A little known chapter of history is told by journalist Eduardo Bueno in his amazing book "Captains of Brazil", that talks about the history of Colonial Brazil from the 1530s to the 1550s. Among the many things told in the book a particular stands out: the attempted colonization of the Río de la Plata by the Portuguese in 1531 by Martim Afonso de Sousa.
In 1530, an expedition to colonize modern-day Argentina was already being planned by Portugal, under the orders of Gonçalo da Costa in his correspondence with king João III, however this went nowhere. Until Martim Afonso de Sousa, a nobleman, was put in charge of leading the mission in 1531. During his trip to Argentina, he stopped in Brazil to gather supplies, with assistance from some survivors of Aleixo Garcia's (a Portuguese man who was the first European to discover Paraguay and the Inca Empire) failed 1525 expedition. In fact, so many supplies were gathered that historians estimate that even if the Portuguese weren't able to hunt or gather food, they would still be able to maintain supplies for 2 whole years, besides the large quantities of food brought by the expedition itself. Seeing this, it may come as a surprise that this expedition failed. And the reason for that failure is because of an unlucky storm that hit the ships sailing to the Río de la Plata and sunk many of them, including the ship carrying most of the food supplies. To make matters worse, the final nail on the coffin for this expedition was the sinking of Martim Afonso's own ship, which almost killed him and led him to cancel the expedition. In the end, he would go back to Brazil and colonize modern-day São Paulo, before being sent to India and never returning to the Americas.
But WI history had gone differently? Say that the ships are able to withstand the storm for some reason and they are able to settle down in the estuary of the River Plate and create a settlement there (around 400 people were on the voyage). The main objective of the voyage was to reach modern-day Peru and find gold there, which had been a Portuguese obsession ever since the Spanish conquered the Aztecs. But let's say that Afonso maintains a few hundred colonists in the Río de la Plata estuary and in modern-day Buenos Aires. What would be the long-term and short-term impacts of this expedition?
Also the Portuguese and the Spanish never cared that much about Tordesillas, so much so that Spain colonized the Philippines, which was technically on the Portuguese side of the treaty and that Portugal wanted to conquer Peru for a lot of the early 16th century, only giving up when Spain defeated the Inca Empire.
In 1530, an expedition to colonize modern-day Argentina was already being planned by Portugal, under the orders of Gonçalo da Costa in his correspondence with king João III, however this went nowhere. Until Martim Afonso de Sousa, a nobleman, was put in charge of leading the mission in 1531. During his trip to Argentina, he stopped in Brazil to gather supplies, with assistance from some survivors of Aleixo Garcia's (a Portuguese man who was the first European to discover Paraguay and the Inca Empire) failed 1525 expedition. In fact, so many supplies were gathered that historians estimate that even if the Portuguese weren't able to hunt or gather food, they would still be able to maintain supplies for 2 whole years, besides the large quantities of food brought by the expedition itself. Seeing this, it may come as a surprise that this expedition failed. And the reason for that failure is because of an unlucky storm that hit the ships sailing to the Río de la Plata and sunk many of them, including the ship carrying most of the food supplies. To make matters worse, the final nail on the coffin for this expedition was the sinking of Martim Afonso's own ship, which almost killed him and led him to cancel the expedition. In the end, he would go back to Brazil and colonize modern-day São Paulo, before being sent to India and never returning to the Americas.
But WI history had gone differently? Say that the ships are able to withstand the storm for some reason and they are able to settle down in the estuary of the River Plate and create a settlement there (around 400 people were on the voyage). The main objective of the voyage was to reach modern-day Peru and find gold there, which had been a Portuguese obsession ever since the Spanish conquered the Aztecs. But let's say that Afonso maintains a few hundred colonists in the Río de la Plata estuary and in modern-day Buenos Aires. What would be the long-term and short-term impacts of this expedition?
Also the Portuguese and the Spanish never cared that much about Tordesillas, so much so that Spain colonized the Philippines, which was technically on the Portuguese side of the treaty and that Portugal wanted to conquer Peru for a lot of the early 16th century, only giving up when Spain defeated the Inca Empire.
