The Empresa de China (“China enterprise”) was a long-time projected conquest of China by the Spanish Empire. Proposed repeatedly through the 16th century as a natural culmination of the conquest of the Philippines, it involved the invasion and assimilation of the Ming dynasty by a coalition that would include Spaniards, Portuguese, Filipinos and Japanese from the Toyotomi regency, as well as potential masses of Chinese allies.

Military conquest of China appeared viable by the reports of Christian missionaries and ambassadors, who described the Ming population as demobilized, inefficiently administered and easy to sublevate against their own governors, offering a situation similar to those of the Aztec and Inca empires where control of the territory could be wrested away. Once conquered, the plan included mass evangelizing activities and the promotion of mestizaje between Iberians and Chinese, hoping to turn China into a source of strength to extend Hispanic control and Christianity across all of Asia. In a best case scenario, the Spanish Empire could aspire to form an oriental theater in the Ottoman–Habsburg wars.

The enterprise was formulated by several figures of the Hispanic Monarchy, but its main driving force would be a sector of the Society of Jesus led by Alonzo Sánchez, who clashed against other churchmen over the Vitorian legitimacy of a new conquest. King Philip II allowed in 1588 the founding of an official council, the Junta de la Empresa de China, but the failure of the Spanish Armada the same year caused the project to be abandoned. The invasion of China briefly resurfaced later, with a new project to topple the Toyotomi regency and conquer Japan with the help of its own native uprising, potentially including Tokugawa Ieyasu, after which the Japanese armies would be used against China.

“Dude just conquer the Ming dynasty and half of Asia so you can open a new front against the ottomans”

    • Boredom [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
      10·
      1 month ago

      They were at the height of their power at this point. Remember that they had just formed a union with Portugal (technically uniting the two halves of the world that the pope had divided for them) and also had Hapsburg lands too. Had they won in England or just let France collapse during its war of religion, they really could have expanded into China eventually. (Or at the very least Taiwan and a bunch of treaty ports)

      Always remember that China was saved from partition by the Open Door Policy. If Spain and Portugal became the European hegemony and survived like the UK did in our timeline, there would have been no scramble for Africa, just unimpeded exploitation of African and American resources. There’d probably just be a revival of the wars between Rome and the Parthians aka an exasperating money sink until the discovery of oil fields. Now of course there is no way they’d take all of China, but the Chinese Jesuit ban likely would have led to war.