Spanish Empire Preserved

How difficult is it to create conditions preserving a Spanish Empire thru the 19th Century? I'm assuming the PoD/s need to be as far back as the 16th Century.

Was it more than stagnated leadership from the aristocracy?
 
Well the very distinct divisions between the Peninsulares and the Criollos certainly didn't help, having an in-built division between your two senior groups that creates ill-feeling is just asking for trouble.
 
How difficult is it to create conditions preserving a Spanish Empire thru the 19th Century? I'm assuming the PoD/s need to be as far back as the 16th Century.

Was it more than stagnated leadership from the aristocracy?

Well, actual evidence of stagnation is hard to come by. No doubt, Spain had serious problems, particularly after the plague of the late 17th Century, but Spain also had considerable advantages also.

I think, so long as the French invasion during the Napoleonic Wars is avoided, Spain would be well placed to keep most of its Empire. If Spain managed to avoid French invasion AND wasteful naval engagements with the British, I think, on balance, it would face a rather bright 19th Century.

fasquardon
 
You may need the United States to never declare independence, nor Haiti for that matter. Once the precedent had been set, the idea spread quickly.
 
A lot of things would have been different with no Bonapartes in Spain.

I vaugely remember some school reading on 18th Century Spain & remarks in it about a lot of unproductive petty aristocrats adding to the tax burden & a civil war. Was all that significant to Spains long term health, of factors that were fading in the 19th Century.
 
Have a realistic regime overthrow the Directory instead of Napoleon. One that was willing to work with and support its allies instead of trying to become the ultimate hegemon and associating liberalism with conquest and plunder. Geopolitical realities still held true after the Revolution and Spain is a natural ally to France. Napoleon discredited Enlightenment thought in Spain with his actions and all the francophiles were turned into traitors and toadies in the eyes of the state .A friendly and supportive France would give major support to native Spanish liberals-especially once it sinks in just how superior the result of the Revolution was to the Ancien Regime.

Really, the fact that so many people overlook how reformist Bourbon Spain was before Napoleon is depressing. Aranda and Godoy proposed the idea of Kingdoms in the New World multiple times. Spain was keenly aware of the danger posed by America but had to constantly deal with terrible war-not a great time to be changing fundamentals of colonial management. There were constant reforms up until Napoleon. Then the actions of and victory over Napoleon vindicated the idea that liberalism could and should just be crushed. This touched off constant warring between suppressed liberals and reactionaries. Without the ravaging Spain endured and with reform-ism strengthened, I don't see why Spain couldn't prosper. You don't need to go back to the 16th century.
 
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