Portuguese Ceuta

Ceuta was the one bit of Portugal that stayed with Spain following the dissolution of the Iberian Union.

What if Portugal retained Ceuta after the split?
 
Ceuta was the one bit of Portugal that stayed with Spain following the dissolution of the Iberian Union.

What if Portugal retained Ceuta after the split?

Like most of Portuguese fortresses and towns in Morocco, it will be lost most likely. Moulay Ismail besieged Ceuta for 33 years before the Spanish relieved the city. The Spsnish are close and have more resources to spend against major Moroccan invasions. Portugal is further away and has less recources to spend. The town might even be given to England along with Tangier.

Personally, I think that Ceuta would be a burden for Portugal in the late 17th and 18th century if they don't own Gibraltar as well. Especially with an agressive Morocco and Spain.
 

Lusitania

Donor
The Portuguese only abandoned their last outpost in North Africa “Mazagao” during the reign of king josheph I. Pombal decided to move the town’s inhabitants to Brazil not due to pressure from Morocco but for economic reasons. So I do not feel Morocco would of Had easier time to expel the Portuguese rather than Spanish.

If following the 1640 of independence, Ceuta’s leader swears loyalty to Lisbon instead of Madrid it too would of become Portuguese again. Ceuta with its place in Portuguese historical importance (it was the first conquest in African 1415) the Portuguese while smaller would of done enough to maintain it too.
 
The Portuguese only abandoned their last outpost in North Africa “Mazagao” during the reign of king josheph I. Pombal decided to move the town’s inhabitants to Brazil not due to pressure from Morocco but for economic reasons. So I do not feel Morocco would of Had easier time to expel the Portuguese rather than Spanish.

If following the 1640 of independence, Ceuta’s leader swears loyalty to Lisbon instead of Madrid it too would of become Portuguese again. Ceuta with its place in Portuguese historical importance (it was the first conquest in African 1415) the Portuguese while smaller would of done enough to maintain it too.

Hmmm I see... Moulay Ismail never attempt to attack Al Jadida. Ismail besieged Ceuta when it was a Spanish city. There is no reason to stop if it is a Portuguese possesion. In the late 17th and early 18th century Spain had much more manpower and resources than Portugal.

Before feeling attacked or insulted, that is not what I not want. I do not think it is impossible for Portugal to keep it. But it will need much more resources, considering Moulay Ismails agressive policies and the value of the city is not worth it in comparison to their Indian possessions.

Unless some king has a crusader mentality to defend Ceuta rather than have the Moors conquer it...
 
The problem with Ceuta was that it was its own diocese, and it would have been politically unwise for any Portuguese king to simply abandon the city without facing criticism from the clergy. Tangier too had previously had its own bishop, but in 1570 it became a suffragan of Ceuta. Ceuta's bishop was a suffragan of the Patriarch of Lisbon, and by the reign of Manuel I there were many in the court whom wanted to abandon the North African enclaves as they were too costly. By the mid-16th century the majority had been conquered or abandoned, and the remaining three of Ceuta, Tangier and Mazagan had their defences reinforced at a great cost to the Portuguese state. Ceuta would have probably been maintained as Portuguese, but long sieges would have been an unnecessary drain on the Portuguese finances.
 
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