WI: 20th Century Mesoamerican Fascist Great Power

[Sierra]

Mexico has frequently been a rarity as a mover and shaker in alternate history timelines, in spite of its very strategic position in the New World. It has a lot of potential with some butterflies.Unfortunately, U d not have much in the way of knowledge when it come to Central American history or culture.

So....I have a two fold question. First...what would it take to allow Mexico to develop into an industrialized power in the New World by the 20th Century. POD can be almost anytime, though reason suggests it would be sometime after colonization, for obvious reasons. Preferably one with the potential of one of the larger European powers, such as France, or even Germany.

Second, I am interested in how some form of "Native Nazism" that can animate this state. Since one of the chief draws to the Nazis as villains include the mystique they have as a result of their association with Germanic paganism and the occult. A homegrown version, layered with the symbolism of the Aztecs and other Mesoamerican cultures.

 

[Deleted member 109224]

Mexico is by it's very nature a multiethnic/multiracial country, so Nazi-style purity of blood politics isn't going to get far. Maybe they could proclaim to be heirs of both the Aztecs and the Conquistadors - the best of both worlds.

If you want a stabbed-in-the-back myth, the US is the obvious country to go after.

IIRC, Theodore Roosevelt supported the idea of Mexico gobbling up Central America.


Imperial Mexico centralizing, consolidating, and modernizing would be a possible route as it would open up Mexican Leadership to political ideas popular in Hapsburg Europe.

 

[Alterwright]

Theodore Roosevelt was in support of Mexico taking control of Central America? How would they do that?

 

[Sierra]

One idea that had occurred to me was using the Conquistadors and people with Spanish blood as the equivalent of Jews for the purposes of whoever is in charge, having an obvious Indian focus to the movement. In a way, sort of a "revenge of the historical losers" idea, with opposition to the history of colonial excesses being taken to the opposite extreme.

 

[Hagre]

Would this Mexico push for a pan-Hispanic narrative similar to that of Franco?

 

[Sierra]

Do you mean Francisco Franco? The Hispanidad?

 

[Snowstalker]

There's plenty of precedent for a semi-colorblind Latin American fascism, based on a combination of economic corporatism/class collaborationism, Hispanidad identity, and Catholicism. Note that this is distinct from the sort of US-backed dictatorships that dominated Latin America during the Cold War, in that a regime like Pinochet's Chile was pro-American and pro-market.

 

[Sierra]

There's plenty of precedent for a semi-colorblind Latin American fascism, based on a combination of economic corporatism/class collaborationism, Hispanidad identity, and Catholicism. Note that this is distinct from the sort of US-backed dictatorships that dominated Latin America during the Cold War, in that a regime like Pinochet's Chile was pro-American and pro-market.

Socialism/Corpratism and Hispanic identity are all good. I am, though, hoping to create an ethnic identity along the lines of the Nazis and their focus on German identity and blood, as well as a sort of Aztec pagan occultism and such.

 

[Gentleman Biaggi]

Socialism/Corpratism and Hispanic identity are all good. I am, though, hoping to create an ethnic identity along the lines of the Nazis and their focus on German identity and blood, as well as a sort of Aztec pagan occultism and such.

that would most likely have to be a pre-1900 topic, but maybe mexico goes hog wild, invades america in WWI, America responds angrily, annexes some small territory (probabaly just the baja states if we’re being honest), and Mexico falls into yet another deadly civil war. With this, a neo-Aztec group appears in the Basin and begins to slowly build up in strength. I don’t think they’d be occult, but I could see them gaining some minor power and causing problems for the USA. The problem is they now need to 1.) become a superpower 2.) not piss america off into a coup d’état, which are both very difficult, but possible.

 

[Hagre]

Do you mean Francisco Franco? The Hispanidad?

Yes, that's the concept I was referring to.

Socialism/Corporatism and Hispanic identity are all good. I am, though, hoping to create an ethnic identity along the lines of the Nazis and their focus on German identity and blood, as well as a sort of Aztec pagan occultism and such.

If you want that, I think you'd need some sort of nationalistic revival centered around the glory of the Hispanic race's origins and Mesoamerican civilizations. As you pointed out earlier, the Mexicans/Hispanics of Spanish descent could be portrayed as "the Jews" of the New World or something along those lines but I don't think there'd be much of a focus on Aztec paganism.

 

[Sierra]

I put this in After-1900 because the objective is in the 1930s and 40s, even though it necessarily has to start centuries earlier. If thats reason to move it, I suppose it should be.

 

[Stalingrad]

One idea that had occurred to me was using the Conquistadors and people with Spanish blood as the equivalent of Jews for the purposes of whoever is in charge, having an obvious Indian focus to the movement. In a way, sort of a "revenge of the historical losers" idea, with opposition to the history of colonial excesses being taken to the opposite extreme.

Yeah, that's not going to happen when the indigenous groups have always been seen as chains to the country.

Mexican politicians have never taken real interest into that aspect, they have always been seen as responsible for the backwardness in the country.

 

[Heldenhammer]

I can't think of a way for a Nazi-esque Mexico to pop up, but if an government similar to Vargas' Brazil popped up during the early Great Depression, I think it could develop into something similar to OTL Spain. If you want something like the Krauts, though, I think you'll need a huge amount more natives, a stabbed in the back idea, and other countries developing similar ideologies.

 

[BigBlueBox]

IIRC, Theodore Roosevelt supported the idea of Mexico gobbling up Central America.

Do you have a source on this? Teddy might not care who rules Guatemala or Belize, but he definitely wouldn't tolerate any other country encroaching onto Panama.