Cantonese as dominant/official Chinese dialect

This is a linguistic WI that I happened to think of on a whim. The POD can be after 1900 if you want (and may be more likely then anyway).

What POD could make Cantonese the dominant spoken "dialect", instead of a northern one like Mandarin?
 

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This is a linguistic WI that I happened to think of on a whim. The POD can be after 1900 if you want (and may be more likely then anyway).

What POD could make Cantonese the dominant spoken "dialect", instead of a northern one like Mandarin?
Mandarin gained prominence under the Manchurian Qing dialect. It actually comes from Man Da Ren, or something akin to sir manchu. In particular, its the Beijing dialect of Mandarin.

If you want Cantonese to become dominant you need to have a southern located state and avoid a capital to the north.
 
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