The Basque kingdom and Colonisation.

Quinkana

Quinkana

As the only non Indo-European language still surviving in Europe, it's quite interesting how things would have gone if the Basque kingdom managed to get to America and colonised parts of it. But considering the size of Navarre and the fortunes of the country it may be a little hard to do.

One possibility is that Navarre plays France against Aragon and Castille (or just Spain in the future) to maintain independence when the two powers try to take Navarre over, and Navarre manages to build a strong enough navy to get some weakly claimed possessions off Portugal/Spain.

Another option is to jump back to the early 1000s and maybe have the war of the three Sanchos go much better for the basques where they retain Aragon and Castille while Leon becomes independent. It'd be interesting how things would change if Leon and basque are the main languages of the states of Iberia while the Catalans have their own country. Or maybe we get like five or more countries countries in Spain while the iberian crusades kick the muslims off Iberia.

But well I'd think the best option for them is to go for Argentina and Southern Brazil considering that it is quite far from everything and they'd be in a good position to build their colony there. Australia and NZ are also viable options if their navy is strong enough.
 
Quinkana

Quinkana

Taunay said:
If there was a Franco-Luso alliance instead of an Anglo-Luso one, I think it's possible that Castille would be very weakened in the Iberian Peninsula
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Ooh that's also a possibility, but I'd think Portugal would lose out long term as they would have to fight the British over a bunch of stuff unless Portugal are allies to both which is possible. Castille won't be having a good time if Portugal takes more than otl and the reconquista is completed by another state.
 
Taunay

Taunay

Quinkana said:
Ooh that's also a possibility, but I'd think Portugal would lose out long term as they would have to fight the British over a bunch of stuff unless Portugal are allies to both which is possible. Castille won't be having a good time if Portugal takes more than otl and the reconquista is completed by another state.
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Agreed.
If Portugal had held on to Galicia, it could certainly be able to expand its domain.
Another possibility is for Portuguese conquest of all lands below the Tagus River, opening up a very big area for Luso settlement
 
Quinkana

Quinkana

Taunay said:
Agreed.
If Portugal had held on to Galicia, it could certainly be able to expand its domain.
Another possibility is for Portuguese conquest of all lands below the Tagus River, opening up a very big area for Luso settlement
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I do think it's a little unfeasible for portugal to take everything especially if castille takes over leon, but if leon survives things could be very different. tbf in general if leon is stronger I think it'd curb castillian power, and if Galicia could be taken by portugal things would be much better for portugal.

tbf one thing that really struck me was seeing how the languages spread, and the straight lines the spread created due to the reconquista. It felt like how the americans spread through america but in miniature. I do feel basque could spread if they had better leadership/allies.
 
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Drex

Drex

A Franco-Portuguese alliance doesn't make much sense IMO, simply due to the existance of Aragon. Aragon and France couldn't really coexist due to a series of geopolitical issues (mainly Aragon breaking their bond of vassalage to Paris, then meddling in Occitan affairs to the point they held more power there than France, and then supporting the cathars to the point a crusade was called against the Aragonese, which failed miserably). If France supports Portugal over Castille in the peninsula, then Castille has to ally with both Aragon and England against France, which would put the country in a much worse position into the Hundred Years' War. This is the main reason why the OTL HYW also had an Iberian theater, in which France supported Castille (large country, no real border with France, dislikes England due to trading competition) over both Portugal and Aragon, and the Castilians proved to be a pretty competent ally, keeping Aragon in check while disrupting English naval efforts. If Aragon didn't exist a Franco-Portuguese alliance would be logical to keep Greater Castille* contained, but that was not the case IOTL.
 
Quinkana

Quinkana

Drex said:
A Franco-Portuguese alliance doesn't make much sense IMO, simply due to the existance of Aragon. Aragon and France couldn't really coexist due to a series of geopolitical issues (mainly Aragon breaking their bond of vassalage to Paris, then meddling in Occitan affairs to the point they held more power there than France, and then supporting the cathars to the point a crusade was called against the Aragonese, which failed miserably). If France supports Portugal over Castille in the peninsula, then Castille has to ally with both Aragon and England against France, which would put the country in a much worse position into the Hundred Years' War. This is the main reason why the OTL HYW also had an Iberian theater, in which France supported Castille (large country, no real border with France, dislikes England due to trading competition) over both Portugal and Aragon, and the Castilians proved to be a pretty competent ally, keeping Aragon in check while disrupting English naval efforts. If Aragon didn't exist a Franco-Portuguese alliance would be logical to keep Greater Castille* contained, but that was not the case IOTL.
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tbf I think having a castille that is controlled by leon or by Pamplona would work and have a galician kingdom be established would work wonders in splitting the peninsula well as aragon was quite small until the iberian crusades (literally smaller than pamplona) and I can see Pamplona doing that with better leadership. The kingdom was significantly bigger than its competitors for quite a while after all.

I do think navarre's natural ally would be france considering they would have similar interests if they're strong enough.
 
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