WI: Portugal invaded in 16th century Japan

Funny how the battle could have been entirely averted if Fernão was able to rein in his brother. I'm pretty sure, even by Portuguese standards at the time, flipping off an official's hat and kidnapping the children of rich merchants and aristocrats (i.e. people you do business with) for slave labour is a very dick move.
I was reading about it and thinking about it. Sure it can be seen as a dick move, but then Simao got the governorship of Chaul so he did something right.

Fernao was in classic fidalgos mode, get money and get out, Simao was like Albuquerque, where they try to build an empire. That's why he built a fortress, it's a beach head for a future invasion

My theory anyway
 
I was reading about it and thinking about it. Sure it can be seen as a dick move, but then Simao got the governorship of Chaul so he did something right.

Fernao was in classic fidalgos mode, get money and get out, Simao was like Albuquerque, where they try to build an empire. That's why he built a fortress, it's a beach head for a future invasion

My theory anyway

Invade China... Yea, just because steppe people can do it doesn't mean it's a foolproof plan. >_>
 
Invade China... Yea, just because steppe people can do it doesn't mean it's a foolproof plan. >_>
Well, their plan for initial take over was actually quite detailed and not that crazy. They could probably have taken a couple coastal towns if they had put the effort in (a few thousands men, ships..., all that was available)
Now holding all of it would be another story, but they were basically counting on civil order breaking down in the wake of initial portuguese success, with rebellions popping up (unknowingly it could work if the Ming are deemed to have lost the mandate of Heaven due to barbarian invasions) so they could benefit from the chaos
 
Top