New Italy (Italian Colonial Empire In America).

What if all of the explorers established colonies for Italy instead and develop an Italian Colonial Empire as early as the 15th or 16th century. The places would most likely be what is now the Caribbean and places that Christopher Columbus colonized for Spain would instead be apart of this Italian Colonial Empire.
 
What if all of the explorers established colonies for Italy instead and develop an Italian Colonial Empire as early as the 15th or 16th century. The places would most likely be what is now the Caribbean and places that Christopher Columbus colonized for Spain would instead be apart of this Italian Colonial Empire.

Well, Italy didn't exist at the time. The peninsula was divided between the city--states of North Italy and the Aragoneese dominated Kingdom of Sicily in the south.
 
The problem Is that in The 15th or 16th Century there was not Italy as such, and The place was a motly collection of city states and Papal Lands, and The more Powerfull kingdom in Italy was the Crown of Aragón.
So to get youe objetive you need a way early POD that let you have a united kingdom or repúblic in Italy, if not Even neccesary to have most Italy united but ideally all of what North Italy united could do the trick
 
So to get youe objetive you need a way early POD that let you have a united kingdom or repúblic in Italy, if not Even neccesary to have most Italy united but ideally all of what North Italy united could do the trick
Would still be blocked off by Spain and Portugal
 
Would still be blocked off by Spain and Portugal

The idea that Gibraltar was some sort of heavily guarded chokepoint that prevented everyone in the Mediterranean from crossing is misleading. It was a strategic base, but Spain wasn't blocking access to the Atlantic with it. Though it would be difficult having a colonial empire with no direct access to the ocean.

So to get youe objetive you need a way early POD that let you have a united kingdom or repúblic in Italy, if not Even neccesary to have most Italy united but ideally all of what North Italy united could do the trick

A possible POD is Gian Galeazzo surviving leading to a Visconti Kingdom of Northern Italy.
 
Does Christopher Columbus have to work for the Spanish crown directly, or can he try to get financing from one of the barons of Sicily? Sicily is under the direct control of the Spanish crown from 1479 onwards. Maybe we can get more Sicilian migration to Hispaniola? So much so that it becomes functionally a Sicilian satellite under Spanish domination?
 
Well if the Thornton expedition was consolidated, Tuscany would have colonized OTL Guyane...
I read a timeline with this POD on an Italian AH forum some time ago. It is an interesting possibility, the best OTL has to offer AFAIK. Although I have to admit, I am particularly intrigued and fascinated by a Genoese Colonial Empire, something akin to the Dutch one. I came up with this idea in a previous thread, and I am thinking about how to make it work. To be honest, I would love to see Genoa acting as a semi-independent part of greater a Northern Italian Kingdom. Saint George and the Viper could have done it, I think.
 
I read a timeline with this POD on an Italian AH forum some time ago. It is an interesting possibility, the best OTL has to offer AFAIK. Although I have to admit, I am particularly intrigued and fascinated by a Genoese Colonial Empire, something akin to the Dutch one. I came up with this idea in a previous thread, and I am thinking about how to make it work. To be honest, I would love to see Genoa acting as a semi-independent part of greater a Northern Italian Kingdom. Saint George and the Viper could have done it, I think.

I agree.
 
Does Christopher Columbus have to work for the Spanish crown directly, or can he try to get financing from one of the barons of Sicily? Sicily is under the direct control of the Spanish crown from 1479 onwards. Maybe we can get more Sicilian migration to Hispaniola? So much so that it becomes functionally a Sicilian satellite under Spanish domination?

I read once that the main reason he stuck around in Spain so long was because his idea caught the ear of the duke of Medina Sidonia. Said duke presented it to Fernando and Isabel (who then told Columbus they'd see him "when they had time"). However, Medina Sidonia and his brother (ICR the title) were willing to outfit several ships (privately) for Columbus to use if the crown shot him down.

So a Sicilian baron might not be such a stretch (if the story is true), he just needs morivation for why to back Signor Colombo and the resources to fund an expedition.

My personal favourite is the grand duke of Tuscany's attempts to start a colony in the Guianas, though.
 
WE have a country in the western hemisphere whose name derivation could have it mistaken for an Italian colony: Venezuela, Little Venice.
 
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