In the "Draka-Related Musings" thread, Thande came up with what he believed would be a more realistic Draka than Stirling's.
He described how Spanish America was governed for centuries according to the principle of racial purity (he used the term "limpieza del sangre" but a more accurate description of the Spanish racial system is "casta").
So how might we get something resembling the Draka in Spanish America?
In OTL, I think the Spanish racial system was much more flexible than the evil racist nastiness of the "Black Legend." I remember some racial theories at the time describing how an Indian could theoretically become a Spanaird in three generations through the right combination of intermarriage.
However, I was reading about the encomienda system and how it involved essentially taking the natives somewhere else and deliberately destroying their land so they could never return to it. That could be adapted to slave-trading, particularly if new encomiendas are set up to rebuild destroyed lands for use by other enslaved Indians or Africans.
There's also the matter of our Hispano-Draka being expansionist to the same degree the Draka of Stirling's world are. The only ideas I've got involve Catholicism and the Treaty of Tordesillas (the Spanish rule all of North America except for Brazil by divine right) and ostensibly protecting the Indians from the allegedly genocidal Anglos coming in from the east.
So here are the thoughts I've got. It's getting late, so I'll be brief:
1. Instead of Citizens, we have hidalgos. They don't pay taxes, but do owe military service.
2. The encomienda system turns into full-blown slave trading.
3. Imperialism, initially based on Catholicism, but turned into a more secularized equivalent of the Manifest Destiny. The Draka in the books justified expansion beyond Africa by pointing out how the entire world now hated and feared them--perhaps the Hispano-Draka become convinced the entire world is out to destroy their social order and they need to strike first?
A POD would also be nice. The Spanish monarchy re-establishing itself in Mexico after fleeing Spain for some reason (Napoleon is a bit too late, IMO) might be a good idea, as it would bolster and whiten the ruling class in Spanish America (which included a lot of Indian nobles).
He described how Spanish America was governed for centuries according to the principle of racial purity (he used the term "limpieza del sangre" but a more accurate description of the Spanish racial system is "casta").
So how might we get something resembling the Draka in Spanish America?
In OTL, I think the Spanish racial system was much more flexible than the evil racist nastiness of the "Black Legend." I remember some racial theories at the time describing how an Indian could theoretically become a Spanaird in three generations through the right combination of intermarriage.
However, I was reading about the encomienda system and how it involved essentially taking the natives somewhere else and deliberately destroying their land so they could never return to it. That could be adapted to slave-trading, particularly if new encomiendas are set up to rebuild destroyed lands for use by other enslaved Indians or Africans.
There's also the matter of our Hispano-Draka being expansionist to the same degree the Draka of Stirling's world are. The only ideas I've got involve Catholicism and the Treaty of Tordesillas (the Spanish rule all of North America except for Brazil by divine right) and ostensibly protecting the Indians from the allegedly genocidal Anglos coming in from the east.
So here are the thoughts I've got. It's getting late, so I'll be brief:
1. Instead of Citizens, we have hidalgos. They don't pay taxes, but do owe military service.
2. The encomienda system turns into full-blown slave trading.
3. Imperialism, initially based on Catholicism, but turned into a more secularized equivalent of the Manifest Destiny. The Draka in the books justified expansion beyond Africa by pointing out how the entire world now hated and feared them--perhaps the Hispano-Draka become convinced the entire world is out to destroy their social order and they need to strike first?
A POD would also be nice. The Spanish monarchy re-establishing itself in Mexico after fleeing Spain for some reason (Napoleon is a bit too late, IMO) might be a good idea, as it would bolster and whiten the ruling class in Spanish America (which included a lot of Indian nobles).