A question about the Sultanate of Granada [TL help]

[Tetsu]

I'm working on a timeline right now [with NFR] about what might have happened if the Spanish kingdoms such as Castile and Aragon never united into the Kingdom of Spain. Right now, what I've got is that the main POD is the Ottoman capture of Lepanto in 1477, and a subsequent break of Venetian naval power in the Mediterranean.

We had the idea of a strengthened Granada defending against the Spanish kingdoms, possibly with Ottoman help. Does anyone have any ideas on how this might be done?

 

[carlton_bach]

How about changing things towards the East? To the Ottomans, Europe and the Med were always just one theatre of operations, and not usually the primary one. If you can somehow remove Persia from the threat list (I'm not sure outright conquest would be feasible, but maybe something that turns Ottoman attention away) and move the conquest of the Mamluk Empire earlier (or maybe just the conquest/hostile takeover of the Maghreb - a kind of pincer movement to discommode the Egyptians?), you have a very assertive Ottoman sea power loose in the western Med about half a century earlier than OTL. That gives the Ottomans the interest and leverage to support Granada, and with that support it stands a good chance for the first 100 years or so.

Or go the other route, make the Ottomans square off against a reinvigorated, modernised Mamluke state that uses Granada and the Maghreb as its naval counterweight to Ottoman ambitions in the Western Med.

 

[Faeelin]

How about changing things towards the East? To the Ottomans, Europe and the Med were always just one theatre of operations, and not usually the primary one. If you can somehow remove Persia from the threat list (I'm not sure outright conquest would be feasible, but maybe something that turns Ottoman attention away) and move the conquest of the Mamluk Empire earlier (or maybe just the conquest/hostile takeover of the Maghreb - a kind of pincer movement to discommode the Egyptians?), you have a very assertive Ottoman sea power loose in the western Med about half a century earlier than OTL. That gives the Ottomans the interest and leverage to support Granada, and with that support it stands a good chance for the first 100 years or so.

Hm. How about, alternatively, Sicily? Say the Ottomans defeat Timurlane, occupy Constantinople in, oh, 1407, and then invade Italy in the 1440s or 60s?

 

[Condottiero]

How would the rest of european powers act then? Ooops, France and England are in the middle of the hundred years war. What about the Holy Roman Empire?

However I think the aid to Granada could only delay things a bit. The Castillians had not invaded it before because it was better to send a delegation and come back with gold than sending an invasion army.

 

[Grey Wolf]

If the POD is in 1477 then it must be noted that the Treaty of Picquigny was signed in 1475, effectively ending England''s major claims in France.

Grey Wolf