I have recently become obsessed with exploring the possibility of some kind of Portuguese retaliation to Spanish claims on Southeast Asia following the Magellan expedition of 1519-1522.
For most of the 1520s, Spain claimed the right to colonise the east indies because they had been able to reach them by sailing their side of the Tordesillas line (apparently, while people did know that the Earth was round when they signed the treaty, nobody bothered to take that into account), leading to a series of military confrontations in the Moluccas. Eventually, relationships between the two countries improved as a result of a double marriage and Spain became frustrated with its inability to find a return route from the Moluccas to their American colonies, resulting in the issue being settled in the Treaty of Zaragoza of 1529, which established an anti-meridian to the Todesillas meridian. Spain would later blatantly ignore this and colonise the Philippines anyway, but oh well...
Anyway, I'm interested in exploring a scenario where Spain finds the OTL Manila-Acapulco route earlier, and as such are unwilling to relinquish their claims. In retaliation, the Portuguese crown dispatches an expedition to claim territory in the American continent by sailing from the East Indies ("it's in our side of the line bruh").
This seems very plausible, and I like the idea of supplementing it with a secondary earlier POD where the Tomé Pires embassy to China (1516-1524) is successful, resulting in an ealier Portuguese port in China that could either be in Macau as OTL or in some other part of the Pearl River Delta. This would result in a stronger Portuguese presence in East Asia, and probably lead to earlier trade with Japan and the Ryukyus.
Now, the problem is figuring out which territory in the American continent the Portuguese could possibly claim. They would most likely want Peru, but that would be very difficult.
So how about North America? Imagine a Portuguese claim similar to Francis Drake's OTL New Albion (basically everything North of Mexico), that eventually results in a colony intended to keep an eye on New Spain and sell stuff like sea otter furs to China.
Could something like this be possible?
For most of the 1520s, Spain claimed the right to colonise the east indies because they had been able to reach them by sailing their side of the Tordesillas line (apparently, while people did know that the Earth was round when they signed the treaty, nobody bothered to take that into account), leading to a series of military confrontations in the Moluccas. Eventually, relationships between the two countries improved as a result of a double marriage and Spain became frustrated with its inability to find a return route from the Moluccas to their American colonies, resulting in the issue being settled in the Treaty of Zaragoza of 1529, which established an anti-meridian to the Todesillas meridian. Spain would later blatantly ignore this and colonise the Philippines anyway, but oh well...
Anyway, I'm interested in exploring a scenario where Spain finds the OTL Manila-Acapulco route earlier, and as such are unwilling to relinquish their claims. In retaliation, the Portuguese crown dispatches an expedition to claim territory in the American continent by sailing from the East Indies ("it's in our side of the line bruh").
This seems very plausible, and I like the idea of supplementing it with a secondary earlier POD where the Tomé Pires embassy to China (1516-1524) is successful, resulting in an ealier Portuguese port in China that could either be in Macau as OTL or in some other part of the Pearl River Delta. This would result in a stronger Portuguese presence in East Asia, and probably lead to earlier trade with Japan and the Ryukyus.
Now, the problem is figuring out which territory in the American continent the Portuguese could possibly claim. They would most likely want Peru, but that would be very difficult.
So how about North America? Imagine a Portuguese claim similar to Francis Drake's OTL New Albion (basically everything North of Mexico), that eventually results in a colony intended to keep an eye on New Spain and sell stuff like sea otter furs to China.
Could something like this be possible?
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