(seeing people keep saying that I should develop a weirder world for the multiverse war...)
WHAT IF...Cortes, instead of conqouring Mexico in the name of King Charles, tried to take it as his own Kingdom. Instead of having a falling out with the Mexican King, what happens if Moctezuma forges an allience with Cortes (perhaps without such a nasty smallpox outbreak) and Cortes ends up as the rular of Mexico. The Spanish would find it difficult to launch a counter-attack, while Cortes would be building a modern army and even inviting spanish who might know things (maybe even Jews) to settle,
Thoughts? Long-term development particularly wanted...
Chris
Not so sure about an alliance between Cortes and Montezuma, but the feasibility of setting up and independent kingdom seems fine.
1) If Cortes sets up an indepedent kingdom, how willing will the Spanish governors of the Carribean islands be to give liscence to other conquerors? Perhaps Pizzaro is denied and the Inca survive in some fashion.
2) Presumably, Cortes still conquers in the name of God, i.e. Roman Catholicism. If the Protestant Reformation proceeds on schedule, than he can either side with Spain and Holy Mother Church or not. I'm thinking he wouldn't: openess to syncretism with paganism will help him gain support among the Native Meso-Americans. In either case, Spain and Charles V lack the enormity of New World gold to fund wars of religion so a compromise may be forced, perhaps a church Council is called. Luther might still force a split due to his eventual theological differences with the church.
3) Religion will also be difficult matter for Cortes in Mexico. Does he use an Inquisitorial regime to impose catholicism? Does he accept native religion? I'm thinking he defers on the religion question and is more pre-occupied with settling affairs at home since he has to develop the means to subdue the former Aztec Empire permanently. A Spanish-native language might develop, with roman characters. Christ as a replacement for human sacrifice may have to potential to win converts among actual practioners of human sacrifice, so some kind of syncretic chruch may also develop. Cortes' Mexico will probably preserve much more of native culture than OTL, especially if it allows the Inca to survive.
4) Messing with the wars of Religion makes European politics harder to predict, but it seems to me that England and Spain are far less likely to become enemies in 1588: Spain doesn't have vast material wealth being shipped back to the continent providing capital to purchase english goods and prey for English pirates. Spain may be more insistent on retaining the Netherlands so perhaps the Dutch Revolt is crushed. I think the HRE will fair poorer so Spain becomes a commerical country, producing in sugar, trading refined goods to Mexico in exchange for specie, trading specie in China for luxury products in Europe (A global triangle trade of sorts). England and Spain may have a natural alliance against France, which will dictate patterns of war and colonization, but England's traditional ties to Portugal will ensure that the connection remains lose and tied to demands of interest. Commerical rivalry will also ensue at some point. The Hapsburgs may lose out in the HRE, but the result may be a stronger prostetant north German state and a catholic southern one.
5) The slave trade may be affected if not curtailed: Cortes' Mexico will probably still need manpower to compensate for disease, but the existing Aztec system will remain. Spanish colonies in the Carribbean will still require fodder for sugar plantations. The spread of slavery to English North America will depend upon the extent to which those colonies are found for trade: if so, they will need labor to produce cash crops; if not, they may simply develop agrarian economies like OTL's Massachusetts. Indentured servivtude and serfdom may persist, but race slavery may not become a feature of the New World, so much as the Carribbean, depending on settlement patterns in South American (and the Portuguese).