How would a Spanish-colonized India develop?

What would an India colonized by Spain, or acquired by Spain from Portugal, be like?

Would Spanish administrators lump the Indians into one or two castes and create a few more with imported settlers and slaves from Europe and Africa? Or would they just build on top of the existing regional caste systems?

Would India be converted by the Franciscans, Dominicans, et al.? Or would Spain have to take a more tolerant view because of a larger population to deal with?

What would the Indians be called?

Would there be any success at spreading the Spanish language?
 
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What would an India colonized by Spain, or acquired by Spain from Portugal, be like?

Would Spanish administrators lump the Indians into one or two castes and create a few more with imported settlers and slaves from Europe and Africa? Or would they just build on top of the existing regional caste systems?

Would India be converted by the Franciscans, Dominicans, et al.? Or would Spain have to take a more tolerant view because of a larger population to deal with?

What would the Indians be called?

Would there be any success at spreading the Spanish language?
I don't see how it's possible for Spain to colonize or even conquer India. Too little population and not enough military doctrine/technological differential.

The Portuguese didn't have large extensions of land, they owned several ports, iirc.
 
I don't see how it's possible for Spain to colonize or even conquer India. Too little population and not enough military doctrine/technological differential.

The Portuguese didn't have large extensions of land, they owned several ports, iirc.
Divide and conquer, just like how the Spanish conquered Mexico and Peru and the British conquered India.

Portugal had a huge naval advantage, winning battle after battle, and Spain would approach that (same tech, nearly equal tactics and tradition). The gap would be bridged by Spain's greater resources.
 
Divide and conquer, just like how the Spanish conquered Mexico and Peru and the British conquered India.

Portugal had a huge naval advantage, winning battle after battle, and Spain would approach that (same tech, nearly equal tactics and tradition). The gap would be bridged by Spain's greater resources.

What greater resources? In the period Spain would be trying to beat them India was one of the richest regions on the planet with most kingdoms having about equal standing to Spain. And dividing and conquering India is gonna be really hard for Spain to pull off.
 

Deleted member 67076

What greater resources? In the period Spain would be trying to beat them India was one of the richest regions on the planet with most kingdoms having about equal standing to Spain. And dividing and conquering India is gonna be really hard for Spain to pull off.

How about a Spanish conquest after the Mughals?
 

TFSmith121

Banned
If the timeframe is the same as the British

If the timeframe is the same as the British conquest (ie, 1700s-1800s), the Spanish are clapped out, financially. They couldn't hang on to the Spanish Empire in the Americas, or even their own homeland, for a time.

Plus you have to somehow handle the fact that the British, through the EIC, were quite capable of knocking apart anything any other European power tried to set up in India.

Good luck.

Best,
 

Deleted member 67076

If the timeframe is the same as the British conquest (ie, 1700s-1800s), the Spanish are clapped out, financially. They couldn't hang on to the Spanish Empire in the Americas, or even their own homeland, for a time.

Plus you have to somehow handle the fact that the British, through the EIC, were quite capable of knocking apart anything any other European power tried to set up in India.

Good luck.

Best,

So the goal should be to prevent the Spanish decline. This would probably require a 1600s or early 1700s POD.

No idea on how to do that, unfortunately.
 
So the goal should be to prevent the Spanish decline. This would probably require a 1600s or early 1700s POD.

No idea on how to do that, unfortunately.

With a PoD in 1600-ish you have more choices, but nowhere near creating an equivalent of the Mughal empire or the British Rajh.

If the Spanish Empire gives up the idea of "Universitas Christiana" which implied European hegemony... then all those resources wasted in Europe can be relocated to develop the Asian holdings of Portugal (something that in turn would help keep the Portuguese nobility loyal to the crown, rather than seeking independence). The Spanish empire should give up on keeping all those logistically nightmarish territories: United Provinces, French Comte, Milan... Napoles and Sicilia could be kept as rarely there was a challenge on them anymore. But it's not essential. The Iberian peninsula is very easy to defend, and challenging Spain on the sea was foolish.

Even in this case, you can't colonize any significant portion of India. Completing the control of Ceylon, maybe annexing some mainland state around Portuguese factories, yes.
 

katchen

Banned
What you'd be looking at would be a reversal of the Treaty of Tordesillas. Which would be an interesting POD in and of itself. The Portuguese get the Western Hemisphere while the Spanish get the Eastern Hemisphere. What this means is that Portugal runs into the Aztecs and Mayas and Incas (and likely has just as easy time conquering them and may avoid squandering the wealth the way Spain does) while Spain gets the slaving coasts of Africa, maybe it's conquistadors find Djenne Jenno and conquer it and the Niger Valley from the Senegal, settle the Cape and then Madagascar and Brazil, conquer the East African cities and then get to India. Being Spaniards, they attempt to conquer Indian cities --and wind up with about what they get OTL in North Africa---a bunch of coastal enclaves ie. Kerala, Mumbai Island, Broach, Diu-Kathiawar, Karachi, Gwadar, Muscat, Sri Lanka, Chennai, Vijaynagar, Kolkata (Kalighata), Chittagong, Sittwe, Moulmein, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Kedah, Penang, Malacca, Singpura-Bintan-Riau, Natuna Island, Spratly Island, Paracel Island, attempted and failed to conquer Hainan Island, Western Australia, Bali.
 
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