Spanish India

TFSmith121

Banned
When does the Spanish effort to do so begin?

How would India have developed if the Spanish conquered it instead of the British?

When does the Spanish effort to do so begin?

And how?

Eastward across the Mediterranean in the Fifteenth Century as an expanded reconquista? The Islamic states may object.

South and then east around Africa, in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries? The Portuguese, Dutch, British, French, Africans, and Arabs may object.

In the Eighteenth Century, as an initially commercial effort, akin to the EIC? The Indians, British, French, and Portuguese may object.

Little more flesh needed on the bones, I think.

Best,
 
When does the Spanish effort to do so begin?

And how?

Eastward across the Mediterranean in the Fifteenth Century as an expanded reconquista? The Islamic states may object.

South and then east around Africa, in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries? The Portuguese, Dutch, British, French, Africans, and Arabs may object.

In the Eighteenth Century, as an initially commercial effort, akin to the EIC? The Indians, British, French, and Portuguese may object.

Little more flesh needed on the bones, I think.

Best,

Wouldn't the most sensible time be during the unification of the Spanish and Portuguese crowns. The problem is that they had their hands full with the Dutch and even if they're more successful, they will still have their hands full with European affairs, methinks.
 

TFSmith121

Banned
Yep, 1580 or 1600 or so might make some sense...

Yep, 1580 or 1600 or so might make some sense...but what's the motivation for the "Iberians" in any real economic sense, considering they could (presumably) get what they wanted from Indian through trade in this period.

Awful lot of European history to come in the next century, however - especially for the Hapsburgs generally, and those involved in the 30 Years War in particular...

The Iberian Empire (for lack of a better term) would seem fairly secure in the Western Hemisphere after 1600 (with the caveats of the real and potential conflicts with the English, Dutch, and French), but then there's the question of whether Iberia in a position to launch what would amount to a decades-long effort in India akin to what they have "just" finished with in the Americas?

Going around the Cape is not simple, and maintaining an expeditionary force in India going west from the Pacific would be close to impossible, I'd think - and the question is why? The EIC and the other European trading companies were able to get what they wanted (more or less) by trade in the 1600s, and the Indian states were able to play them off against each other, and get played off in return...

In the chapter on the Hapsburgs in Rise and Fall, Kennedy says the following:

What other fate was due to a nation which, although providing formidable fighters, was directed by governments which consistently spent two or three times more than the ordinary revenues provided?....the Habsburgs simply had too much to do, too many enemies to fight, too many fronts to defend...

Best,
 
Britain conquered India after a century and with considerable politicking, with force of arms being more or less an after the fact deal in Bengal.

Before 1757, the environment was not there for anybody to gain the leverage Britain got, let alone conquer India as a whole. And let's not forget that the process only finished in 1849, and even longer if you count Baluchistan as a part of India.

Child's War is pretty much a testament to the fact that India won't be conquered- there has to be more work done.

Spain, with its larger emphasis on faith in politics, would not have been able to gain the trust of Indian polities, just as Portugal failed to do so as well. More likely is that they use force of arms, and end up with a port or two on the coast, similar to Portugal.
 
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How would India have developed if the Spanish conquered it instead of the British?

A pod wherein Spain is a great power with India divided and in decline within no galleon trade with china.

There is no way that any European power can conquer a unified India. Otl British was in the right place and the right time.

For otl Spain, the galleon trade with china is more profitable or better return of investment than any Indian conquest.
 
You're really going to have to work the PoDs for this to happen. British hegemony over India came after a long process of politicking and luck against the backdrop of the collapse pf Mughal hegemony in North and Central India.

To the people citing the late 1500s-early 1600s as Spains best chance, this is also the high water point of Mughal hegemony in the subcontinent and going up against Akbar or Shah Jahan or Aurangzeb's Empire with the usual Spanish attitude is not going to be a winning proposition. The Portuguese gained their footholds in India at this time, but conspicuously tended to take a soft approach, except in areas outside Mughal dominion like Kerala. Even their their brutal tactics provoked a sucessful uprising which pretty much restricted their expansion.
 
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