When we think of nations that are most similar to the US, we think of other former British colonies like Canada and Australia. This is because of their shared language (albeit with differing dialects), history of colonialism, multicultural heritage, natural landscape, federalist government structure, and relatively young age as countries.
What nations that aren’t majority English-speaking former British colonies are most similar to the US in this regard?
38 comments
Mexico or Brazil?
Mexico.
I would wager a lot of Latino countries are next on the list, given they’re also post-colonial multicultural nations albeit with the major difference being economic development and governmental stability.
I think it’s Russia – expanding country that colonized and genocided a lot of indigenous people, very big and resource rich, very high opinion of its place in the world and ability to do things in/to other countries, both countries absolutely lionize their WW2 generations. Also both countries operate under a federal framework although obviously in Russia that is a bit more theory than reality.
Philippines or Mexico.
Germany and Spain
Quebec
Spain, France, and Germany. Maybe.
>history of colonialism, multicultural heritage, natural landscape, federalist government structure, and relatively young age as countries.
Malaysia, Nigeria, Iraq, India, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina
Germany. Also when looking at the nature you could mistake Germany for parts of America
mexico, brazil, germany
Sweden. Feels very similar to America, in many ways more than the UK.
Netherlands maybe, especially here from this POV considering they were the first Europeans to land and establish a presence in what is now New York.
Definitely more differences than similarities of course, but more similar to the US than, say, Armenia.
Colombia wasn’t a huge culture shock to me, and I found Bogota analogous to NYC in a lot of respects.
Germany and the Philippines
Russia absolutely
Definitely Mexico
Mexico.
Surprised not to see Iceland and Norway mentioned so far.
Brazil and Mexico
This country started out as a New World colony of a European naval superpower. Before and after achieving independence, immigrants and slaves poured into the country (slavery would be practiced for the majority of the 19th century). As territory expanded westward, the indigenous population was decimated. The country grew in population and economy, so much that it became the largest in both metrics on its continent. Today most of the population of this multicultural society lives in large urban centers along the coast, while much of the interior is sparsely populated and/or used for agriculture. There are still vast areas of wild, undeveloped land. This country has more native speakers of the colonial language than there are in the colonizer country, by an order of tens of millions.
Am I describing the USA or Brazil?
The United States is so large that this would be better answered by region. Ireland/The Netherlands are probably the answer for the northeast, whereas Mexico would work for Texas.
I’d say Afghanistan is most similar to the Bible Belt.
Panama. There’s a lot of history and infrastructure because of the canal
Mexico. Any southwestern state has been influenced from Mexican culture (Mexican criollo cowboys, food, names of certain states)
Does the Philippines count? They are very similar to us, but they’re also a former colony, so…
Mexico, Brazil, India, China, Russia, in that order
Does Ireland count as non-Anglo? Since they developed their tech sector and weakened the Catholic Church’s influence they’ve basically operated like us in a lot of ways
Germany by a long shot.
Second place would probably be France.
Anyone who says Mexico is absolutely delusional. El Paso is far, far more American than it is Mexican.
The Philippines. People really underestimate how much we were able to Americanize them in the short time span we had them.
Mexico and Brazil. But Argentina’s definitely up there. We both have a semi-mythologized cowboy/gaucho culture. We both have a history of large scale immigration from similar countries. And we’re both beef enjoyers.
The Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Mexico, possibly Switzerland
Mexico? Maybe also some Wuropean countiees like the Netherlands and France?
Brazil often seems like the US but poorer. Right down to their version of Trump getting voted out in the most recent elections.
I’d say Canada.
Ok that was a joke answer. But tbh, maybe Germany? Largely northern European heritage, large Protestant Christian culture.
From my interactions with Russians I’ve always gotten the impression that Russia is a lot like the US, but I’ve never actually been to Russia, so it’s hard to say for sure.
Brazil, right down to the inequality (though it’s more pronounced there)
India – but it’s also a commonwealth nation and was under the British crown unfortunately
Pretty much all of the western hemisphere went through similar invasions from Europeans