Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
In a discussion about the 'Argentina is white' meme, I wondered the possibilities of Argentina retaining the historically significant African character it had early on in the colonial era and beginning post-independence years.
AHC: Argentina has Afro-descendant plurality/majority
- Thread starter Cuāuhtemōc
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It would need some kind of immigration mechanism that doesn't require people to pay for their own tickets to go there, and have jobs once they arrive. African Americans might have a language issue, for example.
I mean, the Dutch managed to turn Suriname's demographics into something truly unique, as did the British with say Fiji and Singapore....so....I don't know, it's possible. Probably some agricultural business decisions that justify it?
As a minor addition, maybe some kind of Awful Thing in Europe specifically France, where somehow all the black French people are forced to flee and Argentina takes them in. Hard on that scale but it's a hard challenge.
I mean, the Dutch managed to turn Suriname's demographics into something truly unique, as did the British with say Fiji and Singapore....so....I don't know, it's possible. Probably some agricultural business decisions that justify it?
As a minor addition, maybe some kind of Awful Thing in Europe specifically France, where somehow all the black French people are forced to flee and Argentina takes them in. Hard on that scale but it's a hard challenge.
Well, majority would be an issue, not even Brazil was/is majority black, and Brazil is much better suited for Plantations and was extremely involved in Slavery; places where former slaves form the major demographic tend to be small Caribbean islands which were used pretty much as insular sugar factories. Argentina also doesn't have a large enough Amerindian population to become a colony with a high mestizo population. Oddly enough, this is a pretty difficult challenge.
Prevent the civil wars. Afro-Argentines were used as cannon fodder there, and the rise of Sarmiento (who literally wanted to exterminate anything that wasn't European in Argentina, and nearly succeded. People like Sarmiento and those with similar ideals contributed a lot in the denigration and 'invisibilization' of Indians, Africans and Criollos in Argentine society.
However, a majority is an unlikely outcome, even with a POD before independence. Colonial Argentina had few reasons to import slaves (most of them were domestic servants) and while plantation-like systems did exist to our shame in Argentina, the manpower was composed by Indians and Criollos. And most governments were opposed to slavery at least in principle. In practice, slave-like conditions happened (like the virtual slave conditions of quebracho tanin extraction, directed by British interests)
Maybe an earlier development of cotton, quebracho extraction and perhaps even worldwide popularization of yerba mate might reach the point that the Indian/Criollo population is so decimated that the importation of slaves are needed. But those developments happenned after independence. And I shudder to think what kind of dystopian events are required for such a large scale death and slave trade in 19th century Argentina... Awful things already happened on OTL, but I rather not think how broken would that kind of country be entering the 20th century.
Wiki has a good article in the subject.
However, a majority is an unlikely outcome, even with a POD before independence. Colonial Argentina had few reasons to import slaves (most of them were domestic servants) and while plantation-like systems did exist to our shame in Argentina, the manpower was composed by Indians and Criollos. And most governments were opposed to slavery at least in principle. In practice, slave-like conditions happened (like the virtual slave conditions of quebracho tanin extraction, directed by British interests)
Maybe an earlier development of cotton, quebracho extraction and perhaps even worldwide popularization of yerba mate might reach the point that the Indian/Criollo population is so decimated that the importation of slaves are needed. But those developments happenned after independence. And I shudder to think what kind of dystopian events are required for such a large scale death and slave trade in 19th century Argentina... Awful things already happened on OTL, but I rather not think how broken would that kind of country be entering the 20th century.
Wiki has a good article in the subject.