Talk:Florida (The British Ain't Coming)

The place to begin, obviously, with the likely analogue of Cristoforo Columbo. I say analogue because of his Genoan history. The development of Italy in the middle of the 15th century may have altered his life significantly. However, for simplicity, he can have his travels up and down the western coasts of Africa and Europe without his stops in England and Ireland.

His desire to explore, though, may have been greatly influenced by an British fugitive who ended up in France. From what I could gather, the travelogue may have been mostly a fictionali\zed version of a Frenchman, so that can be mostly disregarded. Most of the influences to Columbo's life may be easily assumed to be continental. And so, the exploration of the West could begin "on schedule."

I see no reason why the exploration could not have gone about as in OTL until the war with the Dutch began in the 1560's. A stronger Netherlands (due to absorbing Saxons that never went to England) may have dissuaded the Spanish from attempting to hold onto interests in the north. If this was so, a more vigorous exploration of the new world would have changed the face of Spanish America. The Armada would not have met with such destruction even if it had been used against the Dutch. Many of those could have been sent to help out in the Americas.

Bottom line, with no British interference, the Spanish have a stronger empire in the Americas. Florida will probably get its independence about the same time that New Orange and Louisianna do. SouthWriter (talk) 23:18, June 16, 2016 (UTC)