Editing German Empire (section)

=====South America=====
In South America, Germany's primary interest was in [[ABC countries|Argentina, Brazil, Chile]], and [[Uruguay]] and viewed the countries of northern South America—[[Ecuador]], [[Colombia]], and [[Venezuela]]—as a buffer to protect its interest from the growing influence of the United States.{{Sfnp|Fischer|2008|pp=135–160}} Policymakers in Germany analysed the possibility of establishing bases in [[Margarita Island]] and showed interest in the [[Galápagos Islands]] but soon abandoned any such designs given that far-flung bases in northern South America would be very vulnerable.{{Sfnp|Mitchell|1999|p=67}}{{Sfnp|Fischer|2008|pp=135–160}} Germany attempted to promote Chile, a country that was [[German influence in Chile|heavily influenced by Germany]],<ref name="Carlos2011">{{Cite book |last=Sanhueza |first=Carlos |title=Ideas viajeras y sus objetos. El intercambio científico entre Alemania y América austral. Madrid–Frankfurt am Main: Iberoamericana–Vervuert |date=2011 |pages=29–40 |language=es |chapter=El debate sobre "el embrujamiento alemán" y el papel de la ciencia alemana hacia fines del siglo XIX en Chile |chapter-url=http://publications.iai.spk-berlin.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/Document_derivate_00000510/BIA%20146%20Sanhueza.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221182758/http://publications.iai.spk-berlin.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/Document_derivate_00000510/BIA%20146%20Sanhueza.pdf |archive-date=21 December 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> into a regional counterweight to the United States.<ref name="Fischer2008">{{Cite journal |last=Fischer |first=Ferenc |date=1 January 2008 |title=La expansión (1885–1918) del modelo militar alemán y su pervivencia (1919–1933) en América Latina |journal=Revista del CESLA |language=es |publisher=[[Uniwersytet Warszawski]] |volume=11 |pages=135–160}}</ref> Germany and Britain managed through Chile to have Ecuador deny the United States a naval base in the [[Galápagos Islands]].<ref name="Fischer2008"/>

Claims that German communities in South America acted as extensions of the German Empire were ubiquituous by 1900 but it has never been proved that these communities acted in such way to any significant degree.{{Sfnp|Penny|2017|pp=519–549}} German political, cultural and scientific influence was particularly intense in Chile in the decades before [[World War I]], and the prestige of Germany and German things in Chile remained high after the war but did not recover to its pre-war levels.{{Sfnp|Sanhueza|2011|pp=29–40}}{{Sfnp|Penny|2017|pp=519–549}}