r/geography • u/MontroseRoyal Urban Geography • 16d ago
Argentina is the most British country in Latin America. Why? Discussion
I would like to expand upon the title. I believe that Argentina is not only the most ‘British’ country in Latin America, but the most ‘British’ country that was never formally colonized by the British themselves. I firmly believe this and will elaborate.
Let’s start with town names. In the Buenos Aires metro area alone; English & Irish town and neighborhood names are commonplace. Such as Hurlingham, Canning, Billinghurst, Wilde, Temperley, Ranelagh, Hudson, Claypole, Coghlan, Banfield, and even Victoria (yes, purposefully named after the Queen).
One of the two biggest football clubs in the capital has an English name, River Plate. And the sport was brought by some English immigrants. Curiously, Rugby and Polo are also very popular Argentina, unlike surrounding countries. For a long time, the only Harrods outside the UK operated in Buenos Aires too. Many Argentines are of partial English descent. When the English community was stronger, they built a prominent brick monument called “Tower of the English”. After the Falklands, it was renamed to “Tower of the Malvinas” by the government out of spite.
In Patagonia, in the Chubut province particularly, there is obviously the Welsh community with town names like Trelew, Eawson, and Puerto Madryn. Patagonian Welsh is a unique variety of the language that developed more or less independently for a few years with no further influence from English. Although the community and speakers now number little, Welsh traditions are a major tourist factor for Chubut.
There is a notable diaspora community of Scottish and their descendants as well. I remember once randomly walking into a large Scottish festival near Plaza de Mayo where there were many artisan vendors selling celtic merchandise with a couple of traditional Scottish dancers on a stage.
Chile has some British/Irish influence (who can forget Bernardo O’Higgins?), but seemingly not nearly to the same extent. The English community was rather small, so it doesn’t make much sense to me how they can have such a large impact. I guess my question is why Argentina? Of all places
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u/FlygonSA 16d ago
Most of the early Argentine Upper-class were British investors coming to the country to buy land for ranching or to invest in infrastructure/manufacturing, think stuff like railroads, telephones or some of the earlier export of the country such as meat, all of the slaughterhouses and canning plants were owned by the British.
This were very rich and powerful people that had a lot of influence in early Argentine society and most of them went to later found cities/colonies and civil associations such as sport clubs, specially football clubs.
It kinda made a lasting effect in Argentine society that made it admire the British way of living and the new non British Upper-Classes tried to replicate that as much as they could, that's why there is a lot of "British" looking neighborhood in major cities in Argentina or even a lots of english names for an spanish speaking country.
After WW2 most of this admiration went out of fashion and shifted to the US during the 50-60's and remains that way to this day, for example most gated communities try to emulate US suburban architecture and development style, if you go looking some of the northern neighborhoods of Buenos Aires you will see that it mostly looks like Florida.
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u/meldirlobor 16d ago edited 16d ago
Idk, the first time I went to San Isidro Acassuso, it reminded me a lot of places like Surrey. I used to go skateboarding there because it was one of the only places in Buenos Aires with downhill and quiet streets.
Edit. Lopez y Planes! Good People
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u/FlygonSA 16d ago
That's actually the idea of that neighborhood, Acassuso around the 1830's became a very "posh" place (as much of some of the surrounding neighborhood) and was full of rich businessman and landowners, it's even the place were Emilio Biecket used to live, the person who founded the first brewery in Argentina.
That neighborhood was made to cater to those people and that's why is so British looking, if you go about 40mins north you will find a place called Nordelta which follows that post-war suburban Florida looking development i mentioned.7
u/meldirlobor 16d ago
Tigre? I'd never been that far north. I know a lot of posh argentians have second houses along the "canals" there.
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u/These-Market-236 16d ago
Very good comment.
Although, i would contest the "most" in "Most of the early Argentine Upper-class were British". I mean, i believe that most of them were locals that admired the way of living of northern/western Europe (UK, France and Germany). In fact, I don't recall any well know British oligarchs.
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u/FlygonSA 16d ago
In fact, I don't recall any well know British oligarchs.
And you would be correct not to recall any and that's by design!, most of British investment into Argentina came from Free standing companies, what that means is that British companies would send their representatives to manage their assets located into the country and report back to Britain how everything was going
This representatives were those Upper-class individuals, being heads on local branches of foreign companies came with a really big pay, which also helped with political ambitions and how important those investments for the communities where they were settled also gave them a lot of political power, you don't have to look that far to find influential British companies in the early days of Argentine industrialization, like for example Liebig Meat Extracts, La Forestal or even River Plate Trust, Loan & Agency which was super important for British companies to be able to operate in Argentina and Uruguay→ More replies10
u/chrisarg72 16d ago
Which is also why a lot of the clubs are named in English (River Plate, Newells Old Boys, Banfield, Almirante Brown) despite them being very old clubs (River is older than Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Leeds, and Norwich to name a few )
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u/cuccir 16d ago edited 16d ago
You're correct.
The British had a policy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century of investing in Argentina to create a powerbase in Latin America, without colonising. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_investment_in_Argentina.
Why Argentina? It was relatively resource rich, closer than the west coast countries, and no direct competitor as you had with Brazil/Portugal and Mexico/USA. Its climate was probably little more suitable for the British as well!
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u/tricheb0ars 16d ago
So when should I bring up the Falklands?
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u/walker1867 16d ago
Technically the British are the indigenous people there. It hadn't previously been settled permanently before them.
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u/These-Market-236 16d ago edited 16d ago
Technically the British are the indigenous people there
Technically, no. The UN's C-24 committee states that they are settlers and that there are no indigenous groups native to the islands.
On top of that, while it is true that they first settled on the western island, the French had established a settlement on the eastern island a year earlier. Also, those British settlers left the islands voluntarily in 1744 (this is the origin of the famous plaque they left behind). The current settlers and their descendants have been there since 1833, after the British came back and expelled the Argentine authorities and most of it's settlers from the islands.Edit: In fact, one of Argentina's arguments is that before 1833, the British did not claim rights to the eastern island. A proof of this is that the western island was referred to as "Falkland Island" (singular) in British documents.
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u/30fps_is_cinematic 15d ago
How long do people have to live on a previously uninhabited island before they are considered indigenous to these lands?
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u/These-Market-236 15d ago
Opinion or international law?
Opinion: It's subjective.
International law: There is no defined condition. It's per case based.
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u/Thecna2 16d ago
Most of which is irrelevant as in the modern era we rely almost entirely on the wishes of the occupants, not some obscure legalistic argument from several hundred years earlier. Backed up by firepower.
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u/Backsight-Foreskin 16d ago
in the modern era we rely almost entirely on the wishes of the occupants
Unless they are Palestinian.
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u/These-Market-236 16d ago edited 16d ago
?
I mean, what you are saying is just your opinion and it doesn't correspond with international law, nor with current diplomatic situation of the conflict. But -just for the sake of the argument- even if it was true, i don't get the point of your comment.
Keep in mind that I'm replaying to someone arguing that the Islanders and "Technically Indigenous", which they are not. "Technically" they are British settlers.
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u/eldankus 16d ago
His point is that in today’s world we generally respect people’s right to self determination and the current inhabitants chose to remain in the UK
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u/These-Market-236 16d ago
Which would be an oversimplification of the subject and beside the point still.
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u/eldankus 16d ago
It’s not really but I get that Argentinians and only Argentinians are still confused and worked up over the issue.
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u/HCBot 16d ago
The UK did not have such a profound relationship with Argentina out of any sense of comraderie. It was a relationship that, at least for argentines, was (and still is) seen as exploitative. Yes, a lot of the british investment made Argentina into one of the most developed latin american countries. But there was also a whole side of scamming, manipulation and violence. The british even invaded Buenos Aires (unsuccesfully), twice. Also, look up the Roca - Runciman pact.
The 1982 war was simply the final conflict in the two countries' overall conflicting history.
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u/blue_strat 16d ago
Though there was also significant British investment in the Atacama where they'd found saltpetre across Chile, Bolivia and Peru. You needed that for making fertilizers and explosives. After a war in the 1880s, Chile took most of the relevant territory as well as the last of Bolivia's coastline.
The first naval engagement of WW1 was between British and German ships off the coast of Chile, as the UK and Germany were the biggest investors in nitrate mines there, so the British had blockaded the ports. The loss of access to Chile forced Germany to invest in synthesising nitrates, leading the Haber-Bosch process which has saved millions of people from starvation, so that's something.
On a more light-hearted note:
It is little surprise that Valparaiso Wanderers, founded in 1892, is the oldest football club in Latin America – and that their fierce rivals are Everton de Viña del Mar, located just across the bay – each [Chilean team] founded by expatriate Britons.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-world-that-saltpetre-built/
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u/Fombleisawaggot 15d ago
iirc many post-independence Argentine intellectuals like Alberdi also actively sought ties with the UK as the English were the prime example of an industrial and intelligent people (as opposed to the Spanish)
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u/lagomorphi 16d ago
Welsh patagonia has always been fascinating to me
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u/secret_aardvark_420 16d ago
Only learned about welsh Patagonia from Welcome to Wrexham and found it so interesting
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u/StarfishSplat 16d ago
Found out about in a Celtic history book. Had to do a double take to see cities with names like Trelew down there.
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u/Fututor_Maximus 16d ago
By the same standards as OP mentioned, but even more so in every way: Argentina is the most Italian country in Latin America. Even linguistically.
Food for thought.
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u/maskapony 16d ago
A great documentary, Seperado, is the story of Super Furry Animals singer, Gruff Rhys tracing his family history back to Patagonia.
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u/Intrepid_Beginning 16d ago
I agree. As a Peruvian of British descent, many Americans do not understand that British people also immigrated to Latin America (completely fair, we are a small minority).
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u/Whulad 15d ago
One of my grandmas brothers emigrated from Londoners to Peru during the 1st World War- the story is he jumped on a ship as he didn’t fancy going back to the trenches.
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u/Intrepid_Beginning 15d ago
Cool! My grandma survived the bombing of London and her family moved to Lima shortly thereafter. Then, my grandma moved back to London, went to university, travelled as a nurse throughout the Caribbean, then came back to Peru at age 35. She’s still here now.
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u/SummitSloth 16d ago
I'm going offtopic here but I just realized after reading your post that the Philadelphia metro area is Welsh AF with all of those names (Bryn mawr, uwchlan, Gwynedd, llarench, penllyn, bala cynwyd, North Wales, wynnewood, etc.). Interesting.
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u/miclugo 16d ago
William Penn invited Welsh-speaking Quakers to settle in that area - historically it's called the "Welsh Tract". It didn't really take but there was enough Welsh settlement to get the names on the land.
("Wynnewood" isn't Welsh, though, even though it rhymes with Cynwyd. It's named after Penn's physician, Thomas Wynne. Except it turns out Wynne was Welsh? So maybe it counts. The Wynnefield neighborhood of Philadelphia is also named for him.)
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u/imagei 16d ago
I’m not convinced. Looking at the picture, for the true British feel they need to make the streets waay more narrow.
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u/HCBot 16d ago
This is the widest cobbled street in Buenos Aires. All other streets around this neighbourhood (Belgrano R) are normal size. Also, consider Buenos Aires is a mostly planned city, with a grid layout. English cities are medieval and developed before the rise of cars. Most of what today is Buenos Aires was mostly fields just 200 years ago. But the british influence is definitely there (This neighbourhood was originally built for british migrants who came to work on the railroad) as is in many other Buenos Aires neighbourhoods (see: Coghlan, Barrio Inglés, Barracas)
I belive this street was originally planned to be a boulevard, hence the width. But don't quote me on that.
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u/idanthology 16d ago
For real, I'm just drooling at the scale of this, most of the 2 way roads in the area I live can just barely handle one vehicle's width comfortably, literally.
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u/The_39th_Step 16d ago
The rest of it I buy but the picture is so not British. I don’t know anywhere in the UK that looks like that
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u/xeroxchick 16d ago
What is the saying? Argentines (or is it Porteños?) are spaniards who dress like Englishmen, live like Frenchmen, and speak like Italians.
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u/GoDeacs7 16d ago
I believe it’s “Argentinians are Italians who speak Spanish, think they are French, and want to be English.”
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u/PowerVulch 16d ago
I have roots in both the Patagonian Welsh community and the Buenos Aires Scottish community. My Welsh ancestors, as far as we know, were coal miners, some of whom even lived in the United States, in the Pittsburgh area, before learning of the newly available land in Patagonia in the 1870s. They helped settle the interior region of Chubut.
My Scottish ancestors include a soldier who served in World War I and then emigrated and married a local woman of Scottish descent.
Both of my Argentine grandparents spoke English, and my grandmother also spoke Welsh. They eventually moved to Uruguay when my mother was small, and she and her sisters attended the British School there. The family was also part of the British Society in Uruguay, and most of their friends were Anglos.
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u/Pera_Espinosa 16d ago
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Bland? I'd say it's less spice heavy than foods of other latin countries, but bland?
The same can be said of Italian food, which is by far the greatest cultural influence in Argentina, when comparing it to Asian cuisine. I wouldn't call it bland either.
Argentine food is mostly a mix of Italian, heavy Italian, meats/parrilladas it's so well known for, and Latin influence.
Popular Argentine dishes like parrilladas, empanadas, milanesa, or pastel de papas certainly aren't spice heavy in relation to other cuisines, and Argentinians certainly have a very low spice tolerance (for both heat and seasoning), but all these dishes are undeniably delicious and the word bland certainly doesn't come to mind when I think of them or any other typical Argentine foods.
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u/StalksOfRheum 15d ago
argentine food is pretty good I have to say. it's heavy stuff though so don't eat a lot in one sitting or you'll be knocked out for hours.
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u/nycago 16d ago
What neighborhood is pictured please ?
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u/iwantathink 16d ago
This is Avenida Melian, probably the most beautiful in Buenos Aires. The barrio is Belgrano. But this area in particular is called "el barrio de los ingleses", like the "English neighborhood". It's where the British settled as described in a comment above.
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u/abu_doubleu 16d ago
Chile has the British tea tradition! Unlike coffee in most of Latin America, and mate in the rest of the Southern Cone. But I think apart from that you are right.
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u/mellamoderek 16d ago
iirc Argentina has a tea culture as well. I remember going to a high tea service at a fancy hotel (in Recoleta, I think).
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u/Saoi_ 16d ago edited 16d ago
Some of the Irish influence in the south American nations is from the era of the Spanish empire and Irish priests, soldiers and administrators sought opportunities in Catholic Spain's empire of which they could get back home in a Protestant controlled Ireland, or the Protestant colonies in North America. That's how the O'Higgings family came to their position in Chile. Lynches in Argentina are similar and Che Guevara is a descendant. There's lots of Irish influence on Buenos Aires especially noticed in the Recoleta cemetery.
Lots of Americans and Irish were involved in the independence movement from Spain - playing vital roles in early shipping connections to Buenos Aires (Guillermo Brown, for example) and became some the elite of the early days of the country/colony as there were great opportunities and not much Spanish settlers.
The British had a complicated relationship with the area and were supportive of rebellion against Spain, but also frequently interfering militarily while also investing heavily in the new nation and nearby Uruguay, especially in farming and beef canning as they could use the country for beef exporting around the Atlantic world, and to feed the home nations. Anglo identity became influential in the elites - promoting polo and rugby. The developing railways brough brought more British engineers and workers.
Then came huge waves of Italians and Germans and the Anglo and Irish influence was overshadowed a bit.
There was a big movement of Irish from the Irish counties of Westmeath, Meath, Offaly and Longford area of Ireland as there we're Irish priests who encourage settlement in the Catholic nation, rather than Protestant North America. Scandals about conditions aboard some shipping slowed a lot of Irish immigration. Some Argentinian Irish were influential in the Irish independence movement and the Southern Star Irish-Argentinian newspaper was very pro Irish.
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u/BadChris666 16d ago
Between the mid-1800’s to the early 1900’s, the UK was the largest investor in the Argentine economy. The wealthy sent their kids to England for school. Argentina also had the largest UK expat community in the world.
That all changed after the Peron regime. He nationalized numerous UK companies in Argentina. Then you have the continued dispute over the Falklands.
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u/AdFederal5203 16d ago
I don’t know full details but…Immigration: Most people in Argentina are of pure European descent.
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u/FlygonSA 16d ago
There was very little immigration from the British isles to Argentina and most of them settled in small pockets in very specific places such as the Welsh colonies on Chubut province, most immigration was Italian and Spanish, with some smaller amounts of Germans, Russians, French and Croatians/Serbs.
As an Argentine i never met someone with British/English descent but i have met all of the mentioned above.4
u/bamadeo 16d ago
where are you from? I've met plenty Irish, scot or british descendants in BA
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u/FlygonSA 16d ago
I've never been to Buenos Aires but i have lived my entire life between small towns of Cordoba and Santa Fe, i know it kinda skews it a little bit but is still representative, only about 75k British immigrants are estimated to have ever come to Argentina, meanwhile Italians are up to 6 millions, that's about a 80x difference.
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u/HCBot 16d ago
It's true that most migrants came from Spain, Italy, Germany the Balcans and eastern europe. But there are still lots of british descendants in Argentina, especially in Buenos Aires, Santa Fe and the Patagonia. British surnames are fairly common, along with english names for cities, neighbourhoods, and streets.
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u/h8style84 16d ago
Not true. Around 60% have some indigenous descent (especially visible in the north). The immigrants mixed with the population that was already there so many are of immigrant descent mixed with natives and criollos (like my grandfather). There are also minorities of Arabic, Asian and African descent.
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u/Y0___0Y 16d ago
World War II caused a lot of European migration to Latin America.
Many Germans and Spanish fled to Argentina.
Also, many Japanese fled to Brazil.
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u/UpbeatFix7299 16d ago edited 16d ago
People were immigrating there long before WW2 because it was an economically booming country with a lot of land and was seen as an economic opportunity. The # of fleeing Nazis on the rat trail isn't even a rounding error compared to that. My great grandma's sister and her husband moved there from Denmark, I promise you they weren't Nazis on the run in the 1920s
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u/meldirlobor 16d ago edited 16d ago
Bullshit, It wasn't ww2 at all.
Europeans, namely italians, portuguese, spanish and germans migrated en masse to South America during the period immediately before and during the industrial revolution. Most were feudal rural workers who didn't have any more land to expand their families into and didn't want or couldn't go to the cities to be exploited on 18h+ shifts without any labor legislation.
More than 6 millions Italians left Italy for both South America (Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay) and the USA.
Back then, during the early 1900, Brazil had abolished slavery and needed rural workers to work the huge expanses of coffee plantations. White european migrants were offered land and opportunities to go to said countries. Another motivation in the case of Brazil, was to "whiten" the population which back then, was predominantly black and pardo from the centuries of slavery.
Also, the japanese arrived in Brazil in 1907, long before ww2 or even ww1.
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u/martian-teapot 16d ago edited 16d ago
Many Germans and Spanish fled to Argentina.
Also, many Japanese fled to Brazil.
Most Germans that went to South America went to Brazil, not Argentina, and that happened way before WW2.
Brazil's first empress was German/Austrian, which helped with the start of settlements in a region which was then sparsely populated (the South). The first colony, São Leopoldo, was established in 1824 (one century before WW2). Subsequently, other Germanic settlements were installed in places like Petrópolis and Blumenau, for example.
The same can be said for the Japanese (which emigrated en masse to Brazil after the US passed laws prohibiting/limiting Asian immigrants - something that also happened before WW2).
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u/ohniz87 16d ago
Actually the first germans went to Rio de Janeiro, not RS. They were sent to Nova Friburgo to colonize with the swiss.
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u/martian-teapot 16d ago
I should specify: I was referring to post-independence Brazil. But, overall, you are correct.
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u/Iola_Morton 16d ago
Photo looks more like a US burb, complete with fake Tudor bollocks
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u/DnJohn1453 16d ago
I was going to say, the most German country in South America.
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u/Fluffy_Town 15d ago
Not surprising since a lot of the reich went there to escape extradition.
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u/epileftric 16d ago
Oddly enough you can move between neighborhoods and you'll find another German, French, Italian or Spanish styled houses.
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u/MontroseRoyal Urban Geography 16d ago
One small correction on my part: Tower of the English was NOT renamed to Tower of the Malvinas. Instead it was actually renamed to Tower Monumental, but still because the Falklands War
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u/iwantathink 16d ago
This is Avenida Melian in Buenos Aires, one of the most beautiful in Buenos Aires. Near the corner of echeverria. In the "barrio de los ingleses" (oficially Belgrano R)
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u/GoDeacs7 16d ago
“Argentinians are Italians who speak Spanish, think they are French, and want to be English.”
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u/Maximum-County-1061 16d ago
fascinating read
also - the town called Murphy - where M Pochettino was born
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u/CormoranNeoTropical 16d ago
Argentinians are (or maybe they were, could be a past generation thing) huge Anglophiles. I think because up through the mid-20th Argentina was a wealthy country and rich people globally in that period tended to be Anglophile?
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u/CharleyNobody 16d ago
These towns or people not allowed to call themselves “English,” “Scottish,” “Irish” or “Welsh” unless they were born in and live in England, Scotland, Ireland or Wales.
Those are the Reddit rules.
Because if an American says they're “Italian” or “French” they are lambasted. ”You are not! You aren't any of those things! You’re American and it’s an insult to other ethnicities to call yourself anything but American!”
Hey, rules is rules. They're Argentinian and that’s that.
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u/Ishkabibble54 16d ago
Argentina was somewhere in the top five wealthiest countries in 1900 and has been more or less in a steady decline since. The First World War and the disruption of beef exports set the decline in motion.
It also has the largest proportion of its population from European countries other than Spain, so that makes it more European than colonial in the Argentine psyche. (Also, indigenous peoples are a tiny minority , without the mixing that occurred in many Latin countries.) Its biggest export market was at one time Britain, and Britain was the wealthiest European country during the time that Argentina prospered, so there was elements of transference and disassociation from the “backward” countries on the continent.
My personal experience as a Miamian with friends and colleagues of various Latin nationalities is that without doubt the one nationality loathed by other Latin people is Argentina. (#2 would be Cuba.)
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u/gimnasium_mankind 12d ago
You could make a ton of money investing on the first railway that went to the heart of one of the most fertile lands in the world (the Pampas). So many people did. Who had extra cash laying around, experience in railroads and doing businesses in far away lands? The british did, so many pourednin their loans and shares to build the massive Argentine railroad system to bring loads of grain and meat from the Pampas to the Buenos Aires port.
Snowball effect and you get sunflower oil refineries, canned food, freezers for meat, lesther industries…. Industrial revolution of sorts… you get lod and loads of european immigrants, you get a big middle class… it snowballs. Banking, railroads and a few other things stayed british, they saw it as a kind of an informal part of the empire sometimes. Some people had their families here. They brought football (soccer) which had consequences down the line. Theybeven sent a squad to fight in WW1 I think.
But… it is also just one of many european collectives in Argentina. The irish, being catholic, are also as numerous I’d say. And they are all dwarved by the italians. But many from all corners of the Austrian empire, the Russian empire, even the Ottoman empire, went. All had their histories. Polish people have a link to yerba mate production for example. Basques in dairy products. The british had this link to railroads and banking.
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u/mbullaris 16d ago
Presumably Guyana would be by some definitions.
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u/manored78 16d ago
This is odd. When I traveled to Chile, the natives were telling me that they’re the Brits of LatAm. Argentina always struck me as being the Paris/Italy of LatAm.
Everything about Chile screamed to me that they wanted to replicate the UK, right down to it’s rigged class system.
British and German ex-pats have had a huge impact on Chilean society, more so than in Argentina.
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u/tarantinquarantina 15d ago
As a Chilean with Scots/Irish ancestry who went to a fully British school and grew up drinking copious amounts of “tecito”, yes!
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u/foofede 16d ago
The British used to have a lot more influence in the region.
We had to kick them off the country a few times (not always successful aka Malvinas).
Our first big loan was with the Baring Brothers, I believe they made the roads (we used to drive on the left), and they also made and run our railroads so that's why they still go on the left side even though we drive on the right side and why we have so many neighborhoods with british architecture and names since those were the places where the people that worked on the railroad lived.
There's also sprinkles of their culture spread all around the country, when I was young it was common to study the language at "Culturales Inglesas" aka english culture houses and there's quite a few of towns which their inhabitants are from british descent. A few years ago I made a trip to the old family house of a friend of mine that's from british descent and was really bizzarre to find a british boarding school in the middle of Cordoba and most of the pople nearby were blond and with light colored eyes.
IIRC the Harrods license is still active but remains unused.
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u/lucylucylane 16d ago
Britain basically built its beef industry building railways ports etc. although it wasn’t a British colony it was heavily influenced by it and the rich wanted to emulate it hence rugby and polo being so popular
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u/60sstuff 16d ago
Change the trees and it reminds me a lot of a street near my house. Obviously it’s not going to be 1:1. But I have definitely seen a lot of very European stuff in Argentina. A know a big Welsh community is in the area
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u/quebexer 16d ago
I would think that Uruguay is also very British since they were created by the Brits.
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u/xxnozoxx 16d ago
Argentina is the most European country in Latin America aside from maybe Uruguay. Their 19th century immigration history is very similar to the US and Canada. Argentina and the UK also had very strong trade ties before the British started prioritizing the commonwealth countries
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u/SkillWizard 16d ago
That is the least British looking street I have seen for a while yeah. Looks lovely though the point possibly remains true. Want to visit!
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u/MontroseRoyal Urban Geography 16d ago
The trees and street width are giveaways, but some houses are very convincing!
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u/gustavmahler01 16d ago
Well, at one time it was the *richest* country in South America. I remember my Argentine friends in grad school used to tell me that Argentina used to be the United States of South America. But then they always added the qualifier that that is no longer the case.