As the title says so what if Spain controls all of west indies goes plantation crazy on Spain west Indies instead of try protect their sugar industry at the isles in the atlantic and in the mainland. Like what France did to Haiti but on a larger scale, and with Spain now has a potential monopoly on almost all of the sugar, coffee and other production of cash crops grown in that area on all of Europe. I wonder how would it affect The west Indies Spain and everything if this happened and had luck where Spain is still controlling all of them up to the 1800s. I believe that this would give spain more money to fix their financial situation and improve their economy and more money to fund stuff, in short a buffed spain ittl
WI: Spain controls all of West Indies and goes plantation crazy on them
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The Spanish crown paid scant attention to sugar cultivation by when compared with the other powers. Though Hispaniola began exporting sugar to Spain in the early sixteenth century, over time this declined due to the lack of capital and labour. Additionally, merchants complained bitterly that they could not export sugar directly to Flanders, adding an extra cost to the export. In Cuba, sugar exports to Spain began in the 1590s, but even here they amounted to less than 100 tons per year. The colonial producers found markets in Campeche and Cartagena, but were often unable to compete with Andalusian and Canarian sugar. The result was that Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and especially Cuba were used mainly for ranching and the production of foodstuffs. Cuba's largest export to Spain was hides, not sugar or tobacco. It was not until the late eighteenth century that sugar took off in a big way in Cuba, and even then this was assisted by the Haitian Revolution and its largest market was the now populous United States.
Perhaps if Charles V had allowed his domains to trade freely in sugar it would have spurted more colonisation of the Antilles. As things were, Flanders and Italy were importing far more Madeiran and by the mid-sixteenth century Brazilian sugar. If the Casa de la Contratación in Seville allowed sugar to be shipped directly to Flanders and from there into Germany and France, it is likely that sugar would have taken off in a big way. Due to restrictive policies, the Spanish islands would remain minor producers for nearly another three centuries. As for coffee, it was not even introduced into the Western Hemisphere until the eighteenth century when it was introduced to Martinique and then Saint-Domingue by way of the royal botanical gardens in France. They had originally obtained seeds from Dutch Java which had been introduced from Mocha (in present-day Yemen).
As things were Madeira and São Tomé exported greater quantities of sugar than the Spanish Islands and then this was supplanted by Brazil. Brazilian sugar would remain dominant until the mid-sixteenth century when the Dutch helped introduce sugar cultivation to the Lesser Antilles. Martinique and Barbados soon became major producers and in the eighteenth century Jamaica and Saint-Domingue took over. Finally, in the nineteenth century Cuba became the world's leading producer with Trinidad and Puerto Rico and Mauritius all becoming major producers as well.
Perhaps if Charles V had allowed his domains to trade freely in sugar it would have spurted more colonisation of the Antilles. As things were, Flanders and Italy were importing far more Madeiran and by the mid-sixteenth century Brazilian sugar. If the Casa de la Contratación in Seville allowed sugar to be shipped directly to Flanders and from there into Germany and France, it is likely that sugar would have taken off in a big way. Due to restrictive policies, the Spanish islands would remain minor producers for nearly another three centuries. As for coffee, it was not even introduced into the Western Hemisphere until the eighteenth century when it was introduced to Martinique and then Saint-Domingue by way of the royal botanical gardens in France. They had originally obtained seeds from Dutch Java which had been introduced from Mocha (in present-day Yemen).
As things were Madeira and São Tomé exported greater quantities of sugar than the Spanish Islands and then this was supplanted by Brazil. Brazilian sugar would remain dominant until the mid-sixteenth century when the Dutch helped introduce sugar cultivation to the Lesser Antilles. Martinique and Barbados soon became major producers and in the eighteenth century Jamaica and Saint-Domingue took over. Finally, in the nineteenth century Cuba became the world's leading producer with Trinidad and Puerto Rico and Mauritius all becoming major producers as well.
A plantation crazy Spain likly means Spain going BIG into the slave trade and if most of the rest of Europe is denied the best cash crop lands in the New world they would have less incentive to support slavery. This in turn might lead to a earlyer end of slavery for none Spanish counterys a century or two earlyer in the 1600s or 1700s. Demograpicly the Caribbean may look more similar to Haiti in terms of its African population do to the legacy of increased Spanish plantations.