Since in Auchmuty-Whitelocke World (AWW), Argentina and Uruguay went through different experiences than here in our world, the geopolitical order of the world, and especially Latin America, is necessarily different. First of all, in AWW, Argentina and Uruguay have always been very prosperous compared to most other countries around the world since the late 19th century, when wheat and beef started to be exported in large quantities. As a result, they are both ranked very high among the more-developed countries; they belong to First World organizations like the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). (Brazil and Chile, though not First World countries, are also members of the OECD by virtue of opening up trade with Argentina and Uruguay, in much the same way that Mexico and Turkey are OECD members by virtue of being near North America and Europe respectively and being economically linked to them.) Since Argentina is among the top ten developed countries in terms of total GDP, it is also a member of the G-8 (or G-9 if Russia is included).
At the same time, the broad coalition of less-developed countries for the UN is called the G-75 (unlike our world’s G-77, which does include Argentina and Uruguay). Another developing-country group, the G-20, does not include Argentina and Uruguay in AWW either (Colombia and Peru are members in AWW but not in our world). Furthermore, in AWW, the two countries are donors, not recipients, of foreign aid and IMF loans. Argentina and Uruguay both have trade agreements with many countries around the world, and the Southern Common Market free trade agreement (including also Brazil, Paraguay, and Venezuela, with Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia being associate members) is more active than in our world.
Because Argentina and Uruguay are former British colonies, they belong to the Commonwealth of Nations; they can be considered in the “White Commonwealth”, along with Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Argentina and Uruguay are also members of the Technical Cooperation Programme, which pools together the defence resources of those countries along with those of the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Argentina joined the Technical Cooperation Programme in 1960, and Uruguay in 1965.
During the Cold War, in 1949, the Rio Treaty (or Rio Pact) was signed among Latin American nations to prevent the Communists from gaining a stronghold throughout the region. The Rio Treaty led to the formation of the Organization of American States (OAS). Neither country was a member of the Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War. Finally, Buenos Aires has the headquarters of one UN specialized agency – the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The Canning-Monroe Doctrine has included Britain as well as the United States since 1823 to protect the Americas from continental European interference. This has led to a long-standing alliance between Britain and the US in being Latin America’s guarantors. As a result, the OAS has included, from the start, Britain as an associate member, and some of its former Western Hemisphere colonies, including Canada, Belize, and Guyana, as full members – Canada since 1990 (before that, an associate member), and Belize and Guyana since their independence dates. (The latter three, in our world, joined only circa 1990.) Britain’s heavy involvement in Latin America, particularly South America, has also led to lots of political, military, and economic control; among other things, it has curtailed or shortened wars such as the War of the Pacific.
The international distribution of power for South America even more closely resembles that of East Asia than it does in our world. In other words, just as Japan has fewer people and less land than China but is much more developed and had a head start in modern development, so too Argentina, even in our world, has been more prosperous per capita than Brazil (and the differences are starker in AWW). In the same way that Japan has traditionally been the modern-day economic power of East Asia, China the military and population power, and both being political powers, Argentina is traditionally the economic power of South America, Brazil the military and population power, and both are political powers. Of course, elsewhere in Asia, India takes some weight off Japan and China; so too, elsewhere in Latin America, Mexico plays a prominent role too, not to slight Argentina and Brazil.
Antarctica is a unique continent in that there are no permanent populations and hence no sovereignty, although there are territorial claims by outside countries. Among the claims is an Argentine claim, some of which overlaps with part of the Chilean one. That claim is administratively part of the Fireland Territory. Unlike in our world, there is no British territorial claim, because the nearby Falkland, South Georgia, and South Sandwich Islands belong without dispute to Argentina. Furthermore, in AWW, Uruguay as well as Argentina, Chile, and ten other countries was an original signatory to the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, albeit without a claim. The United Kingdom as well as the United States and the Soviet Union/Russia have reserved the right to claim territory under the Antarctic Treaty.
When the Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA) was formed in 1960, Argentina and Uruguay were only associate members. LAFTA initially focused on import-substitution industrialization as a way for Latin America outside those two countries to develop their economies. When LAFTA gave way to the Latin American Integration Association in 1980, Argentina and Uruguay became full members. In the 1980s, there were bilateral trade agreements between Argentina and Uruguay, Brazil and Uruguay, and Argentina and Brazil. The last one was especially important in that this was aimed at ending rivalries between Argentina and Brazil. These bilateral accords evolved into the Southern Common Market in the early 1990s.
From the early 2000s, Hugo Chavez (the left-leaning Venezuelan president) did not buy influence in Argentina the way he did in this world, because in AWW, Argentina (along with Uruguay) has been a staunch US ally in the mould of Canada or Australia. This is partially because there was no severe 2001-02 economic crisis in Argentina for the US to alienate the local poor people and to lose their trust. In March 2007, therefore, Chavez did not hold a rally in Buenos Aires (instead being in Lima, Peru), and US President Bush visited Argentina as well as Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico.
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