spanish colonization

Say that the Spanish conquest of Mesoamerica and Peru goes sideways for whatever reason - the conquistadors were pretty damn lucky anyway - so that Madrid's colonial empire is, for the time being, restricted to the Caribbean and maybe Colombia + Venezuela. Would this smaller empire be stronger...

The last tlatoani of the Aztec Triple Alliance, Cuauhtémoc, attempted to leave Tenochtitlan in a canoe right as the city was about to fall to the Spanish conquistadors and their numerous native allies. However, he was caught by a Spanish vessel and, after spending four years as a de facto...

Three years after the capture and execution of Atahualpa, the Spanish conquistadors were locked in a civil war, the opposing sides being that of Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro. Manco Inca Yupanqui, a brother of the murdered emperor who was set up as a puppet ruler by the invaders, took...

A bit of a weird idea I had one day, but what if/how could the Spanish Empire, instead of simply conquering dozens if not hundreds of native kingdoms through the New World and the Philippines, had mantained most of those states (but not all) in a system of protectorates and vassals much like the...

So I've looked up on the last years of the Inca Empire in Wikipedia and found this very interesting tidbit on Atahualpa's article: So let's say Atahualpa is executed during captivity. By the time Pizarro and his buddies show up in 1531, Huáscar would've been ruling the empire for two years...

Bartolomé de Las Casas, a Dominican priest, who was a major proponent against conquests against Native Americans. He argued the natives of the New Worldwere, like all Europeans, God's people. He proposed an idea for an alternate way for the Spanish Colonization of the Americas: Abolition of...

Okay, so! In 1609, the Jamestown colony was pretty much a filthy, useless money hole that wasn’t producing any of the gold it promised and also rapidly shrinking due to starvation. What saved it was John Rolfe, who turned it into a town revolving around the production of a lucrative new cash...

Okay first I must go over two things: 1. I want to be torn apart and critiqued. This is my first Alternate History, and I would like people to discuss and approve or disagree. If you see a problem, let me know. I'd like to be educated. Even if it's a simple stylistic problem, let me know if I...

So, what if Spanish Formosa with its original borders stayed Spanish until 1899, when it gained independence as Republic of Hermosa as a consequence of Spanish-American War? Would the area of roughly 3,000 sq km still have a population of 9 million as it has OTL? Would its population be in...

So, what if in 1595 doña Isabel Barreto gets the situation under control and consolidates the Spanish colony in Santa Cruz Islands (OTL part of the Solomon Islands, and they remain a Spanish colony until 1899? Would the islands population (21,364) be bigger because of Spanish and other European...

How much earlier could the Spanish colonies 1) have the desire to be independent and 2) actually be able to achieve it?

------------ Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, I was always intrigued why there were so many Spanish place/street names. As it turns out, in the last few decades of the 18th century, Spain was quite active in exploring the region; navigators got as far as Alaska. They even established a...

Author Notes: In OTL for many years historians of Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon’s failed colony believed the original colony to be in Virginia not far from Jamestown on the York river. However recent investigation has placed the location of the colony along the Carolina coast, most promisingly along...

I tried looking into this but I couldn't find anything. When the Spanish came and started conquering, were there any calls to reunite the League of Mayapan to fight back against the Spanish invaders? If so, how would it work? Could it do anything?

So, according to Readings in Philippine History by Horacio de la Costa, the early 17th century was a dire time for the Spanish East Indies. The Dutch East India Company's economic warfare, combined with Moro raids in the Visayas, had driven the Spaniards to Manila alone. Many feared that the...

The main goal for colonization of the Philippine archipelago was to gain access to China for importing porcelain for American colonies and Spain and exporting silver to China. What if the Spaniards explored more the archipelago and settle in areas like in Mindoro or Butuan and there, stumbled...