How can Spain keep its 'great power' status?

very easy actually... Have Charles III of Spain not be succeeded by that fool Ferdinand. In fact get rid of Ferdinand somehow would be best. Next have the Moderates lead by Lafayate in France win out get rid of Robespierre somehow and perhaps royal family doesn't flee Varennes and thus trust in them Is not broken Louis is not executed rather he is forced into becoming a constitutional monarch or abdicates in favor of his son or relative.Plus with a smart king on Spain's throne otl war between France and Spain in the 1790s does not happen

Without the upheaveal of the 1790s the French navy retains its pre revolutionary sailors and officers and like with the Revolutionary wars the combined Franco-Spanish fleets should be able to check the British at sea just like they did during the revolutionary war.

Essentially you need two things for Spain to retain its great power status
1) Have a competent monarch during the crucial period between 1790 andd 1815
2) A stable France and no Franco-Spanish wars during the 1790s.

These two POD's should do it but even then come the mid 1800s Spain will lag behind simply because its productivity in agricultural, urbanization rates, gdp per capita literacy and so on were still laggin far behind its counterparts in France and Britain but I can still see Spain remaining at number 5. At the same time with a stronger Franco-Spanish alliance I doubt the US would make any advances towards Louisiana territory since combined the Franco-Spanish fleet should be able to easily blockade the US seaboard and given how much difficulty the US had fighting against Britain going up against the French armies lead by those crazy genius generals is a recipe for disaster.

the one bright spot for Spain is if it was able to develop the Louisiana territory and its colonies then it could move up to being the 3rd strongest European power after France and UK and Germany if that country forms, but once again it all dpends on how Soain is run during the 1800s and what steps are taken to hasten its industrialization which is IMO quite difficult.
 
A reasonable scenario, Stupor Mundi, but with the successful US and French examples, it's going to hard to maintain control of the American Colonies without giving them a great deal of autonomy.
 
Permanently? It would take quite a lot of changes. Personally, I think that I'll be splitting hairs here, but Spain as a Great Power in a situation where it better reforms relations with its successor states in the New World is quite reminiscent of Great Britain in OTL. And, even with Portugal included in Spain, that power will later shift to the Americas, with Spain losing its position to either the future Mexico or Brazil as head of such a Latin Union.

What type of Great Power, quote unquote, is Spain desired to be? A world-wide Commonwealth of like-minded successor states through which it exerts soft power? A densely-populated, highly-advanced, innovative state which would be the source of a large amount of culture and technology? Or are we talking about a large, populous state which is the leader of an alliance bloc and has a large amount of territory and natural resources to which fuels its power?

I think if we want Spain proper to maintain itself as a great power, it would have build up its infrastructure and channel its energies to the expansion of Spain proper. That would be the key here; we're not talking about expanding its possessions.

Honestly, I think the best way, and most obviously, would be to accelerate the Reconquista and have it continue across to North Africa. I'm not sure of the rate of conversion inside of Muslim Iberia, but I'm sure that a quicker reconquest would mean there would have been fewer converts in general, and that there would be fewer Moors that would end up being expelled. And, if the support is there in Spain, and there are few threats to the North (infighting in France or battles with England over the crown or conflict with the HRE) they could proceed across the channel and start expanding their territory. That might lead to the strengthening of the Subsaharan states or Egypt if the natives continue to flee the Spanish, which would have interesting effects later on.

That might eventually lead to the Spanish (for simplicity's sake, instead of differentiating over which Crown might eventually lead a United Iberia if it happens) eventually establishing control over a large portion of North Africa before being stopped by either a Muslim power or troubles to the North. Continued resource and wealth is extracted from the New World colonies and is used to improve Spain and its European Holdings, and over the decades and centuries that might eventually include North Africa. And, as the state grows fat, it might look towards the Levant, and a reconquest of Jerusalem as it duels with the Ottomans (or equivalent) for control of Africa and the Mediterranean.

Keep Spain out of any Thirty Years War or equivalent, and keep its wealth from being spent on anything but the improvement of Spain. Don't let it be inherited by the Hapsburgs or any other power. Keep its neighbors weak and its own economy strong.

This may mean we have a Spain far different than OTL, but I just don't see a Spain in a Latin Union being Spain as much as Great Britain retaining its possession of North America being Great Britain. The power and center of government will eventually shift west. That is fine if that's what you want to accomplish, but I fear that it would cease to be Spain, which invalidates the whole purpose of the OP.
 
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