The Spanish Armada Goes South

Hey I hope in time to create a big AU Timeline based on a POD after Lepanto 1571. Feel free to chime in with ideas. In the end I want the 1591 Map to look about like this.

Spain vs Ottomans.PNG
 
A few basic premises to the TL.

Bascially after Lepanto the Holy League does still break up but on better terms. However, due to the events, Phillip II of Spain has a bit of a calling. Struck as it was he sees himself as the Sole Defender of the Faith and the called one to destroy the Ottoman scourge. Subseqently the man himself goes under several changes. Phillip begins to see himself more as teh defender and just crusader of Christianity against Muslims. In the years after Lepanto, Spain takes on a much more active role in North Africa and Greece. Eventualy a pact is formed with Portugal and Venice against the various Muslim states in the region. But other states are waery to tempt the Ottomans.

A series of brutal and bloody campaigns take place in Africa as Spain and Portugal put down Morrocco and Algiers. The Ottomans fight some minor actions against the aggresors.

Sometime between 1583-1588 Phillip comes up with the same plan as the OT, a grand armada funded by the New World Conquests, set to destroy the enemies of the Church. But this time its target is the Ottomans not England. The fleet sets off from Cadiz picks up troops in Italy and invades Albania and Croatia.

The Ottomans rush into action an army of 80,000 while preparing another and another. The joint Spanish force is about 60,000. But the Ottomans have another problem. With Christain forces in the Balkans they have to put down several revolts by the Greeks and Serbs. This, compounded with the Spanish ends in a defeat near Homs. The Ottomans regroup and begin to assemble a massive force. But as this happens both Austria and Poland join in the fray with Spain. The combined forces, called by the pope the Holy Army, are able to fight the Ottomans out of the Balkans and deal a major blow to the Ottomans.

Meanwhile in Europe, Spain’s attention to the South opens other options. France expands into Germany, England grabs Ireland and begins to colonize Virginia.
 
If the Teutonic order has dissolved, Ösel and Gotland should be either Swedish or Danish, should it not?

Sweden has done VERY well in the Nordic 7 years War I see, taking Bohuslän, Särna, Idre AND all of Tröndelag.
 
I would like to mention that if Philip II decides to concentrate more forces on the Ottomans it is very likely that the Netherlands would be bigger including more of Flanders and Brabant, probably even all.
 
Some comments:

* I do not understand the changes in the hispano-portuguese border,
* Spain lacked the man-power to attempt full invassions like the ones you propose,
* It is not probable that greeks would rebel against the ottomans to help the spaniards,
* France was seen as a direct threat, so allowing them to operate in Germany is quite ASBish,
* You need to change something else to make Philip forget about the Netherlands,
* You need to change something else to make Spain and Portugal to allow free hand the English in the Americas.

If you want a Spain more mediterranean centered, you need an earlier POD. Probably with no Hapsburg in Spain: survival of Juan (son of Isabel and Ferdinand), survival of Miguel da Paz (grandson of Isabel and Ferdinand and heir to the crowns of Spain and Portugal, this one is quite interesting).
 
Eventualy a pact is formed with Portugal and Venice against the various Muslim states in the region.
It's difficult to understand the changes in the Hispano-Portuguese border, Hispano-Portuguese cooperation wouldn't be possible on the circunstances causing the border change.
If you want a Spain more mediterranean centered, you need an earlier POD. Probably with no Hapsburg in Spain: survival of Juan (son of Isabel and Ferdinand), survival of Miguel da Paz (grandson of Isabel and Ferdinand and heir to the crowns of Spain and Portugal, this one is quite interesting).

Indeed. It would have been a country stronger than the sum of both countries.
 
I think this is really incredibly unrealistic. First, Balkan Orthodox Christians are not going to rebel in favor of a Catholic monarch - and there were really no rebellions in this period, with Ottoman administration still running at peak efficiency.

Second, Spain would simply have no chance against the Ottomans in the Balkans. I know people like to think of the region as a simmering hotbed of revolt with a thin Ottoman veneer, but this was really the core of Ottoman strength, with a very large Muslim population.

Third, Spain does not have the financial resources to wage a war on this scale, help or no.

Fourth, you are more or less abandoning the continent to Protestantism.

Fifth, in OTL, Spain DID do this and got their asses kicked. For this to work something really disastrous would have to happen to the Ottomans, like a comet hitting Istanbul, and France and England would have to have some reason to suddenly not care about Spain. You are having an empire at the height of its power successfully attacked at the very center of its power from an overseas power with a small fraction of its military power and wealth. In OTL the Ottomans successfully contended with Spain in Algeria, so close to Spain, but you have a victorious Spain in the Balkans.

Finally, what on Earth is Spain's motivation to attack the Balkans? If they were going to do anything, it would have to be a Crusade to the Holy Land.

BTW, I'm confused about your reference to Homs. That's in Syria.
 
What do you mean with DID do this?​
Spain sent several rather large fleets through the Mediterranean in an attempt to capture Greece, but all of them failed. Just look at Lepanto- a massive battle where the Spaniards (okay, Holy League) managed to actually DEFEAT the Ottomans, and even then they still couldn't do much else and the Ottomans had managed to rebuild their entire fleet within a year.
 
Spain sent several rather large fleets through the Mediterranean in an attempt to capture Greece, but all of them failed. Just look at Lepanto- a massive battle where the Spaniards (okay, Holy League) managed to actually DEFEAT the Ottomans, and even then they still couldn't do much else and the Ottomans had managed to rebuild their entire fleet within a year.

In fact Spain never attempted that. Just the occupation of some islands. As for Lepanto, the Ottomans rebuilt the ships but lost the officers and the sailors and they never were seen a threat any more (look for the Celidonia cape battle were five spanish galleons defeated a fleet of 55 galleys).
 
In fact Spain never attempted that. Just the occupation of some islands.
Seriously? I was under the impression that they attempted an attack on Morea at least once during that period- tried to attack some place named Kodon or summat, but were defeated by an Ottoman fleet in some bay out somewhere.

It's early in the morning, I'm not fully awake yet.
 
Seriously? I was under the impression that they attempted an attack on Morea at least once during that period- tried to attack some place named Kodon or summat, but were defeated by an Ottoman fleet in some bay out somewhere.

It's early in the morning, I'm not fully awake yet.

That is not a full invasion. They also tried to hold a fortified town in the Adriatic and several islands, but even holding Tunis was too costing in gold an lifes.
 
Seriously? I was under the impression that they attempted an attack on Morea at least once during that period- tried to attack some place named Kodon or summat, but were defeated by an Ottoman fleet in some bay out somewhere.

It's early in the morning, I'm not fully awake yet.
The Gran Armada was a fully attempted invasion. Do you really thing that Spain was trying to get Greece? Well, I fully agree with Abdul Hadi Pasha on almost everything, but not in that
 
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