Spain's colonies turned into Dominions

What if instead of independence for the American colonies of Spain, they're turned to Dominions supported by a Commonwealth. (i.e. British Dominions: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, and South Africa). They would be granted self-governing status while Spain takes care of their foreign affairs and military. Lets say Mexico, Argentina (incl. Uruguay), Peru, Colombia, Chile (1853), are granted dominion status. How would this affect Spain's power? Would Spain still be a lot stabler if there was an option like that? Would these countries in Latin America be more stabler, prosperous, and less corrupt? Would Spain lose the Spanish-American War? Would Spain, Argentina, and Chile be great powers in addition to France, UK, and the United States. And finally, why was there never this option?
 
Spain is in no position whatsoever to defend these dominions or influence them in anyway if dominion status was granted.Spain's power derives from milking the hell out of it's colonies.Without doing so,it probably wouldn't be able to afford maintaining it's large army and navies.It doesn't have the soft power to maintain it's attractiveness to the dominions either,given it's essentially a backwards third rate country compared to the likes of Britain and France.If dominion status was granted,it will probably be like Britain after WWII,with the dominions drifting away from the motherland.
 
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Spain is in no position whatsoever to defend these dominions or influence them in anyway if dominion status was granted.Spain's power derives from milking the hell out of it's colonies.Without doing so,it probably wouldn't be able to afford maintaining it's large army and navies.It doesn't have the soft power to maintain it's attractiveness to the dominions either,given it's essentially a backwards third rate country compared to the likes of Britain and France.If dominion status was granted,it will probably be like Britain after WWII,with the dominions drifting away from the motherland.
Still, Spain would still milk the hell out of Guatemala, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Bolivia, Philippines, and Guam. They can still acquire other colonies in Africa (expand Equatorial Guinea and Morocco) and Asia (Sabah, East indies, and Taiwan). I'm pretty sure that Spain would still have money if these wars of liberation didn't happen and they would just build a greater navy. They would also secure financial centers in Madrid and Santiago, Chile as well.
 
Still, Spain would still milk the hell out of Guatemala, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Bolivia, Philippines, and Guam. They can still acquire other colonies in Africa (expand Equatorial Guinea and Morocco) and Asia (Sabah, East indies, and Taiwan). I'm pretty sure that Spain would still have money if these wars of liberation didn't happen and they would just build a greater navy. They would also secure financial centers in Madrid and Santiago, Chile as well.
Spain was already damned broke even if the Wars of Liberation didn't happen.Besides,Guatemala, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Bolivia, Philippines, and Guam aren't where most of Spain's money comes from.

Spain's infrastructures and industry are way too poor to afford most of these ventures.
 
You'd need to change Spanish governance of its colonies at a base level away from exploitation style governance to alter the nature of both Spain and its colonies economically. The poster above did a good job explaining why Spain couldn't do what's proposed.
 
Is that even possible with the way Spain's colonies were organized pre the wars of independence? As I understand it this mostly revolved around the appointed leaders coddling the local elites and working hard to establish the places as profit generators for themselves.
 
The answer is no, and even then, was soft power even a thing at the time of the 18th & 19th centuries?
Soft power is definitely a thing.It's how the Romans controlled their client states.It's what Revolutionary France and Napoleon tried to use by creating all those client republics and vassal states.A more concrete version of soft power would be the way how the British controlled their dominions and the rulers of princely states in India and Malaysia.The Spanish Monarchy would arguably be a form of soft power in the event a dominion was created out of one of the colonies.I live in Australia and the fact that our monarch lives in Britain is arguably a part of the country's attraction to Britain.

Difference however is that like I mentioned before,Spain is in no position to protect the dominions once they are given autonomy due to reasons already specified.They are simply too weak and pathetic without milking the hell out of their colonies.The whole concept of ruling through dominions only really works if you can establish a symbiotic relationship between the dominion and the motherland.
 
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scholar

Banned
There was an odd proposal of decentralizing the Spanish Empire, the King would become Emperor and a few of his relatives would become Kings of various viceroyalites. It was rejected for a couple of reasons, but that may be a way to have the Spanish colonies turned into pseudo-dominions.
 
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