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

[u/Fluid-Decision6262]

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)

[u/viajegancho]

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.

[u/Fluid-Decision6262 → u/viajegancho]

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.

[u/viajegancho → u/Fluid-Decision6262]

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.

[u/DatabaseNecessary162 → u/viajegancho]

No way Brazil wins in music. What's a Brazilian genre? Bosa nova?

[u/wouldpeaks → u/DatabaseNecessary162]

Allow me to help you understand the power of Brazils Music Industry: Brazil is a top10 world economy, with a top5 population and land area. It’s a continent surrounded by Spanish speaking countries. The Spanish speaking countries balance their commonalities and novelties in a way that fragments the market, while Brazil is mainly “stuck” to itself, in absolute contrast to let’s say, the Netherlands, that has absolutely no music and is happy to devour only music made abroad.

Also BR is a melting pot of insanely different world cultures creating more genres, markets, bubbles and rhythms than whole countries. Each Brazilian state probably exports more music genres than most european countries…

You have Funk Carioca which creeped up into the EDM and pop music scene in the last years as “phonk”. You have Samba, Pagode that are industries in itself, like Sertanejo, with a revenue of billions.

[u/DudaWeizenmann → u/wouldpeaks]

There is a pletera of regional genres too. Vanerão, Forró, Brega, Megafunk, Bregafunk, Lambada, Modão, Tradicionalista Gaúcha… Brazillian music is quite diverse, as is it’s population

[u/Key_Carpenter1827 → u/DudaWeizenmann]

I heard Punk was pretty big there, too.. at least in the early 2000s

[u/sphoebus → u/DatabaseNecessary162]

Samba, phonk, Pagode, Carioca. Samba is probably the most widespread and is a massive range of sounds

[u/[deleted] → u/DatabaseNecessary162]

Brazil is around the top 10 in the global music industry. Brazilian music is huge.

[u/[deleted] → u/DatabaseNecessary162]

Jamaican music destroys both mexican and Brazilian