East Africa's influence in South America ranked first, yet it still fell short of the control the United States had exercised over South America in its previous life. Besides East Africa, the United States, Britain, Germany, and France all wielded considerable influence in South America, not even counting the continent's two former masters—Spain and Portugal.
This was especially evident in Argentina and Brazil. The two countries had exploited the contradictions among the many great powers, playing them against one another to preserve their relatively independent status.
However, if Argentina and Brazil wanted to go a step further and exert influence within the region, that became exceedingly difficult.
Since the latter half of the nineteenth century, Argentina had been noticeably more active in the Americas than Brazil, giving it an international reputation far surpassing Brazil's.
One important reason Brazil remained obscure was that its internal integration proved even more difficult than Argentina's. Institutionally, Brazil had only ended its feudal imperial system at the close of the previous century. The imperial system had endured in Brazil for nearly seventy years, but precisely because of that, Brazilian politics remained deeply conservative and reform proceeded at a snail's pace.
Geographically, Brazil possessed a vast territory, fragmented by the Amazon rainforest, plateaus, mountains, and other barriers. Economic ties between its various regions were loose, making it easy for each to form its own sphere of influence.
Thus, although Brazil possessed enormous territory and a large population, from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century, its development lagged far behind Argentina's, and it was likewise difficult for it to achieve much in diplomacy.
Argentina, compared with Brazil, was more modernized, had relatively healthier industries, and was relatively more politically united. Yet under the successive "baptisms" of so many imperialist powers,