I feel like al-Mansur being the only non-European leader during the Age of Discovery to express any interest in going in the New World (were there any other people outside of Europe who have ever expressed interest prior to the 19th century?) indicates that he had ambition, even if it was mainly in service of a madcap diplomatic technique and domestic propaganda. His Songhai campaign shows he really tried to turn Morocco into a little empire that stretches beyond the Maghreb. What if he had succeeded, and had able successors? Would Morocco become a trans-Saharan empire over time, with the resources to be a minor player in European politics similar to the Ottomans?
Sure, when al-Mansur was writing letters to Elizabeth and other European leaders he was puffing himself up, but if Morocco had gotten far enough in its West African ambitions,
and secured a firm alliance with England, what if a resurgent Morocco had the extra resources to look to the New World? I don't mean full-fledged state-sponsored colonization or anything expensive like that. I mean maybe a gradual program that's something like this:
1. Embedding Moroccan mariners/navigators in English voyages
2. Developing a navy; not for New World exploration but for wars in Iberia/North Africa/West Africa, which if successful could drive interest westwards.
2.5. Could an Anglo-Moroccan force seize Madeira or the Azores? Could the Anglo-Moroccans
and Portugeuse have seized the Canary Islands?
3. Eventually, a joint English-Moroccan expedition, in the name of countering Spain/ the Iberians
4. Moroccans being involved in New World exploration and colonization, not in an official state capacity but as traders, pirates, adventurers, etc.
5. Something temporary but noteworthy like Moroccan Saint Pierre and Miquelon, or the Moroccan equivalent to New Sweden or New Netherland- a very modest little colony that ends up conquered eventually but solidifies this nation's presence in the New World.
Would be interesting how this affects race relations down the line, assuming Englishmen still end up ruling North America and using chattel slavery. North and West Africans being involved in North America wouldn't butterfly it away- makes me wonder if it might even
accelerate the slave trade. But I wonder if race relations might evolve differently throughout the centuries. If the English have semi-regular contact with a Morocco empire that stretches from North Africa down to the Sahel, would they be less likely to see Africans as the Other, and more likely to see them as fully human?
There was a long term decline in Moroccan naval power from the 14th century onwards, where you stop seeing Moroccan armies land in Iberia and the Balearics and start seeing them much on the defensive.
There were unofficial navies, of pirates and traders but mostly out of the power of the government, you see this with the Wattasids marrying local coastal rulers to get control of their navies.
I've always wondered why Morocco wasn't involved in the later Barbary Wars. Guess Morocco is neither located on the Barbary Coast, nor had the naval capacity get into the corsair business.
And from your article:
It was worth considering the English Armada of 1589 which was meant to free Portugal from Spain but failed miserably. Ahmed had agreed to invade Spain at the same time as England to draw off their armies. But he then took the plans to Spain and got them to agree to return to him the port of Asilah, one of many Moroccan port cities still controlled by the Iberian Union, in return for Morocco staying neutral. A little before that Spain believed they had negotiated an agreement to swap one city for another only to find Ahmed betrayed them and was not interested in giving up any cities. Ahmed’s bold words were often empty, he knew the limitations of his state and wasn’t ready to lead them into a bloody war he might not win. His greatest achievement was that his enemies took his boasts seriously even when he had an empty hand to bluff with.
What if, for starters, he did attack Spain and not betrayed Elizabeth.
A much easier war to get would actually be Morocco allied with Spain against the Ottomans. The Turks claimed to be rightful overlords of Morocco and at least once in Al-Mansur’s reign built up an invasion force ready to enforce that which Spain would have disputed before Ahmed managed to talk them down.
This would be interesting- makes me wonder what would happen if the English get a long-running alliance with Morocco to counter Spain, not unlike the historical Anglo-Portuguese relationship.
And if you desperately want Ahmed to notch up his fourth empire, there is an obvious target. The Borno Empire of modern day Chad and Nigeria. In 1582 the Sultan of Borno sent an embassy to Morocco in which he asked for Moroccan aid in his jihads against pagan neighbours and in return he would recognise Ahmed as his caliph and feudal master. In the next few decades other West African Muslims would be offered the same deal by Morocco, it would be the Songhai’s refusal of this that led to their doom. Ahmed was not looking North as much as he was looking South. He wanted to unite Muslim Africa, indeed he wrote a huge amount of letters to Egyptians and Algerians criticising Ottoman rule in the hope that they’d throw out the Turks and invite him in in their place, and the allegiance of Bornu was a huge feather in his cap. If a Sultan of Bornu attempted to break that, Ahmed would have the motive and opportunity to annex them directly, which would have huge effects on the history of West Africa.
What if his campaigns against the Songhai succeeded, he gets some capable successors, and there's a trans-Saharan North-to-West African Muslim super-state united by Morocco? They might have no interest in going to the New World at all, but maybe they'd be positioned to if they wanted to.
Non-al-Mansur ideas:
- What if at some point England allows basing for Moroccan privateers if they only attack Spanish shipping? What if Muslim corsairs end up taking over a Caribbean island, and ruling it for a while, like a Republic of Salé West, or a Republic of Pirates except Muslim?
- I read a claim that Barbary corsairs had raided the Grand Banks at some point, enslaving Basque fishermen. I have no idea if that's true or not, but if that was something they liked to do, maybe they could have established a semi-permanent base in the area... such as settling in Saint Pierre and Miquelon or even Newfoundland.