What if María Pita had failed? The alternate history of an English Galicia
Gibraltar has a GDP per capita of €90,000, but an English Galicia would not have been a tax haven: the data point to exploitation and poverty.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
What if María Pita had failed? The alternate history of an English Galicia
Gibraltar, a 7 km² rock, boasts a GDP per capita of €90,000, more than double Spain's €34,350. But anyone who imagines that a Galicia conquered by England would today be a tax haven is in for a disappointment. The English were not looking to raise Celts with British accents; they wanted the Atlantic route.
The basic mistake is confusing a strategic base with a settler colony. A British Galicia would have been squeezed fiscally and its productive fabric dismantled so as not to compete with the metropole. Agriculture, fishing and industry would have been subordinated, as in so many territories of the empire. Galician GDP would probably be lower than Spain's today, not higher.
The global consequences are far from trivial. Without María Pita's defence in 1589, the Castro family would not have emigrated to Cuba in 1900, and Franco (born in 1892) might have been a British subject. The Galician diaspora to South America, an engine of demographic and political change, simply would not have existed.
Would Galicia have become a Northern Ireland or a mere fiscal warehouse? The alternate history invites reflection, but the data suggest that the dream of Gibraltar's GDP collides with the reality of colonial exploitation.
Gibraltar, a 7 km² rock, boasts a GDP per capita of €90,000, more than double Spain's €34,350. But anyone who imagines that a Galicia conquered by England would today be a tax haven is in for a disappointment. The English were not looking to raise Celts with British accents; they wanted the Atlantic route.
The basic mistake is confusing a strategic base with a settler colony. A British Galicia would have been squeezed fiscally and its productive fabric dismantled so as not to compete with the metropole. Agriculture, fishing and industry would have been subordinated, as in so many territories of the empire. Galician GDP would probably be lower than Spain's today, not higher.
The global consequences are far from trivial. Without María Pita's defence in 1589, the Castro family would not have emigrated to Cuba in 1900, and Franco (born in 1892) might have been a British subject. The Galician diaspora to South America, an engine of demographic and political change, simply would not have existed.
Would Galicia have become a Northern Ireland or a mere fiscal warehouse? The alternate history invites reflection, but the data suggest that the dream of Gibraltar's GDP collides with the reality of colonial exploitation.
Also available in: Deutsch
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (30 replies).
More summaries
-
What would you tell Franco in 1974? The alternate history debate dividing historians
If you could meet Franco in 1974, would you warn him about the Sahara, the succession of Juan Carlos, or the nuclear bomb? The debate over historical alternate history.
-
Juan March: The Plutocrat Who Funded Franco's Coup and His Legacy
Juan March financed Franco’s Dragon Rapide, amassed his wealth through black market trade (estraperlo), and founded a dynasty that still dominates Spanish banking. His legacy, continues...
-
Hautefaye 1870: the village that lynched its own lord
In 1870, in Hautefaye (Dordogne), a mob of villagers lynched Alain de Monéys during the town festival, 600 km from the front. A case that unsettles…
-
The Flagellation of Christ in art: from symbol to raw anatomy
From medieval hieratic figures to Signorelli's realistic executioners: the iconographic evolution of the Flagellation of Christ reflects the shift from…
-
Saying "the Argentina"? The battle over articles with country names
The 1931 RAE grammar endorsed "el Perú" and "el Brasil". Today it sounds provincial. Why did Spanish lose the article with country names?
-
Hitler's contempt for Slavs: from Mein Kampf to the East Plan
Historical documentation confirms that Hitler despised the Slavs: the Generalplan Ost envisaged the elimination of more than 30 million people.