How would Argentina look like if the pampas region was colonised by Portugal.

The pampas is a ~750000km2 temperate region that stretches from the southern tip of Brazil, all of Uruguay and the North eastern part of Argentina, a very flat and fertile region. In otl Spain didn't pay it that much attention due to Peru and Mexico bringing it gold and silver. So WI the region and otl Argentina was colonised by the Portuguese how it turn out.




More info: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pampas
 
Last edited:
Simple answer--not as we know it.

Why? A good deal of it was pretty cleverly snatched away by Portugal thanks to the bandeirantes and others right up to the end of the colonial era. I think the trick would be to get Portugal more successful in the early Uruguay colonies, and maybe screw Spain a bit harder globally than they already were screwed. Maybe then they'd expand influence down to Buenos Aires region, which is a pretty solid port although a lot of its importance and power was because of how Argentina evolved OTL.

Argentina as we know it will pretty much just be the interior territories of OTL Argentina. Maybe Chile or an Andean state can grab it if independence for Latin America still happens in a remotely similar pattern, but it's doubtful they can hold onto it since transport difficulties and regionalisms and all. It'll be split with some state that probably includes Buenos Aires and the Rio de la Plata area--I don't see Brazil holding onto it since they had enough issues holding onto what became Brazil OTL as it was. It possibly might include Uruguay and Rio Grande do Sul as well.
 
do you mean how would Argentina look culturally/socially without this region, or how would it look on a map with the pampas regions having been annexed by the Portuguese at some point and therefore being part of OTL's Brazil/Paraguay/Uruguay (or it's own country)?
 
do you mean how would Argentina look culturally/socially without this region, or how would it look on a map with the pampas regions having been annexed by the Portuguese at some point and therefore being part of OTL's Brazil/Paraguay/Uruguay (or it's own country)?

Question is WI Portugal colonises all of otl Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay
 
depends on when your POD is. Once Spanish inhabitants start thinking the region is theirs, Portugal doesn't stand a chance. They couldn't populate Uruguay when they first wanted it, and couldn't hang on to it after taking it forcefully.

The Portuguese were no different than the Spanish, in that they mostly were extractionists (mining/cash crops). settling the Pampas wasn't on their agenda. They couldn't even populate Brazil, and now you want to double the farm/ranch land? If you magically wisk away the Spanish opposition, you're likely to see the same general trend as OTL, just with a different nationality. Sparse population until the massive European migration of the 19th/20th centuries combined with increase agricultural technology. probably independence movements along the same timelines.
 
depends on when your POD is. Once Spanish inhabitants start thinking the region is theirs, Portugal doesn't stand a chance. They couldn't populate Uruguay when they first wanted it, and couldn't hang on to it after taking it forcefully.

The Portuguese were no different than the Spanish, in that they mostly were extractionists (mining/cash crops). settling the Pampas wasn't on their agenda. They couldn't even populate Brazil, and now you want to double the farm/ranch land? If you magically wisk away the Spanish opposition, you're likely to see the same general trend as OTL, just with a different nationality. Sparse population until the massive European migration of the 19th/20th centuries combined with increase agricultural technology. probably independence movements along the same timelines.

While I agree that the Spanish would fight for the region as they considered it rightfully theirs, keep in mind that Portugal sent 200,000 settlers to America between 1530 and 1700 and another 600,000 settlers to the New World between 1700 and 1760 alone. This migratory movement was larger than the British Isles where some 750,000 migrated to the Americas before 1760, and the Spanish with 700,000.

The main issue is that Southern Brazil was ignored until the mid-18th century and as a result was left largely to frontier settlers and the Jesuits. Prior to 1700, Portuguese who did migrate to Brazil preferred the Northeast where sugarcane and tobacco plantations, as this was where the wealth was. After the gold boom, Minas became the focus of the immigration. The problem with these areas of settlement was the same as in the Caribbean or even the American South, where tropical diseases were prevalent and led to the white population experiencing a negative growth rate. Despite this, Brazil had 1.6 million whites at the time of independence.

The Portuguese Crown began to pay attention to Southern Brazil in the 18th century rather late in the game, settling Santa Catarina, Parana and Rio Grande Du Sul. The crown sponsored the Azorean settlement of Santa Catarina (today's Florianópolis) between 1747-1756 with some 6,000 settlers, and it grew rapidly, at rates comparable to those found in other temperate areas.
 
Last edited:
Argentina as we know it will pretty much just be the interior territories of OTL Argentina. Maybe Chile or an Andean state can grab it if independence for Latin America still happens in a remotely similar pattern, but it's doubtful they can hold onto it since transport difficulties and regionalisms and all. It'll be split with some state that probably includes Buenos Aires and the Rio de la Plata area--I don't see Brazil holding onto it since they had enough issues holding onto what became Brazil OTL as it was. It possibly might include Uruguay and Rio Grande do Sul as well.
Assuming the Portuguese keep the area, Chile might not be able to become independent and, maybe, Peru remains a Spanish stronghold:
In OTL, the Chilenean revolutionaries were defeated in the battle of Rancagua in 1814 and escaped to Argentina. A combined army of Argentines and Chileneans refugees crossed the Andes in 1817 and defeated the Spanish. By the early 1820s, the Spanish held Peru and Bolivia and were facing a two front war, with an independent Colombia to the North and a Chilenean army boosted by the former Argentine army enveloping them in a continental sized pincer maneuver.

Remove Argentina from the equation and, assuming a butterfly net or an ATL independence struggle, the Chilenean revolutionaries have no where to escape and enact a "Plan B" so to speak if they are defeated. With Chile, Bolivia and Peru in their hands, even if restless, the Spanish have more resources to deal with Colombian revolutionaries.


Now, assuming Spain does not fight for those territories for whatever reasons (I don't know, maybe there is no Reconquista so the Spanish part of the Iberian peninsula remains in a struggle between catholic and Muslim kingdoms while Portugal discovers the Americas and expands there? Butterflies for South America would be huge, though), it may very well be that Portugal doesn't bother too much with the region, which ought to make any settlers take a rather independentist outlook to politics and who should rule over them. A rather unruly bunch.
 
Assuming the Portuguese keep the area, Chile might not be able to become independent and, maybe, Peru remains a Spanish stronghold:
In OTL, the Chilenean revolutionaries were defeated in the battle of Rancagua in 1814 and escaped to Argentina. A combined army of Argentines and Chileneans refugees crossed the Andes in 1817 and defeated the Spanish. By the early 1820s, the Spanish held Peru and Bolivia and were facing a two front war, with an independent Colombia to the North and a Chilenean army boosted by the former Argentine army enveloping them in a continental sized pincer maneuver.

Remove Argentina from the equation and, assuming a butterfly net or an ATL independence struggle, the Chilenean revolutionaries have no where to escape and enact a "Plan B" so to speak if they are defeated. With Chile, Bolivia and Peru in their hands, even if restless, the Spanish have more resources to deal with Colombian revolutionaries.

I don't think Portugal could take all of modern-day Argentina, just the coast and inland to a certain extent--I'm not sure where the most likely border would be. Spain is still likely to control the region on the other side of the Andes, which prior to the 18th century or so was by far the dominant region of Argentina. I'm not sure how much of a royalist stronghold that part of Argentina was OTL or might be TTL, so Chileans might find a place of refuge still. And you'll get a new landlocked country in South America (assuming they don't gain control of Patagonia in the future), since long-term stability of a trans-Andean state seems doubtful.
 
Top