When the Second Great Depression brought down the Western World, and their foreign aid programs, everyone expected South America to fall entirely under the influence of China and/or Russia. Brazil joined them in creating the old BRICS money system fighting the American dollar of the time for global supremacy after all. The final collapse of the American dollar should have set the stage for a new economic hegemony, but China and Russia focused on their dreams of empire in their own neighbors. That left Brazil and the other South American nations to fend for themselves. And since most of their economies were based on either getting aid from foreign nations or selling things to foreign nations, that did not go well for them for a time. South America fell hard.
Africa approached the Western Alliance with a plan once the Great Space Race began in earnest. The Western powers had been looking to build a space elevator for years, but lacked major economic, population, and production hubs that could support one near the equator. Africa happened to have all three at Port Harcourt. Africa officially joined the Western Alliance as an equal member state and Alliance money built the Port Harcourt Elevator. Africa road that elevator to the stars and brought back the riches of space to their continent. And even as Earth built more elevators, they expanded the Port Harcourt Elevator with more and more strands and support infrastructure. Even centuries later, it remained the largest orbital elevator operating on Earth and beyond.
Africa weathered the purifying fires of the Islamic Jihad and came out of it far stronger than when it found them. They’d fought together against the Brotherhoods and won. They united against those that wanted them all dead or enslaved, and then built a new future together. They formed the United States of Africa and brought up a new generation of united Africans who saw the world and space as theirs to claim. They planted their new flag on the Moon and then Mars. They made themselves into a true great power the like of which Africa hadn’t seen since the fall of fabled Egypt and Carthage. Africa stood proud amongst the nations of Earth again.
The Second Great Depression nearly destroyed Africa. The Western powers had kept the Islamic Brotherhoods largely contained, but that ended when they turned to their own concerns. The Islamic Brotherhoods burned Africa to the ground. Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa formed the backbone of the resistance that drove the Brotherhoods out in several bloody campaigns. The Egyptian campaign proved the worst and bloodiest, culminating in the use of nuclear weapons. The vast majority failed to detonate and even Cairo rebelled against the Brotherhood’s excesses. Caught between unflinching armies and vengeful citizens, the Brotherhood forces could not escape and Africa granted them no mercy.
The AI Council knew Earth had to be protected from the kind of war the Rogue AIs tried to drive humanity into. So even as they spread to the outer planets, Alpha Centauri, and beyond, they helped influence and negotiate the various Lunar Treaties that banned active warfare between the major powers of Earth inside our Moon’s orbit. They even helped enforce the treaties through subtle methods. Anyone about to violate them often ran into severe technical malfunctions that absolutely could not be traced to the Council. But the veterans of Singapore in every nation recognized the signs and took appropriate actions to keep the peace. It was one of the many ways the AIs tried to keep humanity safe.