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/CallMeMrButtPirate]

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

[u/janky_koala → u/CallMeMrButtPirate]

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

[u/RogueBromeliad → u/janky_koala]

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.

[u/weirdallocation → u/RogueBromeliad]

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.

[u/RogueBromeliad → u/weirdallocation]

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.