United Iberia.

with a Pod after the Islamic conquest of Iberia and before the Habsburgs have Iberia united under 1 ruler, culture, language and religion.
 
Well, culture and language......that's out of the question. :rolleyes:

However, getting a common ruler is easy. ;) Just have France come in, and fall apart from national unrest. :p

But seriously, after the beginning of the Reconquista, it's pretty damn hard to get a common culture through Iberia. By then, you have Castilian, Portugese, Leonese, etc.

Perhaps Spain inheirits Portugal via the same way they integrated Aragon.
 
Well, culture and language......that's out of the question. :rolleyes:

However, getting a common ruler is easy. ;) Just have France come in, and fall apart from national unrest. :p

But seriously, after the beginning of the Reconquista, it's pretty damn hard to get a common culture through Iberia. By then, you have Castilian, Portugese, Leonese, etc.

Perhaps Spain inherits Portugal via the same way they integrated Aragon.
They tried. Then the Portuguese restoration war happened.
 
Couple of possibilities:
- Portugal fails to become independent in the first place.
- Miguel de la Paz, son of Manuel of Portugal and Isabel of Aragón survives the illness that killed him in 1500, inheriting the crowns of Aragon, Castile and Portugal.
 
And that's why kids, you don't declare war for 23 provinces in 1444! :D

Well, I won the hundred years war as England, so it isn't THAT hard:D. No, but really, you need a VERY early POD or at least one that causes the Portuguese to not be completely dominated. I doubt it would be forever even though. Though, Galicia is happily a part of Spain, and Galician is a Portuguese dialect, so it isn't impossible.
 
I think people are being excessively negative on this. Iberia had far more cultural unity than, for example, France did. Ideally, you want Portugal to be united with the rest of Spain before colonialism happens, so Portugal has less pride as an independent country. You also want the various parliaments united in a single one early enough, and standardise laws.
 
I think people are being excessively negative on this. Iberia had far more cultural unity than, for example, France did. Ideally, you want Portugal to be united with the rest of Spain before colonialism happens, so Portugal has less pride as an independent country. You also want the various parliaments united in a single one early enough, and standardise laws.

I'm inclined to disagree. Regarding France, after the Frankish conquest, in a very simplistic assessment, we had a twofold cultural divide: the northern Frankish (langue d'oil speaking) people and the southern post Gallo-Roman remnants, which eventually evolved into the vague collection of Occitan identities (langue d'oc). Of course, until the French Revolution there was a noticeable cultural and linguistic division, but not on the extent of Iberia.

South of the Pyrenees, there were Basques (fairly alien to any of the European peoples), the "post-Visigothic" regional identities (which formed the basis of Castillian, Leonese and Galician), the Catalans, the Muslims (under various peoples - Berbers and Arabs) and a significant Jewish presence. The centuries only stressed the cultural divide, but the religious separation one was something no realm in Western Europe had to deal with. Portugal, despite being a fairly artificial country, was extremely successful in distinguishing itself from the main Spanish cultural hegemony.

Anyways, @Socrates is right that people are too pessimistic. OP put about 700 years of History open to find a PoD. I can throw some ideas, but I lack sufficient knowledge of Spanish history to flesh it out.

1) The Muslims conquer the entire peninsula. Christians become a tolerated minority, but until the 1500s they are actually absorbed into the Muslim population, ruled by the Cordoba Caliphate.

2) The Castillians in the late 12th Century manage to repel the Almoravid invasion which reversed all the Christian reconquests gains until that moment, and manage to secure the entire peninsula much earlier, preventing Portucale's separation. After this, a much earlier Iberian Union propagates earlier Castillian dominance, reducing the Catalan cultural sphere (basically what happened IOTL, but much earlier).

Nevertheless, I agree with other posters. One religion is feasible... the Catholic Monarchs ensured that, by sword and Inquistion. One culture, after the Muslim invasion, inconceivable. We can have tolerated minorities, but nothing short of a genocide or expulsion ensures homogeneous culture.
 
with a Pod after the Islamic conquest of Iberia and before the Habsburgs have Iberia united under 1 ruler, culture, language and religion.
Not that hard, but it would require a more unified southern Gaul, for exemple with a surviving carolingian Kingdom of Aquitaine that would still keep Pyrenean counties.
It would certainly prevent the kingship and loyalties dispersions that existed IOTL between, say, Navarra, Aragon, Sobrarbe, Catalan counties, while the Hispano-Romance entities were more usually tied together even when their kingship were distinguished (it's why Castille and Leon so regularly united again after a split).

Eventually, at the exception of parts of the peninsula under Aquitain or post-Aquitain states (and then possibly to be taken back, even with a really more important distinction between these than with Catalans and Castillans).

I'm inclined to disagree. Regarding France, after the Frankish conquest, in a very simplistic assessment, we had a twofold cultural divide: the northern Frankish (langue d'oil speaking) people and the southern post Gallo-Roman remnants, which eventually evolved into the vague collection of Occitan identities (langue d'oc).
These are mostly linguistical divides, not cultural ones. Culturally, Oc and Oil were really, really close from each others, sharing many features trough mutual influences since the XIth century, while "identitarian" cultures were still mostly regional (and actually got more diverse with the XIVth century).

South of the Pyrenees, there were Basques (fairly alien to any of the European peoples)
See below.

, the "post-Visigothic" regional identities (which formed the basis of Castillian, Leonese and Galician),
These can't be seriously adressed as post-Visigothic. They were the continuity of Hispano-Romance identity (that get called Goth by the VIIth century eventually), with even less germanic influence that they appeared in the northern highlands with a close cultural and political proximity with Basques.

On which should be noted weren't seen as foreigners by the Northern Christian principalities (while they were such for Goths), but as one of them (Kingdom of Navarre/Pampelune), interacting on same level (as they did in France).

Linguistics didn't have really a huge identitarian weight by the classical middle ages.

but the religious separation one was something no realm in Western Europe had to deal with.
It never really harmed what existed in, say, Sicily. The problem wasn't the cultural differences (again, a LOT of mutual influence/interference, mostly trough Neo-Mozarabs and Christian mercenaries), not that they didn't played a huge role, but that political ones eventually prevailed politically : the legitimacy of the caliphe/emir/sultan was to break Christians, while the royal legitimacy was about taking back Hispania.

1) The Muslims conquer the entire peninsula. Christians become a tolerated minority, but until the 1500s they are actually absorbed into the Muslim population, ruled by the Cordoba Caliphate.
Arabo-Berbers did that IOTL. In spite of more or less successful revolts, it's likely that they still get the northern highlands under a more or less important watch until the Great Berber Revolt
 
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