktu, for two main reasons -- 1) to control the trans-Saharan trade routes and guarantee Moroccan access to things like gold and salt, but also 2) to control the trans-Atlantic slave trade as well. The Sultan knew that the Christian colonies in the New World needed African slaves to exist, and so he sought to control this commodity as much as he could. Ahmed al-Mansour's long-term goals included the reconquest of Andalusia from the Christians, and I don't know that this is beyond the realm of possibility.
If Ahmed al-Mansour and his successors seriously tried to establish Moroccan colonies in the New World, Morocco could have benefited from the Triangle Trade as well as the Trans-Saharan Trade and become extremely powerful. However, I don't believe it's possible for Morocco to conquer New Spain, and it'd be very difficult for Morocco to establish colonies anywhere without English or other Christian cooperation. The conquest of one or two Caribbean islands, the construction of fortified ports and trading-posts in Guyana or along the Brazilian coast, and incentivising Barbary Corsairs and Moorish refugees to settle these small fortified colonies would probably be the best way to start. The Caribbean is wealthy, and already home to pirates and privateers of all stripes; surely, Moors and other Muslim corsairs would be enticed by the prospect of wealth and jihad as well, especially against the Spanish. And while Moroccans may feel squeamish about using African Muslims as plantation slaves, who knows? Maybe European Christians could serve as slaves on Moroccan plantations, alongside African pagans.
The Grand Duchy of Tuscany: From Columbus to Vespucci to Cabot to Verrazzano, Italians had served a crucial role in the colonisation of the Americas. However, these were all in service to foreign powers; there was never an enduring colony in the New World established on behalf of a nation based in Italy. There was one notable attempt, however. The House of Medici, which still benefited from its monopoly over Christendom's greatest alum mines but was seeing the decline in the Mediterranean trade in favour of new Atlantic trade routes, sought to establish a colony which could import brazilwood to Italy, thus getting them involved in the trans-Atlantic trade network. In 1608, the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinand I de' Medici sent an expedition led by Captain Robert Thornton, an Englishman, to explore northern Brazil and the Amazon River with the goal of establishing a Tuscan colony. The expedition landed near what is now the city of Cayenne in modern-day French Guiana (which the French would not colonise until 1630). Thornton and his company returned without losing a single man, and brought back several natives (although most of these natives died along the way). When they returned to Tuscany in June 1609, Thornton and the natives which survived spoke of a land rich in rosewood, sugarcane, balsam, white pepper, and many other valuable goods. However, Grand Duke Ferdinand had died in February of that year, and his successor -- Cosimo II -- was not interested in the project. In the summer of 1609, Thornton attempted to establish a settlement with Italian settlers from Livorno and Lucca, but the project was ultimately abandoned.
If Thornton had been allowed to establish a Tuscan colony in Guyana, I think it has a high likelihood of being successful, especially since the French would establish a successful colony on the very same site only a couple decades later. Tuscany had good relations with Portugal, Spain, and France, so I don't think a Tuscan presence in the region would be received with too much hostility. What's more, Tuscany (and the Italies in general) had many experienced merchants and navigators; it seems like it wouldn't be lacking for potential investors. Finally, if they need to, the Medici family could potentially rely on the Pope for financial or political support in establishing the colony.
The House of Welser: The Welser family was one of the most influential banking and merchant families of their day, matched perhaps only by the Fuggers. Like the Fuggers, the Welsers hailed from Augsburg (though they claimed descent from Flavius Belisarius, the famous Byzantine general). The Welsers were among the first Germans to invest in trade expeditions to the East using the routes discovered by Vasco da Gama. As a reward for contributing to his election in 1519, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V awarded the Welsers with the Contract of Madrid (1528), which granted them privileges over the African slave trade in the Americas. The Welsers became one of the biggest financiers in the Americas, and used their wealth to control large sectors of the European economy. In order to pay off his debts to the Welser family, Charles V granted Bartholomeus V. Welser the right to colonise the Province of Venezuela in 1528. Bartholomeus Welser governed Venezuela as Klein-Venedig ("Little Venice," a German translation of Venezuela's name in Spanish), and developed it into a colony dominated by sugar plantations, importing thousands of African slaves to do so. The Welsers also brought about a hundred and fifty German miners to Venezuela to mine for gold; however, these mining efforts proved fruitless. Finally, the Welsers were permitted to go on expeditions to explore Venezuela in pursuit of El Dorado. The Welsers sponsored many expeditions to find El Dorado, as it enticed European settlers and was an excuse to conquer and plunder the native populations. However, the Welser-sponsored, German conquistadores were so rapacious it destabilised Spanish rule in the area. Charles V revoked the Welsers' right to colonise Venezuela in 1546, and appointed a Spanish captain-general to take the place of the Welsers' German mercenary governors.
Though the Welsers governed a Spanish colony, I think a more interesting scenario would be if, after the death of Charles V, they governed Venezuela as an Austrian Habsburg colony instead of a Spanish Habsburg one. Regardless, however, an enduring Klein-Venedig would mean an enduring German presence in the Americas.
So, what other countries had plans to colonise the Americas which didn't materialise or didn't last, and how could they have been more successful? What countries had the potential to become great colonial powers in the New World, but weren't interested?
I'll start.
The Saadi Sultanate of Morocco: Sultan Ahmed al-Mansour (r.1578-1603) was known to have an interest in seizing Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the New World. The idea wasn't ludicrous; Morocco had built up a substantive navy largely made up of Moorish refugees, and many of the adventurers known to Christians as Barbary Corsairs were essentially privateers on behalf of Morocco, the Ottoman Empire, or both. Ahmed al-Mansour also pursued relations with the great naval powers of the Ottoman Empire, France, and most famously England against Spain. In the latter case, he and Queen Elizabeth I established the Anglo-Moroccan alliance, which established trade relations dominated mainly by the sale of English arms, munitions, and naval-grade timber to Morocco. Numerous attempts at direct military cooperation with England were made, but none of them were seen through. Additionally, Ahmed al-Mansour invaded and conquered the Songhay Empire and established lasting Moroccan rule over Timbuktu, for two main reasons -- 1) to control the trans-Saharan trade routes and guarantee Moroccan access to things like gold and salt, but also 2) to control the trans-Atlantic slave trade as well. The Sultan knew that the Christian colonies in the New World needed African slaves to exist, and so he sought to control this commodity as much as he could. Ahmed al-Mansour's long-term goals included the reconquest of Andalusia from the Christians, and I don't know that this is beyond the realm of possibility.
If Ahmed al-Mansour and his successors seriously tried to establish Moroccan colonies in the New World, Morocco could have benefited from the Triangle Trade as well as the Trans-Saharan Trade and become extremely powerful. However, I don't believe it's possible for Morocco to conquer New Spain, and it'd be very difficult for Morocco to establish colonies anywhere without English or other Christian cooperation. The conquest of one or two Caribbean islands, the construction of fortified ports and trading-posts in Guyana or along the Brazilian coast, and incentivising Barbary Corsairs and Moorish refugees to settle these small fortified colonies would probably be the best way to start. The Caribbean is wealthy, and already home to pirates and privateers of all stripes; surely, Moors and other Muslim corsairs would be enticed by the prospect of wealth and jihad as well, especially against the Spanish. And while Moroccans may feel squeamish about using African Muslims as plantation slaves, who knows? Maybe European Christians could serve as slaves on Moroccan plantations, alongside African pagans.
The Grand Duchy of Tuscany: From Columbus to Vespucci to Cabot to Verrazzano, Italians had served a crucial role in the colonisation of the Americas. However, these were all in service to foreign powers; there was never an enduring colony in the New World established on behalf of a nation based in Italy. There was one notable attempt, however. The House of Medici, which still benefited from its monopoly over Christendom's greatest alum mines but was seeing the decline in the Mediterranean trade in favour of new Atlantic trade routes, sought to establish a colony which could import brazilwood to Italy, thus getting them involved in the trans-Atlantic trade network. In 1608, the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinand I de' Medici sent an expedition led by Captain Robert Thornton, an Englishman, to explore northern Brazil and the Amazon River with the goal of establishing a Tuscan colony. The expedition landed near what is now the city of Cayenne in modern-day French Guiana (which the French would not colonise until 1630). Thornton and his company returned without losing a single man, and brought back several natives (although most of these natives died along the way). When they returned to Tuscany in June 1609, Thornton and the natives which survived spoke of a land rich in rosewood, sugarcane, balsam, white pepper, and many other valuable goods. However, Grand Duke Ferdinand had died in February of that year, and his successor -- Cosimo II -- was not interested in the project. In the summer of 1609, Thornton attempted to establish a settlement with Italian settlers from Livorno and Lucca, but the project was ultimately abandoned.
If Thornton had been allowed to establish a Tuscan colony in Guyana, I think it has a high likelihood of being successful, especially since the French would establish a successful colony on the very same site only a couple decades later. Tuscany had good relations with Portugal, Spain, and France, so I don't think a Tuscan presence in the region would be received with too much hostility. What's more, Tuscany (and the Italies in general) had many experienced merchants and navigators; it seems like it wouldn't be lacking for potential investors. Finally, if they need to, the Medici family could potentially rely on the Pope for financial or political support in establishing the colony.
The House of Welser: The Welser family was one of the most influential banking and merchant families of their day, matched perhaps only by the Fuggers. Like the Fuggers, the Welsers hailed from Augsburg (though they claimed descent from Flavius Belisarius, the famous Byzantine general). The Welsers were among the first Germans to invest in trade expeditions to the East using the routes discovered by Vasco da Gama. As a reward for contributing to his election in 1519, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V awarded the Welsers with the Contract of Madrid (1528), which granted them privileges over the African slave trade in the Americas. The Welsers became one of the biggest financiers in the Americas, and used their wealth to control large sectors of the European economy. In order to pay off his debts to the Welser family, Charles V granted Bartholomeus V. Welser the right to colonise the Province of Venezuela in 1528. Bartholomeus Welser governed Venezuela as Klein-Venedig ("Little Venice," a German translation of Venezuela's name in Spanish), and developed it into a colony dominated by sugar plantations, importing thousands of African slaves to do so. The Welsers also brought about a hundred and fifty German miners to Venezuela to mine for gold; however, these mining efforts proved fruitless. Finally, the Welsers were permitted to go on expeditions to explore Venezuela in pursuit of El Dorado. The Welsers sponsored many expeditions to find El Dorado, as it enticed European settlers and was an excuse to conquer and plunder the native populations. However, the Welser-sponsored, German conquistadores were so rapacious it destabilised Spanish rule in the area. Charles V revoked the Welsers' right to colonise Venezuela in 1546, and appointed a Spanish captain-general to take the place of the Welsers' German mercenary governors.
Though the Welsers governed a Spanish colony, I think a more interesting scenario would be if, after the death of Charles V, they governed Venezuela as an Austrian Habsburg colony instead of a Spanish Habsburg one. Regardless, however, an enduring Klein-Venedig would mean an enduring German presence in the Americas.
So, what other countries had plans to colonise the Americas which didn't materialise or didn't last, and how could they have been more successful? What countries had the potential to become great colonial powers in the New World, but weren't interested?
