# What if Argentina & Chile were British? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 26, 2012, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-argentina-chile-were-british/610752 "2012-01-26T17:50:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-argentina-chile-were-british/610752/21 "2013-04-23T19:47:57Z")
Keep in mind that Argentina was one of the 10th richest countries in the world at the turn of the 20th century, and attracted waves of immigrants not unlike the US. It was the policies of the mid 20th century that sent Argentina off track, economically. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-argentina-chile-were-british/610752/22 "2013-04-25T20:53:49Z")
Argentina was, for much of the 20th c., virtually a second ‘economic empire’ for Britain. We had large investments in there, and a good deal of influence. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-argentina-chile-were-british/610752/23 "2013-04-25T21:31:02Z")
> [@Norvaal](#): > > I would imagine the scenario of Argentina and Chile under British control to be something like the current Falkland Islands situation… What, you mean, incessant demands for the "re"conquest-and-annexation of “Southern Peru” or “Lower Uruguay” or “Greater Brazil”? ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-argentina-chile-were-british/610752/24 "2013-04-25T21:39:24Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Well, that assumes North American history plays out the same way in the Silverland-timeline as in ours. Perhaps the Brits, busy with Silverland, would just decide to let the French have all that. > [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](#): > > The first thought that arises in my mind is that a South American colony would supply a much closer destination for penal settlement than Australia,… I wonder who’d end up getting Australia & New Zealand? The Dutch, the French, the Spanish, or the Portuguese? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-argentina-chile-were-british/610752/25 "2013-04-25T22:52:10Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > I wonder who’d end up getting Australia & New Zealand? The Dutch, the French, the Spanish, or the Portuguese? Australia’s huge, like, the size of the Lower 48 States, and seacoast all around . . . It’s not inconceivable that more than one country would colonize it, at difference places along the shore. That would make for an interesting history. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-argentina-chile-were-british/610752/26 "2013-04-26T03:28:32Z")
I wonder what effect a major British colony in South America would have had on the colonization of Africa. If Britain had established a colony in Argentina in the 18th century they could have used it as a base for colonizing Africa in the 19th century. If Britain had controlled Argentina, South Africa, and Australia/New Zealand, they’d have essentially had control of all southern ocean trade routes. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-argentina-chile-were-british/610752/27 "2013-04-26T04:01:20Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I wonder what effect a major British colony in South America would have had on the colonization of Africa. If Britain had established a colony in Argentina in the 18th century they could have used it as a base for colonizing Africa in the 19th century. If Britain had controlled Argentina, South Africa, and Australia/New Zealand, they’d have essentially had control of all southern ocean trade routes. They did control the Southern Trade routes in the 19th century anyway. I do not think a British South America has much of an impact on reduction of colonial attempts elsewhere. The British colonial Empire was not expanded directly due to the Crown until the scramble for Africa. The impetus was alway through private persons and companies. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-argentina-chile-were-british/610752/28 "2013-04-26T04:13:48Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I wonder what effect a major British colony in South America would have had on the colonization of Africa. If Britain had established a colony in Argentina in the 18th century they could have used it as a base for colonizing Africa in the 19th century. If Britain had controlled Argentina, South Africa, and Australia/New Zealand, they’d have essentially had control of all southern ocean trade routes. Drake’s (hypothetical in this AH) vision, as stated in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-argentina-chile-were-british/610752/29 "2013-04-26T04:49:33Z")
Also, come to think of it, in this AH, Britain, having control of all inhabited Antipodal territories, would also have undisputed claim to Antarctica . . . [for what it’s worth](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_the_Mountains_of_Madness) . . . ---
**Author:** ![Norvaal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d9b06d/32.png) [@Norvaal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Norvaal)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-argentina-chile-were-british/610752/30 "2013-04-27T00:40:45Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > What, you mean, incessant demands for the "re"conquest-and-annexation of “Southern Peru” or “Lower Uruguay” or “Greater Brazil”? I mean Silverland’s society in general would resemble the Falkland Islands’. I don’t know about how things would have worked economically, though. ---
**Author:** ![Norvaal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d9b06d/32.png) [@Norvaal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Norvaal)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-argentina-chile-were-british/610752/31 "2013-04-27T00:43:36Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > I wonder who’d end up getting Australia & New Zealand? The Dutch, the French, the Spanish, or the Portuguese? My guess would be the Dutch. Weren’t they the first Europeans to colonize Tasmania (a.k.a. Van Diemen’s Land?) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-argentina-chile-were-british/610752.md?page=1)