birdboy2000
Banned
Could Venice do better in the Italian Wars, grabbing a dominant position in northern Italy? Admittedly, it wouldn't be the same merchant republic we all know and love, but this could give it the population base it needs.
I don't really see how a Venetian Suez is that implausible. They certainly had the wealth to build it at one time, and they could have used manpower from conquered areas around the Sinai peninsula.
Though a conquered Sinai could also mean, perhaps preferentially, a land based route over the Sinai to a naval base on the Red Sea and have a merchant fleet waiting, like Axeman said. I'm quite liking that idea.
Spitballing here, but when you look at it the way I'm doing it, a Red Sea route to the east seems a lot more feasbile than an Africa route for a power like Venice. Might they even gain support against the Mameluks? Or Turks? When was Egypt taken by the Ottomans anyway?
Might there be a way for Venice to create an early Suez?
Perhaps the Mamluks are successful in breaking away from the Ottomans, and redig either the Ptolemaic or Tāriqu canal, leading to the Mediterranean/Red Seas - Indian Ocean route becoming re-opened and the fastest way to acquire East Asian goods and raw materials. Egypt was in a state of constant low-grade anarchy from the time of Ottoman conquest in 1517 until well into the 1660s. There were times when the entire province was, literally, going up in smoke as the various factions burned the grain fields as a scorched earth area-denial tactic. At several points the Ottomans almost lost Egypt IOTL. Simply have luckier/smarter Mamluks, worse-off Ottomans, or European intervention and its a done deal.
Venice would be well-positioned to take advantage of such a route, and as such would likely support the new Mamluk regime in order to keep the route open.
The Ottomans took out the Mamluks in 1517l. Before that the last Mamluk sultans had been pretty tight with the Venetians, and no coincidentally owed them mounds of gold. If there was a feasible plan, I don't think a new Suez canal would be complete ASB. However, the Mamluks, even in their weakened state would never give up territory to Christians, their entire legitimacy came from being seen as guardians of the Levant against the Christians. So the Ventians might gain access to the Red Sea, but they would probably not control it, allowing the hated Genoese and others to take advantage of the new routes East.
Oh, and the Ottomans would still take Egypt barring major military reforms on the part of the Mamluks, making the maintenance of the Ottoman Empire considerably easier, and allowing them to tax a vast amount of trade passing through the nifty canal they would inherit.
Wait a minute. In all the timelines proposed in all the years of the AH site, doesn't anyone wonder WI the Venetians cover their bets of holding trade to the East--by going West too?
Specifically--get control of Gibraltar and whatever point of land on the south side of the Strait is best for a seapower to hold--would that be Tangier?
This is in aid of Venetian traders seeking trade links to Northwest Europe--England, France, the Low Countries.
In the course of doing this--this is a side venture from their point of view after all, their efforts are still mainly as OTL on securing the Eastern trade--they eventually do a little exploring down the African coast, find one or more of the sets of obscure Atlantic islands--Canaries, Madeira, Azores--perhaps pick up on rumors of lands to the West from Northern Europeans....
The point being, either they preempt Portugal, Spain, or both, or at any rate are in a position to cut themselves in on the America trade when some European rediscovers America and makes it stick.
"Venezuela" might be literally a "New Venice" then?