Brazil on the Paraguay

If one looks at Brazil, its noticeable that most of the country is isolated from the coast by the country's beautiful cliffs.

What if Brazil's western border were on the Paraguay River? It would provide a link to the ocean for the interior.

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My answer hasn't changed. Brazil had too many rebellions during the nineteenth century for it to acquire/hold more hostile territory. You just risk the country balkanizing by giving it any more land.
 
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I think you would have to get the Paraguayans, but not all of them, somehow onboard with the Brazilian Empire project. I don't know enough Paraguayan story, through.

Otherwise, I don't think its worth it - Paraguay circa 19th century was a Malaria Hell Jungle of a country. It was pretty much an island in the middle of the continent, which is why the Paraguayan War was so hellish and reads more like a naval war than a normal land war.

The Empire's main interests lay southwards, in the Cisplatina. Taking over Cisplatina would allow the Empire to threaten Buenos Aires. The House of Bragança had old plans of taking over the Plata, and a victory in Cisplatina might allow them to get close to it. At that point, the Paraguayans might as well join the Brazilian Empire under the threat of the Brazilianwank Empire.
 
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I think the best way to make this work is during the colonization period. The portuguese tried to expand their power south many times, the three southernmost brazilian states (Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul) being most a result of this expansion. So a more successfull portuguese expansion (acquiring more Missiones territories and keeping the Colonia do Sacramento, for example) would be the best way to acquire a border on the Paraguay and Paraná rivers IMO .
 
It would hurt Brazil a lot as it was said above. Paraguay was so isolated and underdeveloped that the alliance officers had tremendous supply problems there.

Paraguay circa 19th century was a Malaria Hell Jungle of a country. It was pretty much an island in the middle of the continent, which is why the Paraguayan War was so hellish and reads more like a naval war than a normal land war.

Yes, most of the cities were on the Paraguay river.

My answer hasn't changed. Brazil had too many rebellions during the nineteenth century for it to acquire/hold more hostile territory. You just risk the country balkanizing by giving it any more land.

I find extremely difficult for Brazil to be balkanized, but it would be poorer since we would have to deal with a fully spanish and guarani speaking province.

However they could split without balkanizing the rest of Brazil. If they keep resisting draining all the resources for some decades, the empire could simple give independence to it as a puppet regime. It is difficult for they to break free with a war, however, as we know what happened OTL.
 
Could Paraguay be turned into something akin to a Grand Duchy, a Protectorate or a March? Get a relative of the Orleans-Bragança to rule it directly in the name of the Crown, or a trusted apointee.

Another possibility would be a Personnal Union between Brazil and Paraguay under the same Monarch. Paraguay is still mostly independent but it enjoys Brazilian protection against the Platineans.

Essentially, it would be a semi-autonomous border province that pretty much exists to keep the Paraguayans in, and Argentineans and maybe an expansionist ATL!Peru-Bolivia out.

It does run counter to the centralizing and unitarian tendencies of the Brazilian Empire.
 
It already happened de facto in OTL. Brazilian foreign policy in the La Plata subsystem was guided by the founding principle of the free navigation of the La Plata basin, including the Paraguay river, which was achieved through war with Argentina and then bilateral treaties with Paraguay and Uruguay in the 1850’s, iirc. Those waterways were already heavily in use by Brazilians in the 19th century, there is no need for Brazil to annex territory itself.
 
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