How can a superpower emerge from South America?

One of my ideas for how both north Argentina and south Brazil could be united might be alternate Portuguese claims? Maybe like half of Brazil in the northern part could be given to Spain, with Portugal claiming everything south from there, maybe even Chile. This would make for a large Brazil that would contain the southern metropolises of Brazil as well as the Rio de la Plata.
 
South America is missing ONE thing in minerals, and that's coal. what it has for coal is of inferior quality. that's going to be the biggest drawback to industrialization. Otherwise, it has everything you need for being a superpower. Simplest comparison is to accept OTL boundaries, with different TL. Brazil has everything (except coal). Arable land, minerals. what it lacks is an inadequate founding setup. Argentina has the Pampas, and a decent mineral presence, but not staggering. No other single country has what it takes (geographically) to be a superpower. but they all have a lot to offer in terms of being part of a larger superpower.

IF you ignore present country boundaries and draw your boundaries and magically wave colonization into whatever you want it to be, it's ridiculously easy to wank a superpower out of a lot of portions of south america. So, Argentina with Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, Peru still united, even without taking a large portion of southern/Western Brazil, is going to have a huge power potential. Brazil doesn't need to expand, but if you add a chunk of uruguay, paraguay, northern argentina, you add to it's potential. let them jump buenos aires and take the mineral rich patagonia and arable southern pampas, or let them include all the pampas, you have kick ass potential.

that requires human change, which is open ended per the OP.

the biggest drawback, aside from how the colonization took place otl (which is hand waviumed away) is coal.
 
(Pulling some ideas from various Incan TLs)

Have Atahualpa avoid being captured; the Spanish are eventually ambushed in an inhospitable part of the Andes or in the Atacama Desert, many are captured and of the Spanish conquistadors that survive, many are cooped through a combination of gold, isolation from each other, minor titles or imprisonment. Some of the less religious Spaniards are quick to join the Sapa Inca at the sight of gold and begin to disseminate knowledge of many common European war technologies such as iron and steel, cannons, crossbows, and gunpowder. The Inca are also able to capture several horses which are near immediately bred and become a sign of wealth and nobility.

When the next Spanish force of conquistadors arrive from Central America, they are quickly met by Incan crossbowmen and an organized military force that sees them retreating back to their ships. This will be the last conflict between the Spanish and the Inca for quite a while, as the Inca advance into what in another world would be called the Colombian Andes to establish a frontier with the Spanish settlements along the Spanish Main.

Word of the Inca spreads quickly throughout Europe, especially their great wealth. The Portuguese in particular begin sending various exploratory missions along the coast of South America, rounding the Straits of Magellan and establishing a diplomatic dialogue with the Sapa Inca in OTL's Valparaiso. Initially wary, the Inca are quick to welcome the Portuguese once it's clear that they're not the Spanish despite their similar language, and exchange gold for muskets while expressing interest in other European goods, specifically animals and weapons.

Feitorias are established by the Portuguese in OTL's Valparaiso, Ica, and Guayaquil that quickly begin a mass importation of many European goods to the Inca in exchange for gold. Originally, muskets are the predominant good but the trade dwindles to nothing quickly as the production of arms booms in the Inca Empire, similar to a phenomena in Japan also instigated by the Portuguese. Unlike in Japan however, many Portuguese sailing for Portugal are quick to settle down in and around the feitorias, or even major cities such as Quito and Cuzco directly under the Sapa Inca's patronage and produce European artisan goods. The Sapa Inca's patronage of these individuals lead to something of a migration boom from first Portugal, then later other European states with trade links with Portugal such as the Low Countries and England. Talented individuals began migrating to the Inca's court for a life of wealth and patronage as stories and even locally produced goods from the Inca trickled back on Portuguese ships. Later historians would strongly support the view of the Inca's patronage being a final continuation of the European Renaissance and ultimately label it the first great brain drain in history.

Many of these men would marry local women due to a near complete scarcity of European women and would eventually disappear save for a few European features cropping up once every few generations. Another result of this migration was that the Quechua word for Europeans became synonymous with the word for 'Portuguese', as well as lead to the birth of the 'Portuguese Faction' in the Sapa Inca's court that brought with it many of the customs and traditions of Europe's nobility, albeit with a more mercantile twist, as many of these men's wealth was originally made in trading.

Another major societal change in the Empire was related to religion; while many of the original traders turned subjects were Catholic, many of the individuals migrating from Europe were intellectuals with tenuous relations with the Church. The Sapa Inca, indifferent to religion, simply let be what be as long as all properly worshiped the Emperor which resulted in a rather odd syncretic Christianity in the Empire. First of all was worship of the Emperor as though he were a Saint, and correlating Inti to being the biblical God in another form. The Emperor's line was directly descended from the son of God/Inti, and thus higher than God's representative on Earth, the Pope. God gave the Old and New World the same Messiah at different times(Jesus was reborn once more).

Needless to say, the Pope was not amused. This odd syncretism took root due to cultural traditions of European immigrants clashing with societal pressures in Tawantinsuyu to conform, and the lack of a state or even missionaries to enforce strict Catholic theology, combined with the clashing ideologies of many of the most prestigious Christians living in the Empire that in another world would be critical theologians and philosophers in the Reformation. This syncretic Christian offshoot would be mostly restricted to the descendants of European immigrants but would see some aspects slowly dilute into the Incan Pantheon of gods over time. One side effect of this would be the proliferation of an alternate Bible headed by the Sapa Inca's inner circle of 'Portuguese' that would validate this syncretic faith. Mixing together the New Testament, Andean oral history/legends, and the theology of these would-be Church reformers, the result was something that when squinted at, shared some similarities with the tenants of the Reformation. This Bible wouldn't be the first book printed in the Inca Empire but would quickly become one of the most widespread(the Printing Press came over with immigrants from the Low Countries). The Empire would also see relatively high proliferation of literacy over the next hundred years since its first contact with Europe due to Incan interest in diffusing knowledge evolving from a pragmatic decision and past practice into an ideology in and of itself that saw basic literacy and mathematics spreading through many villages in the Empire through communal learning and the sharing of books as property of the community, weaving into the pre-existing strong village social structure in the Andes.

The 'Portuguese' faction would quickly align with expansionist interests in the Empire and advocate expansion down the Rio de La Plata; OTL's Buenos Aires had been lightly settled by the Portuguese as a waystation to the Inca, and the mercantile interests of the Portuguese Faction saw control of the river as vital to trade interests of the Empire. As a result by 1590 the Inca controlled both sides of the river down to the outskirts of Buenos Aires, which boomed and eclipsed previous feitorias as the primary trade point between the Empire and the Portuguese. The city itself was a mix of Portuguese, 'Portuguese', and Quechua traders, with Portuguese being the lingua franca but the majority of the populace being dark-skinned as a result of mixing with the Quechua.

Time would pass and the Empire would largely continue to secure its frontiers, facilitating trade with Europe, and fostering the spread of European innovations throughout the Empire. Tribes such as the Mapuche and the Guarani were pushed out of OTL Paraguay and Chile and into Central Brazil/Patagonia respectively, as the Empire slowly encroached on their lands. Other lands settled or nominally claimed by the Inca resulted in what's OTL Rio Grande do Sul, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile being recognized by Portugal(the only European power that mattered in this context) as theirs. Some individual settlements such as Porto Alegre were recognized as Portuguese due to their already being established there but the Empire was largely in control of the hinterland either with settlers or just militarily. Trade ties between the colony of Brazil, the Empire, Portugal, and Portugal's African possessions were strengthened. The only major city of the Inca on the east coast of South America was Montevideo, which was established as a site to trade with other Europeans such as the English and the French, whose trade was also growing.

The Spanish in the meantime had focused much of their energies that would otherwise have gone into South America were dedicated to OTL's American South. Military forts were established as far north as southern North Carolina, the Comanche had been subjugated, and settler colonies established throughout the region. The Spanish Main was largely ignored and saw few immigrants due to the lack of other interests in South America to spur its growth.

And because I'm starting to get bored, let's fastforward, cliffnotes style:

  • The Spanish invade and conquer Portugal, unable to conquer Brazil due to Incan intervention, Brazil new base of the Portuguese crown
  • The Portuguese become to the Inca what Brazil was to Britain during the Napoleonic Wars. Many of the feitorias are formally transferred to Incan control in good faith as part of Incan assistance
  • Free trade is established between PortuBrazil and the Inca, resulting in Quechua interests spreading throughout PortuBrazil's empire
  • Quechua overrun the Pacific coast of the Spanish Main but are unable to control the cities for long due to Spanish naval superiority in the Caribbean
  • Constant loss of cities on the Main sees the area depopulated, New Spain formally controls all of Spain's New World Empire
  • Peace made, Spain concedes the West Coast of the Spanish Main, ignites Incan interests in naval matters
  • Inca establish trade outposts in the Pacific, conquer Easter Island, establish colony on Australia, trade posts in Hawaii and New Zealand
  • Make contact with the Far East, usurp Spanish monopoly on Chinese trade(after Portugal fell, Spain conquered Macao, one of few colonies conquered)
  • Establish a trade port on Taiwan to trade with the Far East
  • Goa still a part of PortuBrazilian trade network, sees a Quechua quarter established
  • End result is that most of the PortuBrazilian trade network is used by the Inca, PortuBrazil is more or less a protectorate of the Inca, Inca begin their own maritime adventures
  • At some nondescript point, France overruns Spain
  • Inca strike, overrun the sparsely populated Spanish Main and Panama, begin supporting native insurrections in New Spain
  • Spanish Empire collapses, native states appear in Central America, Southern and Central Mexico, successor state based out of New Orleans controls Spanish Caribbean, Texas, the Mississippi, Northeastern Mexico, American South, and nominal control over Missouri River
  • Inca snag Macao, the Philippines, the Spanish Main, and conquer the American West Coast/Northwest Mexico, native states in former New Spain are protectorates
  • Inca dominate world trade with China, stupid wealthy, #1 navy in the world when combined with PortuBrazilian navy, have modern army and navy as a result of wars that span over thirty years to complete, and decent artisan economy

  • ....but are caught with their pants down during industrialization, much like OTL France
  • Some industries such as textiles, shipbuilding, and industrial farming but lack of important industrial resources like timber and coal hamper other industries
  • Considered THE Great Power of the New World, do not challenge in home turf, but not able to compete industrially. Return to a pre-contact situation where the Inca import their arms from the colonies despite being the designers of these arms and home to a very large population of researchers, innovators, and industrialists.
  • Many of their recent conquests become some of the first manufacturing hubs of the Empire as the resources for industrial development are located in the colonies. OTL Washington/BC becomes a major shipbuilding site, Northwestern Mexico/SoCal becomes home to Incan Steel using Native resources from Mexico and later Colorado, settled by Incan colonists late in the 19th century and formally ceded by not-New-Spain in New Orleans during a short and brief war.
  • In the mean time, Inca establish a Caribbean fleet and begin to tighten their stranglehold of the Pacific. Conquer Hawaii, conquer French Australia and Taiwan, colonize Alaska and Sakhalin, dominate Korean and Japanese economies. Aid PortuBrazil in conquering states in the East Indies, which is de facto the Portuguese-speaking arm of the Inca Empire.

  • ....and then came the combustion engine, earlier than OTL as a result of Incan obsession with alternate energy. Begins a proper industrial boom in the Empire with easily accessible power using New World oil. Economically dominate not-New-Spain in New Orleans despite poor relations as a result of Texan oil.
  • Empire maintains #1 navy in the world, uses economic and political power to back up PortuBrazilian African claims. Control almost entirety of Central Africa, from Central Namibia to Cameroon on the Western Coast, Sofala to Mogadishu on the East Coast, and everything in between. The Pink Corridor on steroids.
  • South America, Central America, West Coast, and Australia boom economically. As a block are the largest economy in the world twice over, even over the number two and three put together. Politically dominate Arabian coast due to old Portuguese trade routes, control majority of oil production in the world through soft power
  • Europe reks itself through a series of wars using industrial-era technologies and arms, Inca stay out
  • Inca form a political confederation like the EU to appease growing economic power of PortuBrazil that's ultimately dominated by the two as #1 and #2 respectively, partners, but account for the interests of smaller states, called the New World Union.
  • NWU consists of all of South America, Central America, the American OTL's NA West Coast + Rockies border states, Australia/New Zealand, Taiwan, Sakhalin, Greater Goa, various Filipino states, Macao, Java
  • not-New-Spain, Japan, Korea, Gulf States/Yemen, and all colonies are observer states, participate in economic trade zone
  • Most PortuBrazilian colonies have self-rule and are functionally independent outside of foreign policy; states in Angola, Mozambique, Zanzibar, Luanda, and Kongo are petitioning for full member status
  • Incan colonies are directly integrated into the state through a combo of cultural Emperor worship, sufficient local rule, high degree of social mobility between provinces, and economic and familial ties throughout the extended NWU
  • Incredibly varied in language and ethnicity, Quechua and PortuBrazilian Portuguese are the lingua france. Most fluent in both; Portuguese and Quechua form a patchwork throughout South America and the New World to the point where a third of PortuBrazil can vote for Incan legislature and viceversa. Other local languages include Spanish, Mayan, Mexican indigenous languages, French in Western Australia, Maori in New Zealand, etc.
  • #1 military power with fleets in all oceans, cultural superpower in the New World, the Pacific, and Africa, still very influential in Europe and India despite minimal political interests, largest economic block in the world four times over and tightly nit together. Joint military, joint foreign policy, fully powered legislature with a set of seats 'locked' to IncaPortuBrazil irrespective of demographics, other states get at least 1 seat, scales to demographics
If anyone's gonna comment about how everything goes right....well duh. This is condensed as hell to make an outline and highlights only major low points.
 
Thank you for the incredible amount big effort you put into this. :)Truly this is a sell though out answer. I truly appreciate it.:D
 
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