Conquest of New Spain by Lord Protector Cromwell

In the mid 1600's Cromwell believed in how easy it would be to conquer the Spanish America. It was because the stories related by Thomas Gage about the wonderful colonies that these were. Let's suppose that Cromwell INDEED conquered New Spain, via Jamaica. What would had been the consequences for the balance of power in North America?
 
I'm thinking that England would be more powerful, especially in Central and South America. Spain would probably lose influence there:l
 

Keenir

Banned
In the mid 1600's Cromwell believed in how easy it would be to conquer the Spanish America. It was because the stories related by Thomas Gage about the wonderful colonies that these were. Let's suppose that Cromwell INDEED conquered New Spain, via Jamaica. What would had been the consequences for the balance of power in North America?

Cromwell would be out of power in England.*

ah but hey, he's got Jamaica! :D



* = or is he conquering by sending people to New Spain? and wouldn't he be politically weaker if he doesn't have loyalists in England?
 
In the mid 1600's Cromwell believed in how easy it would be to conquer the Spanish America. It was because the stories related by Thomas Gage about the wonderful colonies that these were. Let's suppose that Cromwell INDEED conquered New Spain, via Jamaica. What would had been the consequences for the balance of power in North America?

Has Cromwell an army of Alien Space Bats?
 
Please no Scifi in this. Cromwell taking New Spain Hmmmmm?? Well several problems here-1,New Spain is a LONG way away -2,Britain never had a large land army but put almost all her power in her navy-3,Why would Cromwell even try.

YOU TELL ME!:confused:
 
Britain never had a large land army but put almost all her power in her navy

While I agree that Cromwell wouldn't be able to conquer Spanish America (meaning the viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru), his army was nothing to sneeze at, as the Royalists, Irish, Scots, and Spanish themselves could tell you.

Why would Cromwell even try.

Cromwell wanted England to become a major power. He certainly wouldn't have minded taking Spain's colonies.
 
Okay Okay

Your right Cromwell did what England to become a great power but ,may I point out that Cromwell was I protestant and the Spanish ARE CATHOLIC ANY invasion would lead to defeat because of this factor. If you still want the English to take new territory than have them take Canada there are still Catholics but a lot less than in south America.But you tell me what think HMMMM???
 
Nothing of this matters. The poster didn't ask how would Cromwell conquer those territories, he asked that, if he conquered them, what would be the consequences of him doing it.
 
Nothing of this matters. The poster didn't ask how would Cromwell conquer those territories, he asked that, if he conquered them, what would be the consequences of him doing it.

The answer is... England gets to dominate the West Indies trade more fully and earlier, while Spain is dramatically weakened. However Spain can regroup and find allies (France), England is in danger of overstreach, especially if it's new colonies prove rebellious.
 
However Spain can regroup and find allies (France), England is in danger of overstreach, especially if it's new colonies prove rebellious.

I'm thinking that the most realistic way to conquer Spanish America is to collaborate with France and the Netherlands. It's already hard enough without Spain sending forces across the Atlantic, so somebody has to keep the tercios busy in Europe. Perhaps Portugal can join them too, and if the Spanish Habsburgs get help from the Austrian ones then Sweden and Turkey as well. How the hell he gets such a coalition going I couldn't tell you.
 
Nothing of this matters. The poster didn't ask how would Cromwell conquer those territories, he asked that, if he conquered them, what would be the consequences of him doing it.

But the how matters a great deal.

If the English conquest is assisted by Native uprisings, this will have one set of consequences.

If the English conquest comes because of Cromwell receiving AK-47s, this will have another.
 
Okay fine, just for the sake of argument I will reply.IF Cromwell took the New Spain it would make England one of the richest and most powerful nations in the World. Now for the conquest to be lasting Cromwell would have to bring in more Protestants lots more and he would have to double the size of the navy. Sorry for going off subject before.
 

Thande

Donor
Not sure if Cromwell's position at home was secure enough for him to be gallivanting off to Mexico. True, he did manage that infamous Irish campaign, but that's a little bit smaller scale to say the least.
 
Cromwell "takes" New Spain.. alright, for one thing, much of the populace was converted to Catholicism and was quite devout by this time, the rest was still basically free of colonial rule. I do not expect England to have many large areas of control outside of certain key cities... anarchy reigns in the countryside. Eventually the English leave, leaving a mess behind them that will take large amounts of time to fix...
 
It would be a big enterprise, although not impossible, Spain at the times of the Protectorate of Cromwell in England was a potence in total decadence, in 1643 in Rocroi, the Tercios had been defeated by the french in a symbolic bloody defeat that marked definitively the end of the supremacy of the Tercios as a military formation in the battle field of the Europe in XVII Century.

Spain was in bankrupt, the product of the mines of Potosi and New Spain, the gold and silver of America all had gone to fund the wars of Spain (or the luxuries of the noblemen), the politics of Olivares that in some moments seemed that could make Spain the supreme power of Europe although at the cost of having a supremacy a lo soviet (big military apparatus, with a economy simplily weaked and drained of their resources and men for the needs of the glory of Spain), finally even such supremacy was a lost dream, and the overextension of Spain proved fatal, with the state in bankrupt, the Tercios defeated, Castilla in the conditions of total poverty, Catalonia in rebellion, Portugal independent de facto (although the independence of Portugal not would be definitive until the treaty of Lisboa of 1668) and making a war against Spain, The Thirty Year Wars a disaster, the war against France a nightmare.

This was the Spain in times of Lord Cromwell Protectorate, a broken potence that was in the middle of a long way of decadence.

In these circumstances Cromwell naturally had had great resistances in New Spain against the possible conquest, but Spain was in no conditions of offer too much reinforcements to counterattack an invasion of New Spain.
 
This is as likely as Spain conquering the Thirteen Colonies in the Jenkins' ear war.

(actually I toyed with this idea once, the POD being a spanish victory at Bloody Marsh in 1742 which led to Spain annexing Georgia and the Carolinas. Even then, I thought it was kind of silly).
 
Top