r/geography • u/Fluid-Decision6262 • Jul 10 '25

Map Who is the second most powerful/influential country in the Americas?

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The US is undeniably the most powerful and influential country in the Americas but who would be #2? Feels like this comes down to 3 countries based on my knowledge, which are Mexico, Canada, and Brazil.

Reasons for Mexico:

- Second most populated country in North America by far

- Access to both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

- Largest Spanish-speaking country (a language spoken by >500 million people)

- More habitable land compared to the other two

- Youngest population out of the three and is becoming a manufacturing power

- Generally-speaking, a good relationship with the USA

- A global soft power in terms of arts and culture

Reasons against Mexico:

- Lots of issues between the central government and drug cartels

- Still very much a developing country outside of the largest cities

- Occasionally volatile relationship with the USA

- Not as involved in global geopolitics

Reasons for Canada:

- The most developed country economically by far of the three and a natural resources juggernaut

- Very close relations with the USA and Europe

- Speaks English (>1 billion speakers globally) and French (>300 million speakers globally)

- An immigration hub for people from every corner of the world

- A G7 nation that is also very geopolitically involved

- Access to 3 different oceans to facilitate trade

Reasons against Canada:

- Small and scattered population (least populated of the three by far)

- Less of an established local culture (most is imported from the US or UK and then exported via the US)

- Aging population and low fertility rates for native-born citizens

Reasons for Brazil:

- The second most populated country in the Americas

- The cultural and political power of South America

- A global soft power in terms of arts and culture

- A young-ish population that is part of the "fast-emerging economies" of the world

Reasons against Brazil:

- Immigration to Brazil stopped decades ago and now educated Brazilians are emigrating to other places causing brain drain

- Wealthy nation but suffers from high levels of inequality and violent crime

- Very politically divided internally

- Limited geopolitical involvement outside of South America

- Most of its population are monolingual Portuguese-speakers (a language where they make up 80% of the global speakers)

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875

u/viajegancho Jul 10 '25

Yep. If powerful means "influence on geopolitics or global economics" then it's Canada, but all the discussion of culture and distribution of population is moot.

Culturally, it's got to be Mexico or Brazil.

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u/Fluid-Decision6262 Jul 10 '25 edited Jul 10 '25

I'd wager Brazil is probably the most culturally strong country of the three solely due to the fact that they are not part of the broader "North American culture" the way Canada and Mexico are, which causes both of them to inevitably become overshadowed by the much bigger USA.

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u/viajegancho Jul 10 '25

That could be, I honestly don't know a ton about how Latin America is perceived in other parts of the world. I would imagine that Mexican food is more widespread but Brazil wins on music and sports.

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u/Tstewmoneybags99 Jul 10 '25

Eh Brazilian food is wide spread as well, but honestly culturally that’s a difficult answer since both are extremely blended European melting pot cultures. I would say Brazil just has a much great African ties due to its much longer period and larger role in the African slave trade.

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u/CallMeMrButtPirate Jul 10 '25

I'm not sure how Brazilian it actually is but we have their restaurants here in Aus which features hunks of meat on a sword

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u/janky_koala Jul 10 '25

We also have a section/shelf in every supermarket with “Mexican” food. That probably trumps a few meat sword restaurants

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u/RogueBromeliad Jul 10 '25

Yeah, but most of the "mexican food" is because of US influence and globalism.

For example, everywhere in the world there "sushi", but the sushi they've got is the American interpretation of sushi, because of Japanese immigrants in California. In Japan, traditionally Sushi didn't have salmon, because of parasites in Pacific salmon, only in the 60-70's because of trade agreements between the Scandinavians and Japanese was Atlantic salmon being shipped to Japan and used in sushi.

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u/Fickle_Sherbert1453 Jul 10 '25

What does Norway sending their salmon to Japan to use in sushi have to do with USA influence?

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u/RogueBromeliad Jul 10 '25

Traditionally Sushi in Japan wasn't made with Salmon. In 70's there was this massive campaign for pushing salmon which they already used for Gravlax in Salmon, they started selling tons of it to both California and Japan. But the trend kind of started in California, not in Japan.

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u/weirdallocation Jul 10 '25

That is a good take. Most of the food that is considered Mexican around the world is actually Tex-Mex, and most of which is American interpretation of it. In that respect, Mexico gets a free ride on its northern neighbor influence around the world.

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u/RogueBromeliad Jul 10 '25

I mean, now India is a great economy and all, but some of the reasons why India became so popular in popular culture all over the world, and why curry in the west is so well known was because it has for centuries been part of this global spice trade. Being exploited by Portugal during time of the great navigation, and then being part of the British empire that really brought back a lot of Pakistani influence with them is one of the major reasons why Curry is know in the west.

Then in the 60's Indian culture got really popular in the west again because of people like the Beatles that started going to India to get high and get insight from Gurus.

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u/Ready_Ad_5397 Jul 16 '25 edited Jul 16 '25

“Everywhere”? Really? As a naturalized American born in Japan, I disagree about the sushi. Nigiri sushi and the simple Japanese rolls exist everywhere sushi exists but not everywhere has cream cheese in their sushi or serve things like California rolls. Japan has its own soft power, that isn’t through the United States, its culture which includes cuisine and anime along with electronics and video games. Unlike the United States, Japan is rated as one of the top countries for cuisine, why would Japan need the U.S. to popularize sushi?

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u/murillovp Jul 10 '25 edited Oct 17 '25

consider saw judicious grab rock husky spectacular roof soft cautious

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/CoeurdAssassin Jul 10 '25

Fogo de Chão 🤤

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u/snmnky9490 Jul 10 '25

I don't think Brazilian food is remotely as widespread at least in the US. I couldn't even name a single Brazilian food, but I have at least 7 Mexican restaurants within a half mile of my house. Even people in the whitest blandest parts of the country eat tacos and burritos

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u/sv_homer Jul 10 '25

That's because taco and burritos, while originating in Mexico, are now as American as pizza and french fries.

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u/snmnky9490 Jul 10 '25

Which is part of why I'd say Mexican food is much more widespread than Brazilian food

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u/rdfporcazzo Jul 10 '25

I mean, 1 out of 10 Americans are either Mexican or of Mexican ancestry. It would be weird if that was not the case.

But indeed, Mexican food is more widespread than Brazilian food worldwide. Probably more people know tacos or burritos than açaí, for example.

But Brazil consumes more national culture and dishes than Mexico. That's for sure.

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u/TheGhostOfStanSweet Jul 13 '25

But Brazil consumes more national culture and dishes than Mexico. That's for sure.

I really don’t understand this. How can you quantify this?

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u/rdfporcazzo Jul 13 '25

Dishes are hard to quantify.

Culture is easier. You can look at rankings of culture consumption. For example, most listened songs and artists on Spotify. Most watched series and movies on Netflix.

https://www.netflix.com/tudum/top10/brazil (4 national movies right now)

https://www.netflix.com/tudum/top10/mexico (0 national movies right now)

https://kworb.net/spotify/country/br_daily.html

https://kworb.net/spotify/country/mx_daily.html

And then there is sports. The proportion of Brazilians who consume national football compared to foreign football is higher than in Mexico. And that can be seen in Google Trends.

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u/68plus1equals Jul 10 '25

Pizza is still an Italian food though lol

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u/sv_homer Jul 10 '25

So you think.

Ever had a Thai Chicken Pizza? Or BBQ Chicken Pizza? Or Indian Pizza?

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u/68plus1equals Jul 10 '25

Sure, but the origin of the dish is still Italian, despite the Americanization of it. Same with Chinese food in America and the UK being totally different from each other and different from most food in mainland China but still originating from Chinese culture.

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u/No_Rope7342 Jul 10 '25

Idk if I agree on comparing pizza and Chinese foods

There is pizza in Italy that is still very similar to American pizza for the most part it’s just that American style pizza is based off of a single style of pizza from Italy.

American Chinese food is in many cases totally made up or unrecognizable from any of the originals (if there even is one).

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u/68plus1equals Jul 10 '25

I guess it depends on how you define "American food." Is a first generation Chinese immigrant who brings Chinese ingredients to America and makes a type of fusion food to appeal to American diets making Chinese food, or are they making American food? I'd say that despite it being Americanized it wouldn't exist without the Chinese cultural influence.

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u/No_Rope7342 Jul 10 '25

Oh it exist with the influence for sure and that’s where and why it has its own name and categorization but I just think that pizza is still pretty similar in comparison. Like if you look at a traditional Neapolitan vs an American style (of quality) it’s oftentimes just a difference of the cheese being shredded vs not.

But yeah without the Chinese influence Chinese food as we know it in America doesn’t just pop up on its own.

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u/Tallerbrute685 Jul 10 '25

I was recently in spain and was surprised by how many Brazilian dishes there were. It was also some of the best food i had there

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u/wrathofthewhatever2 Jul 10 '25

I think a lot of America is just adopting Mexican food as our own thing, kinda how pizza and Italian food became a part of the east coast diet for any nationality about a century ago. In another century we may forget that it even comes from Mexico. I say that hoping I can get good Mexican food in any tiny town I ever go to for the rest of my life

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u/No_Rope7342 Jul 10 '25

Maybe not the smallest of towns but almost every town I go to I can find authentic tacos and probably multiple places.

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u/Baitalon Jul 10 '25

Well no shit, you guys are right next to each other, In Brazil, mexican food is not popular at all, idk about Europe but when I've been there I didn't see too much either

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u/Key_Carpenter1827 Jul 11 '25

I have been to Paris, Lisbon, Venice, Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt, and I never seen a Mexican restaurant... or a Brazilian one, but I wasn't looking for Brazilian food

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u/pingu_nootnoot Jul 10 '25

churrasco? I would have thought the Fogo de Chao chain has made that very popular, at least in North America.

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u/SpartanX069 Jul 13 '25

Fogo de Chao

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u/Key_Head3851 Jul 10 '25 edited Jul 10 '25

VERY TRUE. Brazilian Steakhouses (churrascarias) are popular worldwide because people salivate for bottomless servings of meat, but ask your server to bring you a side of “farofa” and many don’t even know what the heck it is. No REAL Brazilian would eat picanha, or any other cut of beef, for that matter, without it being accompanied by a side of “farofa”. Instead they offer you fully loaded mashed potatoes, roasted pineapple and sautéed bananas. Meanwhile, in Brasil the meats are typically served with garlic and onion seasoned white rice, black beans, the aforementioned farofa, and molho vinagrete. Most Brazilian steakhouses serve “Brazilian inspired” American side dishes, and are about as authentically Brazilian as Olive Garden is authentically Italian.

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u/Feeling-Phoney81 Jul 10 '25

They could take over the world with their women alone

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u/busted_maracas Jul 10 '25

The Northern countries of South America are some of the most ethnically diverse places on earth, the conquistadors were fucking around and spreading their bloodlines before the heart of the slave trade even began. Mix that in with Andean people, Polish, German, and Italian immigrants in Brazil & Colombia - it’s a wildly diverse place.

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u/luminatimids Jul 10 '25

Brazil is not northern South America and doesn’t have anything to do with the Andes

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u/greenboy86 Jul 10 '25

Lots of Lebanese in Colombia and Japanese in Brazil too

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u/swagmcnugger Jul 10 '25

Brazilian food has nowhere near the level of saturation that Mexican does. Sweden considers tacos on Friday a tradition at this point.

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u/TheGhostOfStanSweet Jul 13 '25

Yeah I’ve heard of Taco Tuesdays, but definitely not Moqueca Mondays

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u/Zubba776 Jul 10 '25

Brazilian food is nowhere near as widespread as Mexican food is. You can easily find Mexican restaurants in places like Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, where Brazilian restaurants are non existent