Sovereign Military Order of St. John of Jerusalem of the West Indies

This is a scenario I posited for a flag challenge, but I think it is interesting enough to get its own thread. ITTL, the Knights of Malta sell only St. Croix and St. Kitts to the French West India Company, retaining the islands of St. Martin and St. Barthelemy. The Order later loses Malta in the Napoleonic Wars as in OTL. At the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars, sovereignity over Malta is not restored and the Order permanently transfers its operations to the islands and takes a new name. I think it is possible that the Order could retain the islands through the present day. Thoughts?
 
This is a scenario I posited for a flag challenge, but I think it is interesting enough to get its own thread. ITTL, the Knights of Malta sell only St. Croix and St. Kitts to the French West India Company, retaining the islands of St. Martin and St. Barthelemy. The Order later loses Malta in the Napoleonic Wars as in OTL. At the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars, sovereignity over Malta is not restored and the Order permanently transfers its operations to the islands and takes a new name. I think it is possible that the Order could retain the islands through the present day. Thoughts?
I hadn't heard of the Knights' Caribbean possessions before, but its a fascinating subject, at least from a quick look through the wikipedia entry on it. However, that same wiki article seems to indicate that the Knights' presence in the Caribbean was largely dependent on French cooperation and support. So my initial thought is that you'd need to find a way to prevent the Order's from becoming a colonial appendage of France and being caught up in France's wars. And even if the Order does retain control over its islands by the time the post-napoleonic period roles around they'll either need to seek protection from one or another of the great powers or be extremely vulnerable. Although, thinking about it, there might be potential for the Order and France to come to some sort of arrangement whereby the Order provides local military, particularly naval, support for the French in pursuing and suppressing piracy in exchange for French protection from actual military forces. The Order's naval forces could be an extremely valuabel tool against piracy in the Caribbean, as they'll have a greater degree of proficiency with galleys and galley warfare than will the French navy. France had a galley force in the Med, and I believe they tried to use it in the Channel as well, but my understanding is that the French galleys never reached the level of the other Mediterranean powers. So the Order could provide a useful service in suppressing piracy - and galleys are the perfect type of ship for that kind of action in the Caribbean. They can move independent of the wind, have an extremely shallow draft for moving in shallows, and a large heavily armed crew and marine compliment for boarding or landing actions. The Spanish moved a small number of galleys to the Caribbean for the same purpose, and found them extremely useful.
 
The year is 1987. Pablo Escobar's drug empire relies on one thing, a network of small bush planes shuttling coke from Medellin to Miami, all via a network of airstrips on remote Caribbean island. The Colombian Government, The rival cartels, the communist guerrillas, the American DEA, are all powerless to put an end to his mayhem. Nothing can stop him, nothing except for one group of elite warriors, one group of dedicated professionals, one group that just might have what it takes.

This Summer... The ATL you didn't know you wanted...

td8Gskc.png
 
Last edited:
Nixon, you threadjacker! :mad:


P.S. XDXDXD

Hey now, I was merely mooting the possibility that if the Knights of St John persisted to the present day, their strict moral conservatism would compel them to fight narco trafficking in the Caribbean. Possibly including an unlikely alliance between a loose cannon DEA agent living on the edge, and his Knight Hospitaller partner with nothing to live for but a promise to keep.

I merely choose to be creative in raising this observation.
 
Hey now, I was merely mooting the possibility that if the Knights of St John persisted to the present day, their strict moral conservatism would compel them to fight narco trafficking in the Caribbean. Possibly including an unlikely alliance between a loose cannon DEA agent living on the edge, and his Knight Hospitaller partner with nothing to live for but a promise to keep.

I merely choose to be creative in raising this observation.

This is a very good point. ITTL, I could see the SMOWI playing a very large role (for its size) in fighting the drug trade.
 
Top