How would it have changed History if Spain and England swapped Colonies

How would it have changed history if Spain had Great Britain's colonies in Africa and Asia and Great Britain's had Spain's Colonies in North and South America? I have a feeling that the revolutions of the 1820s in Central and South America wouldn't have succeeded with Great Britain ruling there. Spain probably would have kept Their Colonies in Africa well into the 20th Century.
 
Its really hard to answer this question because so much depends on how it happened and what butterflies it causes.

For example, If Columbus sailed for England and ended up roughly where he did OTL, then the Aztec might have fallen under the sway of the English. But would they have used trade like they tended too later on, or would they follow the Spanish model and outright conquer them. They had the soldiers I think, it was soon after the war of the roses.

Colonization patterns would be different too. Spanish tended to send single men to Aztec and Inca areas, they would then intermarry. There are no grand civilizations to marry into in NA. And how would waves of English families fair in Mexico.

Also, England continuing to expand into SA seems to be dependent on capturing way-stations like the Azores. This might block Spanish efforts in NA altogether. Seems like their ships would cross paths a lot, at least later on.
 
Colonization patterns would be different too. Spanish tended to send single men to Aztec and Inca areas, they would then intermarry. There are no grand civilizations to marry into in NA. And how would waves of English families fair in Mexico.

You mean that there were no grand civilizations by the time the first English arrived. They died out shortly after the arrival of the Spaniards due to disease.

In this alt-world, we would probably think that the Yanomami were the standard civilization level of anything south of Rio Grande!

Ironically, this might have happened if Alexander II hadn't been chosen Pope and if Columbus has gone north right after Cuba, finding terra firme in current Florida rather than Mexico. The kings of Castille-Aragon wouldn't have disputed so hotly the conditions of Alcasovas, maybe only asking for a modification to accomodate the larger Antilles in the Spanish zone.
With the Portuguese having rights to the rest of America maybe they would have been accomodating to allowing their allies settle some parts of the continent.
 
okay why would Columbus sail for England, I highly doubt that Henry VII in the middle of dealing with Perkin Warbeck who could have been a Pueso-Dimitry in the making, would even think of funding Columbus. Even if there was no problem with Warbeck. What would motivate someone as miserly as Henry to go fund an expedition to a faraway land that could either potentially be very wealthy, or a complete waste money. Not to mention would Henry deam tensions with Portugal a long standing ally as worth the risk.
 
okay why would Columbus sail for England, I highly doubt that Henry VII in the middle of dealing with Perkin Warbeck who could have been a Pueso-Dimitry in the making, would even think of funding Columbus. Even if there was no problem with Warbeck. What would motivate someone as miserly as Henry to go fund an expedition to a faraway land that could either potentially be very wealthy, or a complete waste money. Not to mention would Henry deam tensions with Portugal a long standing ally as worth the risk.

IDK, why did Isabella and Ferdinand decide to go for it, even though IIRC Spain (a recent invention BTW, previously still Leon and Castille) was poorer than England at the time and politically rickety (recovering from war with the Moors, the Inquisition's effects on the country, etc.)? It took years of begging the Spanish court AND outside borrowing from private Italian ventures to make it a reality (which ended up failing, necessitating the Spaniards to just bet on Columbus' venture SOMEHOW working out). Sounds ASB to me, yet it happened...
 
IDK, why did Isabella and Ferdinand decide to go for it, even though IIRC Spain (a recent invention BTW, previously still Leon and Castille) was poorer than England at the time and politically rickety (recovering from war with the Moors, the Inquisition's effects on the country, etc.)? It took years of begging the Spanish court AND outside borrowing from private Italian ventures to make it a reality (which ended up failing, necessitating the Spaniards to just bet on Columbus' venture SOMEHOW working out). Sounds ASB to me, yet it happened...
In defense of that at least Castile-Leon and Aragon where geographically close to feasibly mount a south westward expedition towards a place that could be considered India. Sure anything happen given a decent change, but England and Spain swapping colonies just seems geographically unfeasible.
 
In defense of that at least Castile-Leon and Aragon where geographically close to feasibly mount a south westward expedition towards a place that could be considered India. Sure anything happen given a decent change, but England and Spain swapping colonies just seems geographically unfeasible.

Fair enough; I think England hitting Cuba and Mexico/Central America (and proceeding from there) is feasible enough with the right winds, but probably not South America without somebody else running into it. If anything, I'd give the southern continent mostly to Portugal (in theory, at least) in the absence of a strong Spanish colonial effort from the start, with England being one of several settling countries in the northern continent and islands.
 

katchen

Banned
okay why would Columbus sail for England, I highly doubt that Henry VII in the middle of dealing with Perkin Warbeck who could have been a Pueso-Dimitry in the making, would even think of funding Columbus. Even if there was no problem with Warbeck. What would motivate someone as miserly as Henry to go fund an expedition to a faraway land that could either potentially be very wealthy, or a complete waste money. Not to mention would Henry deam tensions with Portugal a long standing ally as worth the risk.
As it turned out, Henry did NOT deem tensions with Portugal worth the risk. As to why he might have gone for it HAD he deemed it worth the risk, Columbus had experience going for him. You see, 1492 was not his first voyage to 'Terranova". Columbus had sailed for a joint Portuguese-Danish expedition in 1476-1477 that sailed west from Norway and Iceland and sailed apparently across the Davis Stait and from Columbus's description of extremely high tides, may have reached the Bay of Fundy
www.cristobalcolondeibiza.com/eng/eng04.htm
clipped from Google - 7/2013
History of Portugal (1415–1578) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Portugal_(1415–1578)
King Henry VII was making a priority of a navy and was very interested in markets that neither the Hanseatic League nor Portugal would control. A route to the Orient would definitely be such a route and a market. Columbus would appeal to Henry, not by a cockamamie story about how the Earth was smaller than assumed but by showing that by sailing with those Easterly trade winds instead of fighting the Westerlies, he could get as much across the Ocean as he could in 6 weeks before beating northwards to reach Terranova, which because of the race of the natives, he and King Henry both knew to be part of Asia. Then along the Terra Nova coast to China or Cipangu (Japan)
Great idea but who knew that Terranova extended all the way to 55 degrees South?
Not Christopher Columbus! But ATL, Columbus will find the Aztecs and maybe the Chibcha on his way to finding out on behalf of King Henry VII the English.
 
Top