raharris1973
Well-known member
What if Britain never lost Minorca, and it remained as British as Gibraltar?
What if Britain never lost Minorca?
- Thread starter raharris1973
- Start date
Do not matter.
raharris1973
Well-known member
Yup.
PsihoKekec
Swashbuckling Accountant
No major changes in history, but Royal navy would really like this Mediterranian base of theirs. It would be also another bone of contention with Spain, apart from Gibraltar. I reckon the big naval battle of the Napoleonic war would not be at Trafalgar but somewhere near Minorca, as Spain and France would surely make an attempt to take it and thus remove a thorn in their side as RN would be using it as the main base for blockade of their Mediterranian coasts.
PsihoKekec
Swashbuckling Accountant
It is ironic that going past Sardinia and Sicily would be safer than starting from Alexandria.
True,but they win anyway,so- notching change.
Nope,England manage to hold Malta without Minorca,so they would hold it,too,if they had Minorca.Sralin come and murder everybody?
And Sralin murdered only 10-30% of population,reast could live and work for him !
He was so nice dude,was he not ?
raharris1973
Well-known member
Did he kill 10 to 30 percent of Poland in 1945-1953 too? Or did he give a ‘discount’ for Hitler and his own pre-killing, 1939-45?Nope,England manage to hold Malta without Minorca,so they would hold it,too,if they had Minorca.
And Sralin murdered only 10-30% of population,reast could live and work for him !
He was so nice dude,was he not ?
He try till 1941,becouse poles send to gulags or Kazachstan died between 25 and 50%,but after WW2,when he discovered that germans killed for him 3M poles,he decide ti chill out and murdered only 100-200k people till 1953.
Compared what he did to soviets at the same time,we really were treated in kid gloves.
My theory - he feared,that if he push too much,we made another suicidal Uprising,and he could not start WW3 with sneak attack then.
It would likely be a popular vacation destination, even more than now, since British people can go there instead of Spain with less hassle. And it'd be the same for other English-speakers and Commonwealth types.
Skallagrim
Well-known member
"Minorca! Home away from home! It's like Spain-- without Spaniards!"
EDIT: There is the possibility that this significant additional foothold in the Med wil ultimately prompt Britain to be more committed to maintaining its position there. In effect meaning that Malta, Cyprus and the Suez and held by Britain (alone or in part, depending) until the present day. That might be a long shot, but it would be an interesting outcome to be sure.
Minorca is also potentially more vulnerable, well independent of geography lol, then Malta since it has a fraction of the population at a glance. Dunno about the terrain and other factors. Obviously geographically, being located in the Balearic Islands is safer than roughly between North Africa and Sicily since Franco ain't going to do anything and the existence of the rest of the still Spanish held islands might hamper any anti-Minorca operations.
raharris1973
Well-known member
Minorca could be in an “interesting” position in WWII, supposing we slap a “butterfly net” over things and have a WWII pretty much like the one we knew. Vulnerable early on, but Franco is cannily not likely to take the plunge. Then later. On it could become an asset for Torch and Dragoon ops, even though Spain will feed intel tipoffs to the Axis.
Suez is tricky to hold forever. All those Egyptians around.
raharris1973
Well-known member
See my comment above
Skallagrim
Well-known member
True. My thinking is that, without a butterfly net in consideration, we may assume that British Minorca is a solid basis for increased British interest(s) in the Med. Of course, we might just as reasonably assume that the result is "no British Malta", as suggested above. But if we assume they get that, too, then I think this only increases the likelihood of British Cyprus and British Suez later.
In that case, Britain effectively controls the Med end-to-end. That's a position of great value, which would be worth significant investment to maintain. From a purely rational perspective, they'd be fools not to go all-in on that.
(Would they be so purely rational? That's not a given.)