What if Spain didn't bother with the New World?

If colombus did not discover , the Spanish would be the one conquering Eastern and Central Indonesia, leaving the Islamized parts of Indonesia and the Philippines untouched for a longer time.

Seems about right--Java would give them plenty of trouble. Portugal could work to take up what Spain doesn't grab.

Mexico might end up like India, or maybe a post-apocalyptic version of it. The Aztecs wouldn't last much longer after smallpox inevitably shatters their civilisation, and Europeans (including no doubt Spain) will play off Mexican states to their benefit. Colonisation could still happen but otherwise be fairly limited since Mexico is and was always the most densely populated part of the Americas, even after disease killed so many of them. I suspect what actually will go on in Mexico will be common horror story tropes with plenty of ritual sacrifice, violent religious syncreticism, mass murder, etc--everything in pre-colonial Mexico taken up to 11 with some Christian elements thrown in.
 
I think Spain was in a relatively unique position in being able to make huge conquests and hold that territory. Every other power I can imagine Columbus sailing for at the time would have had greater difficulty IMO building empire in the New World. I can see France, England, maybe even Portugal gaining control of the Caribbean islands, but having less luck conquering inland.

An Africa-focused Spain would develop some colonies in the New World, but would probably focus on profitable sugar colonies manned by African slaves captured during their adventuring on that continent. We might even see a reversal of our timeline, with a largely Lusophone Caribbean and a Hispanic Brazil!

While disease will harm the Aztecs, Maya and Inca they will be able to recover faster without the encomienda system, assuming the hegemony of the Aztecs and Inca are not broken-if there is no military superpower in their regions and war breaks out, and at least one faction trades for European guns, the carnage could very well result in OTL levels of population collapse.
 
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I think Spain was in a relatively unique position in being able to make huge conquests and hold that territory. Every other power I can imagine Columbus sailing for at the time would have had greater difficulty IMO building empire in the New World.

Why is that? I'm curious.
 
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