Awesome to see that argentina is in the top 10! I’d love to learn more about this argentina, being the wealthiest hispanophone country (as it was irl intermittently between the start of the spanish civil war and the 1955 coup) and must give it a significant soft power and cultural influence, Buenos Aires must br the single most important hispanophone city. Also what are its relations with the « poorer » Brazil? Is it « leading » South America politically?
In terms of nominal GDP, yes, Argentina is the wealthiest Hispanic country, slightly ahead of Spain, but by GDP per capita Texas beats both. It had both a more stable XIXth and XXth centuries, save for a brief but important civil war just after achieving independence, and so constitutional republicanism and federalism are well entrenched and caudillismo didn't emerge. British influence was strong from the republic's inception (if you go to the first post QBAM, you can see the British Territory of Colonia on the mouth of the Plate), so much that, in the Empire, Argentina is usually talked about as the
informal Dominion. As such, even though Argentina could possibly wield significant influence worldwide, it usually follows British lead (no
¡Malvinas argentinas! here, the most chauvinistic reclaim Colonia but most don't really press the issue, similar to OTL Gibraltar and Spain).
Buenos Aires is one of the largest Spanish-speaking cities in the world (not The largest, I believe it is Manila but not sure yet), and certainly it sports a considerable influence (although ITL greater Spanish immigration makes it slightly less Italian
ish). However, with Argentina firmly in the British sphere, other South American countries tend to oppose her and align with the US, in a kind of South American
Great Game between the UK and the US. About the relations with Brazil, when you say
poorer you aren't mistaken at all: Brazil has suffered since the 1890s her own century of humiliation, and Argentina (and the UK) have a lot to do with it. For now, let's say that Argentina has treated the unstable post-Empire Brazil as her own backyard, even if there's a bigger boy in the room who claims he's the one entitled to it.
Woah, if my estimate isn’t too wrong the territories of IRL Russia must have around 240 million people, I guess it had a much more stable 20th century after the revolution unlike ours.
In fact, it's closer to 280 million, which is impressive but keep in mind that this Russia didn't suffer the Civil War, War Communism and collectivizations and subsequent famines, the accelerated industrialization and urbanization, secularization and expansion of women rights and contraception and most importantly the Nazi slaugther that OTL USSR. It's been stable in a similar way Francoist Spain was
stable, but certainly was (is) an unpleasant place to live if you're non-Russian, women, leftist or oppose the regime in general.
Also quick question about the commonwealth, is kwa-Zulu natal separate or merged with the cape? Is it rich? Does it have a significant African refugee population from its neighbours?
The Dominion of Natal is separate from the Dominion of Cape of Good Hope, and while it has a strong economy with Durban being the busiest port of Africa, it's far from being what an OTL Westerner would consider
rich, with rampant inequality and poverty among Afro-Natalians due to the legacy of colonialism and a well alive racist attitude among Euro-Natalians, aside from institutional affirmative-action policies directed at Europeans that further hinder African progress. African refugees from the OFS and Transvaal usually prefer to relocate to the Cape, which is the least hostile Dominion towards Africans, and Natalia has a harsh policy of eviction of unauthorized foreign nationals.
Also i’m Surprised that the ottoman (or their successor state) doesn’t appear on the list, between the large population and the oil and gas wealth I had hope it would have developped significantly and be a rich country
One could think so, but although the Ottoman Empire was a promising country until the 1960s, since then it's economy has suffered the effects of the
Dutch disease (if I am understanding the right way how it functions): the economy centered around gas and oil to the detriment of the other sectors, a large influx of foreign capital led to an appretiation of the ottoman currency and importation became much easier while exportation was severily hurt (except for the said resources). Couple it with the development of clientelism and political corruption, economic colonization by foreign corporations and the result is a stagnant country. If someone with economy knowledge sees that this is a nonsense, I am totally open to change it, as I said doing this table was at a high risk of having to be amended/retconned.
.
