DBWI: no Partition of Spain

As all we know, the Partition of Spain was one of the most decisive consequences of the Congress of Vienna and the most extreme one, that dived the old Kindom of Spain in the kindoms of Castella, Aragon, Navarre, Granada and Leon. Many castillians still blame this devision as the definitive fall of the "Great Kingdom of All Spains", as the spanists talk. So, how could Spain not be partitioned? And what would be the consequences?
 
As all we know, the Partition of Spain was one of the most decisive consequences of the Congress of Vienna and the most extreme one, that dived the old Kindom of Spain in the kindoms of Castella, Aragon, Navarre, Granada and Leon. Many castillians still blame this devision as the definitive fall of the "Great Kingdom of All Spains", as the spanists talk. So, how could Spain not be partitioned? And what would be the consequences?

Maybe let the Borbones not be so incompetent? A strong Borbon king might be able to avoid it. Fernando VII was for all intents and purposes a crowned jellyfish - and having a wife who was Napoléon's niece didn't help - so were we to have Napoléon deciding that the Borbones aren't trustworthy and replace them with a member of his family
 
Maybe let the Borbones not be so incompetent? A strong Borbon king might be able to avoid it. Fernando VII was for all intents and purposes a crowned jellyfish - and having a wife who was Napoléon's niece didn't help - so were we to have Napoléon deciding that the Borbones aren't trustworthy and replace them with a member of his family
So stopping Napoleon from taking over Spain is probably a good place to start. Maybe Spain doesn't buy Corsica, so Napoleon never has a chance to join the military and work his way up to Supreme Protector of the Spanish People and All Their Lands (as his overly long title ended up being IOTL). I'm not sure Napoleon replacing the king would do anything- remember, he already held the country's effective power. It might also help if France was strong enough to stop Napoleon's invasion. IOTL the shambling corpse that was the Directorate of 1804 was no match for the superior Spanish tactics and numbers, leading to a unified Western Europe that took nearly two decades to finally defeat.
 
So stopping Napoleon from taking over Spain is probably a good place to start. Maybe Spain doesn't buy Corsica, so Napoleon never has a chance to join the military and work his way up to Supreme Protector of the Spanish People and All Their Lands (as his overly long title ended up being IOTL). I'm not sure Napoleon replacing the king would do anything- remember, he already held the country's effective power. It might also help if France was strong enough to stop Napoleon's invasion. IOTL the shambling corpse that was the Directorate of 1804 was no match for the superior Spanish tactics and numbers, leading to a unified Western Europe that took nearly two decades to finally defeat.

Yep. Spain and France lost total control of their colonies after the unification. Maybe if France had a general as good as Napoleon Buenaparte and that could be charismatic enough to secure the power. Or King Fernando should simple not have trusted Buenapate and kept him only as his general?
 
So stopping Napoleon from taking over Spain is probably a good place to start. Maybe Spain doesn't buy Corsica, so Napoleon never has a chance to join the military and work his way up to Supreme Protector of the Spanish People and All Their Lands (as his overly long title ended up being IOTL). I'm not sure Napoleon replacing the king would do anything- remember, he already held the country's effective power. It might also help if France was strong enough to stop Napoleon's invasion. IOTL the shambling corpse that was the Directorate of 1804 was no match for the superior Spanish tactics and numbers, leading to a unified Western Europe that took nearly two decades to finally defeat.

Ferdinand and Napoleon both were only both were only one man; the fact that both were able to act with despotic powers really helped with the effiency of the hyper-centeralization efforts in the regime. Take the King out of the equasion and force the Supreme Protector to pick up the workload (We all know how much he hated delegating without METICULOUS orders) he'd have run himself ragged and easily been overcome by the the Catholic and Fueristos. Not to mention, the fact Ferdinand was a Bourbon gave them a real foot in the door for helping molify the moderate Royalists to accept union with Spain, providing a vital source of educated administers and generals to help bolster their newly raised mass armies and territories

Yep. Spain and France lost total control of their colonies after the unification. Maybe if France had a general as good as Napoleon Buenaparte and that could be charismatic enough to secure the power. Or King Fernando should simple not have trusted Buenapate and kept him only as his general?

The Directorate had plenty of good generals... they were just scared *solid bodily waste*-less of a military coup and so kept them WELL out of any actual halls of power and tried to encourage rivalries that ultimately lead to the Republican armies falling on themselves. As for Ferdinand keeping him out of power... maybe find some colonial campaign to send him on instead? The man could be a useful policeman to crack down on rebellious sentiments in, say, New Spain or La Plata.
 
Maybe let the Borbones not be so incompetent? A strong Borbon king might be able to avoid it. Fernando VII was for all intents and purposes a crowned jellyfish - and having a wife who was Napoléon's niece didn't help - so were we to have Napoléon deciding that the Borbones aren't trustworthy and replace them with a member of his family

So stopping Napoleon from taking over Spain is probably a good place to start. Maybe Spain doesn't buy Corsica, so Napoleon never has a chance to join the military and work his way up to Supreme Protector of the Spanish People and All Their Lands (as his overly long title ended up being IOTL). I'm not sure Napoleon replacing the king would do anything- remember, he already held the country's effective power. It might also help if France was strong enough to stop Napoleon's invasion. IOTL the shambling corpse that was the Directorate of 1804 was no match for the superior Spanish tactics and numbers, leading to a unified Western Europe that took nearly two decades to finally defeat.

Ferdinand and Napoleon both were only both were only one man; the fact that both were able to act with despotic powers really helped with the effiency of the hyper-centeralization efforts in the regime. Take the King out of the equasion and force the Supreme Protector to pick up the workload (We all know how much he hated delegating without METICULOUS orders) he'd have run himself ragged and easily been overcome by the the Catholic and Fueristos. Not to mention, the fact Ferdinand was a Bourbon gave them a real foot in the door for helping molify the moderate Royalists to accept union with Spain, providing a vital source of educated administers and generals to help bolster their newly raised mass armies and territories



The Directorate had plenty of good generals... they were just scared *solid bodily waste*-less of a military coup and so kept them WELL out of any actual halls of power and tried to encourage rivalries that ultimately lead to the Republican armies falling on themselves. As for Ferdinand keeping him out of power... maybe find some colonial campaign to send him on instead? The man could be a useful policeman to crack down on rebellious sentiments in, say, New Spain or La Plata.

I can only imagine what would be the consequences of a united Spain, as Great Britain would never won Granada and Corsica as puppet states and the Western Portuguese Empire, which was originally the colony of Brazil, but became "mainland Portugal" after the annexation of the old portuguese kingdom to Spain, would never be created. And the Iberian wars?
 
Hmm. Without Napoleon, I wonder what would become of the members of the Grand Coalition. IOTL several of them emerged a lot stronger after the Napoleonic Wars, ironically enough. The Second Directorate under Talleyrand got to play up itself as the stable faction rather than regicidal rebels, which let them keep hold of the Rhineland border despite the Empire's protests. The Holy Roman Empire finally got an enemy to unite against, allowing Francis ii to consolidate power and finally centralize the nation. The Ottomans likewise got shocked into modernity by Napoleon's wars. If the Supreme Protector hadn't come along, who knows what the balance of power would be like in post war Europe.
 
Hmm. Without Napoleon, I wonder what would become of the members of the Grand Coalition. IOTL several of them emerged a lot stronger after the Napoleonic Wars, ironically enough. The Second Directorate under Talleyrand got to play up itself as the stable faction rather than regicidal rebels, which let them keep hold of the Rhineland border despite the Empire's protests. The Holy Roman Empire finally got an enemy to unite against, allowing Francis ii to consolidate power and finally centralize the nation. The Ottomans likewise got shocked into modernity by Napoleon's wars. If the Supreme Protector hadn't come along, who knows what the balance of power would be like in post war Europe.

That depends alot on if you think the French would find a way to effectively direct the military power of their levee en mass and the ambitions of their generals outward, or if one believes the system was too screwed up and doomed to keeping "eating itself" in intra-national warfare.
 
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