What countries could out produce the US if given an early enough POD in their history.

Some general European ideas that may or not impact the Eastern Seaboard based on butterflies *ahem*, but let's a-go.

  • Phillip II's marriage to Mary I goes swimmingly, and he sires an heir that is set to inherit the majority of Western Europe, and has a titular claim to the Kingdom of France
  • Phillip II takes a far more realpolitik approach to the Protestant issue, decreasing active persecution of Protestants in order to amass both cash and troops for his end goal
  • Phillip II invades France with the stated goal of claiming the French throne for his to-be-born child with an army of Spanish, Germans, and Englishmen
  • After much blood, suffering, misery, and an almost-bankruptcy, Paris is captured within a year and Phillip II's newly born son is declared King of France. The Valois flee to Istanbul, but France remains in a state of conflict on and off for the next thirty years
  • Phillip and Mary call for a reorganization of their realm, to take effect gradually until the ascension of their son to all of their crowns. The duo after much debate decide to kick the Protestant can down the road in favor of stabilizing their realm, as France remains volatile and the Netherlands and Portugal have yet to calm.

A series of negotiations take place on religion, rights, trade, colonization, etc over the course of the next hundred years. The end result is:

  • That Portugal and Spain are to maintain a monopoly on the settlement of the New World in exchange for a series of concessions such as the right to trade freely with Iberian colonies, but the united navy must be payed for by all of the crowns.
  • Portugal and Spain are united under Spain in perpetuity, with several concessions on local courts, rights, etc.
  • The inheritance law of the crowns are standardized; the crowns are united yet distinct entities henceforth
  • Tariffs and trade barriers are lowered across the entirety of the crowns, to the glee of Dutch and English merchants
  • A united parliament is formed and a permanent court established in France(but not in Paris), that can supersede the law of any single crown, but is unable to pass laws that conflict with the majority of the crowns. The King however, has absolute power over the united parliament
  • The crowns are established as Spain, France, England, Naples, and the Netherlands. Spain itself has its own courts for Portugal, Castille, Navarre, and Aragon.
  • The right of settlement in the New World is eventually granted to all of the crowns in already established(and Spanish) colonies such as Mexico and Peru. Settlement on the American Seaboard remains restricted to Spanish and Portuguese, for example, but petitions by interests from other crowns accelerates the establishment of military outposts and colonies. By 1650, the entirety of the Eastern Seaboard is de facto controlled by the UKs, albeit sparingly
Vague on the details on the purpose to illustrate how a European power of comparable economic might to the United States could have been achieved. I imagine over time that the Hapsburg houses would reunite and that you'd add Germany, Hungary, Bohemia, and whatever remained free of Italy to the mix. And I doubt the Ottomans and its associated vassals in North Africa could resist such a power for long, its stability willing. Delusions of being a new Rome would be freely thrown about by the court of such a state, and I doubt it would cease its encroachment on Muslim lands until it controlled an Empire similar to Rome at its height, damn the cost or consequence.

In the same era as the Fronde? Portuguese Restoration War? Protestantism? I doubt it. Unlike in a Paradox game, OTL history had defense mechanisms against a blob like that might be.

And you say it yourself. Trying to be Rome pt. 2 wouldn't end well. Antiquity is to be learned from, as the intellectuals like Machiavelli in that era were saying. But a blind copy of Rome is setting itself up for disaster. Plus I'm not convinced the "Spanish model" of colonisation would do well on the East Coast. So you find the only real source of gold there--in OTL Georgia/South Carolina. Then what? Enslave the very thin population (compared to Mesoamerica/Andes) to mine the stuff? Settle the place as another New Mexico to defend New Spain? And it's only downhill from there. North of the Rio Grande, the Pueblo Indians were the only real "success" Spain had, and they had tons of issues. And New Mexico was a buffer for the gold/silver mines of New Spain. I wouldn't trust the Spanish or whatever they're calling themselves to settle the New World.
 
In the same era as the Fronde? Portuguese Restoration War? Protestantism? I doubt it. Unlike in a Paradox game, OTL history had defense mechanisms against a blob like that might be.

And you say it yourself. Trying to be Rome pt. 2 wouldn't end well. Antiquity is to be learned from, as the intellectuals like Machiavelli in that era were saying. But a blind copy of Rome is setting itself up for disaster. Plus I'm not convinced the "Spanish model" of colonisation would do well on the East Coast. So you find the only real source of gold there--in OTL Georgia/South Carolina. Then what? Enslave the very thin population (compared to Mesoamerica/Andes) to mine the stuff? Settle the place as another New Mexico to defend New Spain? And it's only downhill from there. North of the Rio Grande, the Pueblo Indians were the only real "success" Spain had, and they had tons of issues. And New Mexico was a buffer for the gold/silver mines of New Spain. I wouldn't trust the Spanish or whatever they're calling themselves to settle the New World.

I agree with most of what you said, but I did gloss over the worst of the details on purpose; it's a stars aligning scenario. But I disagree on the Spanish model necessarily damning colonization of the East Coast. For one, the Spanish model would now include the Portuguese(who I strongly agree would not quietly embrace Spanish dominion, but I imagine concessions such as the ending the Treaty of Tordesillas between the two would help; the Portuguese had long been curious about Newfoundland and the Rio de La Plata, for example), and the Portuguese were far more diligent settlers than the Spanish. For a lack of a better term, it was 'throw people at the colony and support it its infancy until it sticks'. See: Brazil.

I'd also like to bring up the counterpoint of Argentina; that specifically was a colony that had no gold, silver, etc. but was established in the name of geopolitics; controlling an important artery of South American commerce to insure Spanish monopoly. And the Spanish had also made forays into the American South IOTL in Georgia and IIRC a bit of South Carolina. It's not hard to imagine them supporting colonies along the most important positions on the Eastern Seaboard and seeing the populace gradually spread out as IOTL in areas such as the Chesapeake Bay, New York, Newfoundland, and the St. Lawrence.
 
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