Motf 80 : Expansion of the Spanish Commonwealth By nanwe01 Watch

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My entry for AH.com's MOTF 80. Basically, a TL where the Cardenal Infante deals with the Portuguese Rebellion quickly rather than the incompetent who did OTL. As a result Portugal remains in Spain, Baltasar Carlos survives and becomes a new, better Charles II (that is, better than Felipe IV as a king, so a million times better than OTL Charles II) who slowly gives himself and the Court in Madrid much more power from the now-weakened rebellious cortes from Aragón and Portugal.



But the second half of the 17th century is still kind of a "seculum horribili" and no way of stopping Spain's demise as the world's eminent power. Nevertheless, the Hapsburgs (who don't die off and solve some of the problem of marrying their cousins/nieces) still govern in a very inept manner post-Charles II and by 1768, a mixture of Enlightenment ideas, social anger and bad (very bad) harvests ends up in a revolution that overthrows the Hapsburg and create a Spanish Confederation, which mixes elements from the 16-17th century rebellions (return to the good ol' feudal privileges) with the new, rationalist ideals of the Enlightenment. The kings are able to escape to Nueva España, which is now called in the peninsula "Vieja España" (ironically ofc).



The 19th century is better for Spain, as there is a stable political system, better economy and demographic basis as there are no Napelonic Wars.



The map doesn't include the colonies ("Repúblicas hermanadas" of Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico and Cuba, which are on the fast track to become also members of the Confederation on equal standing. I might go and make a map for them in this universe.

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Published : Jun 9, 2013