Southern Cone Under the

British

About Argentina/Uruguay in

Auchmuty-Whitelocke World

Physical Facts at a Glance

• location: southern South America east of Chile, south of Bolivia and Paraguay, and southwest of Brazil

• climate: humid subtropical in Uruguay and in much of Argentine Pampas and Littoral (mild winters and warm/humid summers); drier and more continental between Andes and Pampas (indeed, desert-like on the eastern edge of the Andes); dry and warm in the Chaco; wet and warm in Missions Province; mild to cold in Andes region (the further south, the colder it is); dry and cool in Argentine Patagonia and Fireland (somewhat mild summers and fairly cold winters)

• vegetation: grasslands in Uruguay and the Argentine Pampas; subtropical rainforests in Missions; savannah and/or scrub in the Chaco; scrub and/or desert vegetation between the Andes and Pampas; alpine vegetation in the Andes; windswept steppes and/or tussock in Argentine Patagonia and Fireland 

More Facts and Figures

* Not including the Argentine claim in Antarctica.

For more information, check out the maps of the Southern Cone and South America. 

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About Me

     I was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and I have always liked geography very much.  Among other things, I have enjoyed studying Latin America (particularly the more developed countries – e.g. Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina), the Anglophone countries (e.g. US, UK, Australia), and the developed and semi-developed worlds (the latter including South Africa, Brazil, and the Asian Tigers).  My university degrees are a Bachelor’s in Geography from Rutgers University in New Jersey, and a Master’s in City and Regional Planning from Ohio State University, both in the United States.  Having a special set of splinter skills related to all of this, I have been able to hone in on Southern Cone geography and history to construct a picture of the likely situation in that part of Auchmuty-Whitelocke World (AWW). 

Reasons

     I am pursuing an alternate history and geography of southern South America (especially Argentina and Uruguay), in which that part of the world falls under the British Empire, for a whole host of reasons.  One of them is because that is not much talked about in the alternate-historical discourse – as opposed to, say, the South winning the American Civil War.  The scenario of British Argentina ought to be talked about more, not just for its own sake, but also because it represents the ultimate solution to the political and economic convulsions that have wracked that region in our world in the last 50-60 years.  It is set not just in the realm of the “could have been” for our world, but also in various potentially non-fictional parallel universes as something that did happen, one of which is called AWW.

Point of Divergence

     The point of divergence from our world is when British soldiers tried to conquer the River Plate region first in 1806 and then 1807 with the intent of freeing up what was then the Viceroyalty of La Plata, with its capital in Buenos Aires, from the increasingly inept Spaniards in the context of the Napoleonic Wars.  What happened in 1807 in our world was that British forces under Samuel Auchmuty conquered Montevideo, and later that year, John Whitelocke led more British forces in a failed attempt to take over Buenos Aires.  In AWW, the British, under Whitelocke, had actually taken over what are now Argentina and Uruguay in 1806-07, and had stayed in those places.  
 

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Background

     As a result, in AWW, Argentina and Uruguay are much more developed and stable countries today than they have been in our world.  The fact is, the British have been able to make settler countries like Canada, the US, or Australia more developed in a way that other European powers wouldn't.  This is in large part due to the English common law system, which spawned strong democratic values and relative freedom from political, business, and judicial corruption.  Of course, much of the wealth initially came from the wheat and cattle of the Pampas starting in the late 19th century, and to a lesser extent from minerals along the border with Chile.

     These countries today, in AWW, are both Spanish- and English-speaking, locally known in English as hispanoparlant and angloparlant, respectively.  (Argentina is about 55% angloparlant and 45% hispanoparlant, and Uruguay is 75% and 25%, respectively.)  Think of how white South Africa speaks both Afrikaans and English, or how Canada (where I am from) speaks both French and English. (The British conquered both the Afrikaner homeland and French Canada.) In fact, Argentina (and Uruguay) serve as a bridge between the developed Western world and Latin America, much as South Africa serves as a link between the West and Africa.

     I'm not saying for nothing that the Southern Cone (i.e. Argentina and Uruguay) is more developed in AWW than in our world, for in the early 1900s even in our world, Argentina certainly had the same potential as Canada or Australia to develop further, like the latter two actually did here. The capital isn’t Buenos Aires (formerly known as Buenos Ayres) like it is in our world, though it originally had been, but rather a town just a few miles south of Santa Fe called Wilsonton.  Besides, the British, even here, did have an “informal empire” economically and culturally in Argentina and Uruguay, helping out in the railroads, soccer, etc., along with other parts of Latin America.

     Both within and outside the Southern Cone, there are important differences in terms of the cities, surrounding countries, and so forth.  For example, Buenos Aires is not only the most prominent city in the Southern Cone of South America (and it is in our world too), but it is also much more prominent of a world city, ranking right up there with New York, LA, Chicago, London, Paris, and Tokyo.  With the neighbouring countries like Chile and Brazil (and Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru), there are also significant differences between our world and AWW.  In AWW, the neighbours are somewhat wealthier than they are in our world, and they have had even more British influence than in this world (as much as, if not more than, our world’s Argentina).  Plus, there is no dispute between Argentina and Britain over the Falklands and nearby islands in AWW - they belong squarely to Argentina. 

     In summary, just imagine a Southern Cone ranked along with the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK!  Where Argentina is a member of the G8 or G9 (the latter including Russia) of the biggest economies on Earth! And where there's a G-75, not G-77, of developing countries! 

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