What if the Ottomans Colonized America?

Of all the great empires, how the Ottomans never colonized America. What if they were given a chance? Would they take it? How exactly could things have changed if the Muslim powers had reached the Americas first? Here is one scenario.

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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:23 How It Came To This
6:05 How Colonization Would Work
10:15 No Spanish
14:20 Continued

[AlternateHistoryHub]

Going to do some Christmas type episode for the end of the year but have no idea what to do yet so, uh, suggestions welcome.

[AdamNoizer]

Nice video. Probably the biggest reason why they didn’t colonise the Americas was simply that, like most non-African/non-western European countries, they didn’t feel that they needed to. Ottoman merchants were already active in the Indian Ocean and had good relations with south Asian and SE Asian states such as Gujarat and Aceh. Alternative routes to the subcontinent would have been unprofitable.

[lordbonney]

I’d love to visit the state of Caliph-ornia.

[noobsaibot]

Hayreddin Barbarossa actually wanted to do expeditions to the Americas to compete with the Spanish and the Portuguese but the Ottoman higher command told him the Med sea is the priority.

It seems Hayreddin was interested in the New World and the open seas but the Ottoman government from its sultan, viziers and the higher commanders told him to forget such plans.

[melonking]

Fun fact: Columbus had offered Bayazid II to go and search the new world but he refused.

[AdamNoizer]

I also really like how you linked the Iberian colonisation of the Americas to the reconquista. Mediterranean historian Dr Mohammad Ballan discussed this recently as well. The religious driven element of the colonisation of the new world was in many ways a continuation of the reconquista and Iberian expeditions against muslim north Africa .

[williamleonardreesejr.]

I've had this question in my head for a while. And I've always come at it from the idea of "unable to bring himself to kill his beloved siblings, the new Sultan exiles his kin across the sea with their retainers, who land in the Americas and create their own Empire."

[umjackd]

It's really good to point out that Arab/Muslim influence in Indonesia was never based on conquest, but trade. Local kingdoms in Malacca and Java converted slowly over time in order to better engage in trade with the Arab traders from the west.

Even to this day, Islam in Malaysia and Indonesia is quite different from how it's practiced in Arab countries (which also vary).

So, assuming that the native populations of the Americas have a chance to bounce back after the initial plagues, you might see that kind of trade relationship.

That's a big IF though, because the devastation of those plagues do present an opportunity for exploitation by any foreigner in a position to do so.

[skullsforerlikkhansthrone]

Minor correction at 9:59: "High Ottoman" was NOT Persian, neither was it a spoken language. It was literary and legislative prose, rather than a proper language.

[FCGroningen]

A little point I'd like to bring up. The Ottomans probably would not have rushed colonisation like the Spanish did as you said. However, would it not be likely that unwanted or repressed cultures would have been inclined to try their luck elsewhere as well? I can imagine some christian minories in the Balkans, shia and other temporary persecuted groups would have similary tempted to start fresh in the New World similar to christians down on their luck for Spain and Britain.

[ontasbulent]

Cody: A Islamic Spain results in an Ottoman America
Turkish Nationalists: bring the time machine we have work to do

[thomasjardine]

I am absolutely fascinated by what these alternate cultures would look like. How they would spring out of alternative political economies, different languages, and new types of food? You should do more videos like this one, I love it and keep up the good work!

[AlmostCoolGuys]

Ottoman fanfic is exactly what I was hoping for. They were so strong but being locked in hindered them. Fantastic production

[samr]

Great video. Historically, Austria Hungary didn’t have overseas colonies either despite having the opportunity at the Berlin conference, and Russia didn’t have any overseas colonies except Alaska which was more an extension of their Siberian expansion. It tended to be that large multiethnic land empires didn’t also colonize overseas as much.

[FleurLavie]

Very Interesting how you talked a lot about the Cordoba Emirate for a while, As that would be more realistic compared to having an Ottoman America.

[TheAtlasReview]

"Plausible" is a very underrated term in alternate history scenarios. In just about every long-term scenario, it is impossible to predict what the effects of a change would be (especially big ones) because we can't account for unknowns - the actions of obscure or un-recorded figures, freak occurences, the new generations of completely different people that were never born in our timeline.

In that regard, this is a perfectly viable scenario. An educated guess (or an exploration of multiple possibilities) is the best one can do.

[coolxg]

I’m happy that you made this video series so detailed. Most videos claim that if the Muslims held onto Iberia, it would be the end of the world or something, not actually thinking that the Muslims could also invent new things, such as better navies and communication. This has made the video extremely unbiased to Eurocentric policies, and more tolerant to middle eastern and North African powers.

When the Caliphate of Cordoba fell, it had an exponential decline. Originally, what seemed like a few cracks in their policies turned out to create entire civil wars and taifa kingdoms within Iberia.
If the Caliphate of Cordoba had instead taken another turn, maybe it could’ve had an exponential rise in development instead?
This could possibly justify how Cordoba and the rest of the Muslim world can get so strong, by originally having control over the Mediterranean, and therefore boosting the entire economy of the Islamic world.

[TitanDarwin]

One thing worth noting is that historically, Muslim empires often also had a very different attitude when it came to non-believers compared to Christian empires, if only for expedience's sake - so-called "people of the book" (meaning Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians) were often tolerated in exchange for a special tax, which was originally supposed to be an incentive for people to convert over time, but in some cases ended up being such a worthwhile source of income that some Islamic rulers actually wanted their non-Muslim subjects to remain as such. In some places, like Africa or India, the local religions were also often included under that umbrella of tolerance for the sake of stability. I assume something similar might happen in an America discovered by Islamic powers - Islam would mainly spread as a result of trade (like it did in Indonesia) instead of through the sword like Christianity in our timeline's America.

[wartrix]

I love the alternate historical scenes you start these videos with.

It really helps me imagine what everyday people would be experiencing in this world.

[soyuzistrepublic]

Ahmed al Mansur, king of morocco during the Saadi Dynasty period, explained in a letter that he wished to colonize the Americas during the very early 17th century. However he died a few years before gaining the funds to do so, due to constant wars and already proper conquest he was focussing on.