Plata, the most unique nation in the Commonwealth of Nations, and perhaps argued to be the most toughest of the nations that are apart of the Commonwealth. The whole reason for this is its history of struggle and survival.
Of course long before the British even came knocking on the door, the Spanish colonized the Southern Cone and created the
Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata, with Buenos Aires as the capital. However their rule wouldn’t last forever as eventually during the Napoleonic Wars with Spain being allied to France, the British ended up taking over much of the territory with the aid of the Portuguese in Brazil, but it didn’t happen over night as it took a couple years until resistance was crushed by the British military thanks to further reinforcements. Eventually by 1808, the Spanish Empire seeing itself already in decline as much of its colonies in the New World were now revolting for independence and with its economy going down the toilet, Spain had no choice by to make a deal with the British Empire.
Dealing being that at least much of the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata would be given to Great Britain, but Spain would still get to keep what would become part of modern day Bolivia and Paraguay and parts of Chile. Without much of a choice the Spanish accepted the British’ demands as they couldn’t afford more heavily losses. So as a result Britain ended up gaining new vast territory in South America.
Of course at first many Spanish inhabitants weren’t happy being ruled by another nation, so there was a few revolts one famous being the
May 22nd Revolt (which occurred in the year of 1810) in which Carlos María de Alvear, José Miguel Carrera, and José de San Martín led a violent uprising in Buenos Aires as they attempted to fight for independence from the British Empire. Of course the revolt was a failure due to already heavy British presence in areas around the Paraná River, Córdoba, and of course Montevideo. So as a result the rebellion was crushed and Carlos María de Alvear was captured and executed for treason against the crown, San Martín although captured and destined for execution the British changed their mind and instead sent him to the penal colony of New South Wales (where of course he ended up escaping in 1818 and fleeing to Peru where he ended up assisting in the Latin American wars of independence). Only José Miguel Carrera was the lucky one as he was able to escape to Chile and never be captured.
A few years later in 1814, the British end up passing the
Montevideo Act in which gave recognition to Roman Catholicism and the Spanish language and Spanish traditions across the now newly named British South America. Although many Spanish speakers weren’t that happy, they accepted it.
But there was new problems for the British territory, as it was surrounded by unfriendly neighbors often most of which were governed by leaders who ruled for life in which the British saw as “failure democracy”. And of course north of British South America was the newly independent Empire of Brazil which made it very uneasy for those in British South America, because eventually Brazil ended up warring the British Empire over control of the “royal colony” of Banda Oriental (OTL Uruguay) in a war called the Oriental War (1825-1830) in which even though at first the Brazilians were successful at occupying much of the colony, the British would end up sending many troops from elsewhere in the empire which ended up not only regaining much of Banda Oriental but gained new territory (along with the British bombarding the ports of Rio de Janeiro, Recife, and Santos) in which was annexed to the Royal Colony of Banda Oriental.
Later on in 1835, the British passed the
Representation Act in which established the
Congress of the Domain. Basically put it now meant any landowner over 25 years of age could become a representative for Congress, which ensured the British colonial interests. And even the British were kind enough to allow Spanish inhabitants to run for office. So as a result the royal colonies were scrapped and replaced with royal provinces. But it still meant that the British had full control over affairs and economics and representatives could not enacted laws without approval from the British parliament in London. But it was the best anyone could agree upon without going violent.
Well people ended up going violent anyway in a period known as the
Grim Period (lasting from 1846-1859) in which apparently the Representation Act wasn’t enough and even though it allowed representation for the people in the Domain, there were various problems with it. Government after responsible representation required a huge balance. Soon two political groups emerged: conservatives and liberals. The Conservatives (mostly being landowners) sought to maintain the current free trade and advocated a future confederation that would allow the self-government of each province individually, depositing foreign representation in Britain. The Liberals, on the other hand, sought a federal union and the creation of a constitution that governed the entire Domain and they were mostly protectionist and industrialists. And tensions rose and became more evidence in every election as there was increasing political violence between both groups as well as tensions between British inhabitants and the Spanish inhabitants.
But thankfully it didn’t end in total civil war or British military rule, as in 1859 both sides ended up meeting in the city of Paraná. There majority of political leaders agreed on a better solution in which all royal provinces would act together, that none would establish any independent diplomatic relations with other provinces or other nations (within Latin America), and that Buenos Aires would be the capital of any future union. That being said this became known as the
Treaty of Paraná which resulted in a peaceful end to the Grim Period.
And interestingly enough the British upon hearing it were happy and decided that the people of the Domain have earned themselves the Dominionhood. As a result on May 1st, 1860, the
British South America Act was signed in British parliament in London and was approved by Queen Victoria in which the Domain would no longer exist and all royal provinces in British South America would become apart of a dominion. As a result the nation of Plata was born (which got its named from the original name of the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata) and
Dominion of Plata was created making it the very first dominion created by the British Empire.
And all seemed well at first through the first couple of years until the year 1864. In which Paraguay (then run by President Francisco Solano López) declared war on the new Dominion of Plata and Empire of Brazil. As a result this came with complete surprise by Platans and within a single week the Province of Corrientes was almost completely occupied by Paraguayan forces. Thus beginning the
Paraguayan War (lasting from 1864-1870) in which was the first war Plata fought as a nation and for the first time it had to rely on other help being the Empire of Brazil which it was to create an alliance with. Of course the British Empire did in fact send much aid to Plata, but during the first year of the war, Plata had to rely on itself and Brazil’s help to crush Paraguay. And thankfully Brazil and Plata won resulting much of Paraguay losing its territory to what is now Brazil and Plata (to which makes Paraguay look like it is now border-wise), and interestingly enough the Platan military captured López and executed him for his crimes against the people of Paraguay, Brazil, and Plata. However right after the war the alliance with the Empire of Brazil ended and Plata was now alone once more, but at least Queen Victoria was kind enough to visit Plata in 1870 to which she visited the memorial sites of those who died in the war.
Throughout the rest of the 1880’s and 1890’s, the nation became more developed and industrialized as many immigrants coming from Italy, German, Netherlands, and Spain came to Plata where they ended up contributing to the development of the nation and made Plata become the most diverse place in the British Empire as it became known as the “Melting Pot of the Empire” (Plus even before the 1880’s, Plata was already somewhat diverse as the first prime minister in Plata’s history
Bartolome Mitre was in fact born to Greek immigrants in Buenos Aires). Of course at the same time Plata paid heavy attention to the rest of South America as it still was being plagued by dictatorships and wars here and there.
Eventually the 20th century would come to Plata bringing a century of massive change that the nation went through. In World War I, Plata would end up assisting Britain in Europe (even though there was plenty of those who weren’t happy with fighting in a war far away from Plata) and as a result the
Battle of Gallipoli would end up becoming a significant battle for Plata in the First World War as unlike for Australia and New Zealand, the battle is considered by many Platans as Plata’s entrance into the world arena. In 1919, Plata would grant sufferage to women across the nation and by 1924 the nation ended up surpassing many of the other British dominions in economic development and labor laws. But of course then came the Great Depression which saw many Platans becoming unemployed and homeless and Radical Party (being left-wing and pro-labor rights) lost its popularity by the early 1930’s.
But elsewhere in the world being in Europe saw the rise of fascism in Italy, Spain, and Germany which ended up laying the foundations for World War II, which fired its first shots of global war once more when Hitler launched an invasion into Poland. Once again Plata assisted Britain just like the rest of the British Empire, and of course there was many Platans who were against being involved in Britain’s war as some saw Plata being dragged into wars without asking. However many Platans of German, Italian, and even many young Platans (both English and Spanish speaking) argued that fascism was a global threat to society and that if Plata didn’t get involved in the war in Europe then fascism would end up sweeping across South America like wildfire seeing that Plata was living on a continent with nations governed by corrupt officials or unfair governments.
As a result Platans fought mercilessly against the Nazis and Italians in the European theater and Plata would end up becoming well acknowledged by the rest of the British Empire for heavily participating in the
Italian campaign (1942-1945) as Plata sent a total of 35,000 troops to liberate Italy from fascist rule (Plata also sent the most troops out of anyone else besides Britain in the British Empire as Canada sent 25,890, British Raj sent 20,000, and New Zealand only sent 8,668 to help liberate Italy). Of course World War II ended with the surrender of Japan in 1945, but it only resulted in Plata having itself enter a new problem it had to deal with being the Cold War of course.
Although at first Plata was allied to the United States and NATO during the early Cold War, it all came to a change when the US began supporting Latin American dictatorships which were known for atrocities. US of course didn’t care as long those nations were against communist and as a result Plata slowly began to grew distant and it’s breaking point would be during the Brazilian 1964 coup d’etat in which the Brazilian military overthrew the government of Brazil and established a military dictatorship. Since Plata at this point had gain vast intelligence across Latin America it would end up quickly finding out that the US supported the coup. As a result of this Plata was enraged as it now saw the United States as a puppet master controlling Latin American nations. Although Plata was against communism, it became absolutely against the United States during much of the Cold War to the point that Plata ended up ending diplomatic relations with the US and to make it even more surprising is that the nation of Plata ended up joining as a member of the
Non-Aligned Movement.
During the Cold War, Plata would end up creating its own nuclear weapons in order to use it in case of possible future wars with neighboring South American nations. And furthermore Plata would end up becoming a strong ally to Israel (which as a result instead of Israel making relations with Apartheid South Africa, it instead made full relations with Plata) and later become an important trade partner and ally to Australia and New Zealand. Military-wise Plata ended up becoming more and more militarized and even went far enough with making all women (18-30) eligible for conscription in the year of 1970 and during that same year the
Plata Act was passed in British parliament and approved by Queen Elizabeth II in which made Plata completely independent as Britain could no longer be in charge of approving Platan laws.
Eventually though came the 1980’s being the decade that brought great change in Plata. In which during 1982, the president/dictator of Chile, Augusto Pinochet declared war on Plata as it wanted control of Fireland and parts of Patagonia, even going far to state that Plata “stole” it from Chile. As a result the
Patagonia War began and lasted until 1985, which interestingly enough resulted in Plata not only defeating Chile, but ended up going further by liberating the nation from authoritarianism. As a result Plata ended up capturing Pinochet alive and placed him on trial for his crimes against humanity to which the Chilean people then executed him. After that from 1985-1988 in Chile became known as the
Mandate Period in which Plata with permission by the UN, controlled Chile when it came to government (basically Plata allowed Chileans to make their own laws and regulations, but the government at the time was controlled by Plata), but trade and economics were still maintained by the Chileans. Eventually the Mandate Period ended in 1988, after Plata was able to establish a parliamentary democracy in Chile based similar on Plata’s own government system. As a result of this Plata became famous across the world for being the first Commonwealth nation to liberate a nation from authoritarianism.
Eventually at this same time across South America saw the decline of authoritarianism and dictatorships in which many nations became democracies. Whether or not this was from Plata’s influence or not is still disputed. Plata would later join the
Mercosur in 1991, where it began to make better relations with the rest of South America, and currently there are many Platans who are proposing a currency similar to the euro, in which many dub this proposed currency as the “crux” (as a nod to the Southern Cross constellation which is seen throughout much of South America). Also currently Plata has been heavily involved in UN peacekeeping forces worldwide especially in Rwanda (Plata was heavily involving in saving many Rwandans during the Rwanda genocide), and was heavily involved in the Bosnian War in which Plata sent a total of 3,000 peacekeepers to Bosnia.
As of now Plata has surpassed the nation of Slovenia and Spain in on the HDI making it currently ranked 26th on the Human Development Index and recently surpassed Nigeria by GDP (PPP) as it currently sits at 24th place. Living standards are even better than they were previously four decades ago. Same-sex marriage was already legalized in Plata in 2006 (even though abortion is still a hotly debated issue, as it is only legally done for cases of incest, rape, and maternal life). Currently Vatican City has a pope who was born in Plata (making Pope Francis the first pope from a Commonwealth nation). And as of right now the country of Plata is trying to get India and Brazil (Jair Bolsonaro never comes to power) to have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council (and rumors have it that Plata is also trying to get Australia a permanent seat on the Security Council, however it is unknown if it this is just a hoax or not). And still the nation is a loyal member to the Commonwealth of Nations and is one of the many handful of Commonwealth realms as Plata still has the Queen of Britain as head of state and a governor-general (although older generations aren't happy by this, the young generations of Spanish speakers don't really give a damn since they are used to having the Queen around).
