Sicne we got a lot of threads of making succesfull empires even bigger, I decided to make one about the Brazilian empire, the idea is to have Brazil to take every window of oportunity that rose in the 19th century to make it as Big possible, the results are:
Corrientes, entre rios and missiones provinces, from Argentina: There are two windows, the first platinean war in 1821 and the second in 1851, those provinces are limited by the Paraná river and would allow a natural defence line between Brazil and Argentina. There was some pression OTL on those two wars to attack these provinces, but on the first case the war turned in a Stalemate and Dom Pedro I decided to sign a peace treaty, since his support between the people was fading and also it would take too much resources and manpower to move all the way to the Paraná River. This also could make Britain turn against Brazil. In the second platinean war, there was no annexation effort (even tough Prime Minister Marquis of Porto Alegre wanted to take those provinces) since Dom Pedro II didn't wanted to turn Brazil into a expansionist empire and he also was fearfull of making Argentina a enemy for life.
Uruguay (Cisplatina). Had Brazil fought better in the platinean war of 1821, or had Dom Pedro I spent more resources there, Brazil would have kept Cisplatina. The main problem with that is that it would increase the Brazilian-Argentinean border, making it harder to defend it in case of war, and also the region was spanish speaking so it would take years to integrate it, while the argentinians had enought resources to supply rebels and even make local garrison commanders change sides in case of a rebellion, and so the government prefered to create Uruguay as a buffer state, and it worked.
Paraguay (minus the chaco area). Some jingoist politicians wanted to annex Paraguay after the Paraguayan war, while others prefered to split it with Argentina, but the problem in both cases is that Paraguay was spanish speaking, it was too much devastated because of the war and so it would take years to rebuild it and it would increase our border with Argentina, while a brazilian aligned paraguayan government would be a good buffer state between both countries.
Finally there is French Guyana. French Guyana was occupied by Portugal during the Napoleonic wars, but it was returned after the war, The second window of oportunity came almost a century later, in 1895 when France made a incursion to annex the brazilian state of Amapá. The invasion failed as local troops under Francisco Xavier da Veiga Cabral routed them, he could had persued them back into Guyana, but Brazil was in shambles after the republican coup, the 1890 crash, the blockade of Rio, the canudos conflict and so this idea was easily discarded.
had Brazil taken all the oportunities we had, the Empire would look like this:
It must be added that the 19th century would be very tourbulent for Brazil to integrate all those spanish speaking regions while guarding this huge border against a very hostile Argentina.
P.s. Sorry for all those spelling errors, I barely had any sleep last night.
Corrientes, entre rios and missiones provinces, from Argentina: There are two windows, the first platinean war in 1821 and the second in 1851, those provinces are limited by the Paraná river and would allow a natural defence line between Brazil and Argentina. There was some pression OTL on those two wars to attack these provinces, but on the first case the war turned in a Stalemate and Dom Pedro I decided to sign a peace treaty, since his support between the people was fading and also it would take too much resources and manpower to move all the way to the Paraná River. This also could make Britain turn against Brazil. In the second platinean war, there was no annexation effort (even tough Prime Minister Marquis of Porto Alegre wanted to take those provinces) since Dom Pedro II didn't wanted to turn Brazil into a expansionist empire and he also was fearfull of making Argentina a enemy for life.
Uruguay (Cisplatina). Had Brazil fought better in the platinean war of 1821, or had Dom Pedro I spent more resources there, Brazil would have kept Cisplatina. The main problem with that is that it would increase the Brazilian-Argentinean border, making it harder to defend it in case of war, and also the region was spanish speaking so it would take years to integrate it, while the argentinians had enought resources to supply rebels and even make local garrison commanders change sides in case of a rebellion, and so the government prefered to create Uruguay as a buffer state, and it worked.
Paraguay (minus the chaco area). Some jingoist politicians wanted to annex Paraguay after the Paraguayan war, while others prefered to split it with Argentina, but the problem in both cases is that Paraguay was spanish speaking, it was too much devastated because of the war and so it would take years to rebuild it and it would increase our border with Argentina, while a brazilian aligned paraguayan government would be a good buffer state between both countries.
Finally there is French Guyana. French Guyana was occupied by Portugal during the Napoleonic wars, but it was returned after the war, The second window of oportunity came almost a century later, in 1895 when France made a incursion to annex the brazilian state of Amapá. The invasion failed as local troops under Francisco Xavier da Veiga Cabral routed them, he could had persued them back into Guyana, but Brazil was in shambles after the republican coup, the 1890 crash, the blockade of Rio, the canudos conflict and so this idea was easily discarded.
had Brazil taken all the oportunities we had, the Empire would look like this:
It must be added that the 19th century would be very tourbulent for Brazil to integrate all those spanish speaking regions while guarding this huge border against a very hostile Argentina.
P.s. Sorry for all those spelling errors, I barely had any sleep last night.
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