Chapter 4: Latin America

1
Chapter 4 Latin America

• Rountree, et. al. as modified by
• Joe Naumann, UMSL

2
Ch. 4 Latin America (fig. 4.1)
3
Learning Objectives

• First chance to integrate foundation concepts
  with a relatively unfamiliar region, and compare
  regions
• Understand Latin Americas culture, and how
  colonization has affected it
• Know about the Andes and the Amazon
• Understand these concepts and models

-Agrarian Reform -Dependency Theory -Dollarization
-Growth poles
-Altiplano -El Nino -Maquiladora -Mercosur
4
Introduction

• Latin America has 17 countries
• Colonized by Spain Portugal (Iberian countries)
• Large, diverse populations
• 490 million people total
• Indian and African presence
• 75 of the people live in cities
• Several megacities (more than 10 million people)
• Industrialization development grew since 1960s
• Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) proposes
  to integrate economies of Latin America, North
  America and the Caribbean (except Cuba)
• Natural resource extraction remains important

5
Common Treatment of the Area

• Middle America
• From Mexico south through Panama
• The Caribbean coastal area has much in common
  with the islands, culturally and economically
• The islands of the Caribbean
• South America
• The remainder of what Rowntree refers to as Latin
  America.
• Latin America, for many authors, encompasses both
  Middle America and South America

6
South American Location
CONTINENTALITY

• Mostly east of North America
• Does not extend as far south toward the pole as
  North America extends north toward the pole. Has
  climatic implications

N. AMERICA
S. AMERICA
NO CONTINENTALITY
7
Neotropical Diversity

• Much of the region lies in the tropics, but not
  all
• Neotropics tropical ecosystems of the Western
  Hemisphere
• Large species diversity, inspired Darwin
• Environmental Issues Facing Latin America
• Relatively large land area and low population
  density has minimized environmental degradation
• Latin America has the opportunity to avoid
  mistakes that other regions have made
• Brazil and Costa Rica have conservation movements
• The Destruction of Tropical Rainforests
• Deforestation is the most common environmental
  problem in Latin America

8
Rainforests may help create the humidity needed
for tropical precipitation.

• Major oxygen producer can we risk losing it?

9
Environmental Geography

• Destruction of Tropical Rainforests (
• Affected regions Atlantic coastal forests of
  Brazil and Pacific forests of Central America
• Causes agriculture, settlement, and ranching
• Grassification conversion of tropical forest to
  pasture
• Concerns loss of biological diversity
• Tropical rainforests 6 of Earths landmass but
  50 of species
• Urban Environmental Challenges Valley of Mexico

-Air pollution, smog -Water resources quality
quantity -Sinking land occurring as Mexico City
draws down aquifer -Modern urban challenges
squatter settlements But Curitaba is a Green
City
10
Environmental Issues inLatin America (Fig. 4.3)
11
Western Mountains Eastern Shields

• The Andes
• Relatively young, 5,000 miles long 30 peaks over
  20K feet
• Contain valuable metals and minerals
• Altiplano treeless, elevated plain in Peru and
  Bolivia
• The Uplands of Mexico and Central America
• Most major cities and population found here
• Rich volcanic soils
• The Shields
• Large upland plateaus of exposed crystalline rock
• Brazilian shield is the largest, covering most of
  Brazil
• Has natural resources and settlement

12
Physical Geography of Latin America (Fig. 4.7)
13
Some Key Physical Areas
14
Middle America Hazardous

• One of the most hazardous areas in the world to
  live.
• West Coast subduction zone
• Active volcanoes
• Earthquake prone
• Tsunamis coastal flooding
• Caribbean Hurricane Prone
• Wind damage
• Flooding damage

15
WORLD HURRICANE TRACKS
16
DISTRIBUTION OF EARTHQUAKES VOLCANOES
17
Click on the sign to see the video
18
Environmental Geography

• River Basins and Lowlands
• Amazon Basin
• Largest river system in world by volume second
  in length
• Draws from nine countries
• Plata Basin
• Regions second largest river watershed
  economically productive
• Climate
• Little temperature variation in many areas
• Larger regional variations in precipitation
• El Nino
• Warm Pacific current that usually arrives along
  coastal Ecuador and Peru in December
• Regional weather upsets (drought, torrential
  rain, flooding)

19
PRECIPITATION
Major Influences Southeast Trade Winds, the
Andes Mountains, the Peru Current
20
Climate Map of Latin America (Fig. 4.11)
21
Altitudinal Zonation Climate

• Windward side will be wet and leeward side will
  be dry

Leeward
Windward
22
ALTITUDINAL ZONATION

• Vertical Climate Zones and Agriculture

23
Altitudinal Zonation in Action
TIERRA HELADA (Frost Land)
Tierra Nevada Tierra Helada
12,000
3,600 m
Tierra Fria
6,000
2,000 m
Tierra Templada
2000
600 m
Sea Level
Sea Level
Tierra Caliente
24
Snow at the Equator temperature drops 3.5ºF per
1000 ft. elevation
25
Dominance of Cities

• The Pattern
• Interior lowlands of South America sparsely
  populated
• Brazilia an attempt to draw more development to
  the interior of Brazil a growth pole
• Higher population in Central America and Mexico
  interior plateaus
• Dramatic population growth in 1960s and 70s
• The Latin American City
• Urbanization began in 1950s today 75 urbanized
• Urban primacy a country has a primate city 3 to
  4 times larger than any other city in the country
• Urban form
• Reflects colonial origins and contemporary growth
• Latin American City Model
• Squatter settlements makeshift housing on land
  not legally owned or rented by urban migrants,
  usually in unoccupied open spaces in or near a
  rapidly growing city

26
Population Map of Latin America (Fig. 4.12)
27
Latin American City Model (Fig. 4.13)
Disamenity a zone of established slums much
like the peripheral squatter settlements
Periferico circumferential, outer highway
In Situ Accretion a transition zone from the
inner ring of affluence to the outer ring of
poverty modest housing interspersed with
unkempt areas.
28
Population and Settlement (cont.)

• The Latin American City (cont.)
• Rural-to-Urban Migration
• Since the 1950s, peasants began to migrate to
  urban areas
• Mechanization of agriculture, population
  pressure, consolidation of lands
• Patterns of Rural Settlement
• 130 million people (25) live in rural areas
• Rural Landholdings
• Large estates used the best lands, relied on
  mixture of hired, tributary, and slave labor
• Latifundia Long-observed pattern of maintaining
  large estates
• Feudal system transferred from Spain to the New
  World
• Minifundia pattern associated with peasants
  farming small plots for their own subsistence
• Agrarian reform a popular but controversial
  strategy to redistribute land to peasant farmers

29
Pop. Settlement

• Patterns of Rural Settlement (cont.)
• Agricultural Frontiers
• Brazilian Amazon settlement is controversial
• Short-term benefits
• Long-term disaster
• Provided peasants with land (???), tapped unused
  resources, shored up political boundaries
• Population Growth and Movements
• Rapid growth throughout most of the century
  followed by slower growth
• Family planning counter-cultural
  counter-religious
• Declining Total Fertility Rates (TFRs) since
  1980s
• European Migration
• Migration encouraged to till soils and whiten
  the mestizo population (of mixed European and
  Indian ancestry)
• Many Europeans immigrated between 1870s and 1930s

30
Pop. Settlement

• Population Growth and Movements (cont.)
• Asian Migration
• Many Chinese and Japanese between 1870s and 1930s
• Former president of Peru a Japanese descendent
• New wave of immigrants from South Korea
• Latino Migration and Hemispheric Change
• Economic opportunities spurred migrations within
  Latin America, or from Mexico to the U.S.
• Political turmoil, civil wars caused migration

31
Effects of Central Americas Mountains
Country Population Physiologic density
Guatemala 12.3 million 696.6 per sq. mi.
Honduras 6.2 million 539.1
El Salvador 6.1 million 1155.2
Nicaragua 4.8 million 157.2
Costa Rica 3.5 million 316.8
Panama 2.8 million 331.1
Belize 240,000 451.2
32
PrincipalLatinAmericanMigrationFlows(Fig.
4.14)
33
Repopulating a Continent

• The Decline of Native Populations
• Many complex civilizations before Europeans
  arrived
• 1500 population of 47 million 1650 5 million
• Causes
• disease,
• warfare,
• forced labor,
• collapse of agriculture system

34
Out of the Loop

• Indian Survival
• Largest populations of Indians today Mexico,
  Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia
• Indians trying to secure recognized territory in
  their countries
• Comarca loosely defined territory similar to a
  province or homeland, where Indians have
  political and resource control

35
INDIAN CULTURE HEARTHS

• SOURCE AREAS from which radiated ideas,
  innovations, and ideologies that changed the
  world beyond.

36
Inca Culture Hearth
37
Machu Pichu terraced mountain top Inca city
38
Terraces at Machu Pichu
39
Achievements

• Bridge building and mountain roads
• Irrigation
• Surgery through the skull
• Highly organized social/economic structure
• Effective management of conquered peoples

40
Cultural Patterns

• Patterns of Ethnicity and Culture
• Racial caste system Spanish legacy blanco
  (European), mestizo (mixed ancestry), indio
  (Indian), negro (African)
• Colonial structure transplanted feudalism
• Peninsulares
• Creoles
• Mestizo
• European/African mix
• Native Americans (Indians) Africans
• Independence equality of Peninsulares Creoles
• Blancos dominated social, political, economic
  systems for more than a century

41
Patterns of Culture

• Languages
• About 2/3 Spanish, 1/3 Portuguese speakers
• Indigenous languages in central Andes, Mexico,
  Guatemala
• Blended Religions
• 90 Roman Catholic (nominally)
• El Salvador, Uruguay have sizeable Protestant
  populations
• Syncretic religions
• Voodoo
• Catholicism and African religions, with Brazils
  carnival as an example

42
Catholic Influence

• Traditionally provided education health care
• Established many of the social mores
• Higher clergy often came from the aristocracy and
  supported the status quo
• Social role of the Church has grown in some
  places becoming an advocate for the poor and
  disenfranchised
• Bishop Romero in Nicaragua (assassinated)
• Has opposed most birth control methods in
  countries with high birth rates and great poverty
• Many may be Catholic in name only

43
Machismo

• Male oriented society definitely a double
  standard
• Traditionally, marriages were arranged a
  greater disadvantage for women upper class men
  were expected to be unfaithful
• Admiration for the strong, forceful male
• Dictators were often admired as much as they were
  feared
• Military often a vehicle for advancement and
  control
• Compromise seen as a sign of weakness
• Male resistance to birth control -- of male
  children often considered a measure of ones
  manhood

44
Language Map of Latin America (Fig. 4.19)
45
Colombian Exchange

• Amerindians Contributed
• Corn (maize), sweet potato, several kinds of
  beans, the tomato, several kinds of squash,
  cacao, tobacco (Potato from Peru)
• Gonorrhea rheumatoid arthritis
• Europeans Contributed
• Wheat, oats, rye, other European crops, horse,
  cow, sheep, pigs, chicken
• Syphilis, small pox, chicken pox, measles, mumps,
  typhoid fever, influenza, etc. African slaves
  also brought tropical diseases for which
  Amerindians had no immunity or resistance

46
European Settlement

• Initially drawn to areas of Incan rule and wealth
  (Spanish) God, Glory, Gold
• At first kept the Inca as a puppet ruler
• Quickly turned to serfdom
• Hacienda was the New World Manor
• Land seen as the symbol of and source of wealth
• Land Alienation transfer of Amerindian lands to
  European ownership
• Amerindians became the serfs

47
Redrawing the Map

• Cycles of antagonism and cooperation
• Organization of American States (OAS)
• MERCOSUR (Southern Cone Common Market)
• Iberian Conquest and Territorial Division
• Treaty of Tordesillas divided South America
  between Spain and Portugal
• Revolution and Independence
• Creoles led revolutions, resulting in the
  creation of new countries
• Persistent Border Conflicts
• Colonial boundary lines were not well accepted
• When states gained independence, border issues
  grew

48
Shifting Political Boundaries (Fig. 4.21)
49
Geopolitical Framework

• Iberian Conquest and Territorial Division
• The Trend Toward Democracy
• Long independence, but political stability has
  been a problem
• Democratic elections since 1980s
• Most of the countries are free-market democracies
• Regional Organizations
• Supranatural organizations governing bodies that
  include several states
• Subnational organizations groups that represent
  areas of people within the state

50
Regional Organizations

• Trade Blocks
• To foster internal markets and reduce trade
  barriers
• Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA),
  Central American Common Market (CACM), Andean
  Group, NAFTA, Mercosur
• Insurgencies and Drug Traffickers
• Guerrilla groups have controlled large portions
  of their countries through violence and
  intimidation
• FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia)
  ELN (National Liberation Army)
• Colombia has highest murder rate in the world
• Drug cartels powerful and wealthy organized
  crime syndicates

51
Rebel-held areas of Colombia
Notice the relationship between coca growing
areas and insurgency. The drugs supply the money
to support the movement.
52
Long-standing Conditions

• Poverty widening gap between rich poor
• Military governments dictators until recently
• Rule by the aristocracy
• Rather rigid social structure Amerindians
  usually left out of the loop.
• In agriculture, trapped in an international
  economic order they cannot change
• One crop economies
• Products which arent necessities
• A cartel like OPEC wont work

53
Important Recent Developments

• Mexicos one-party democracy seems to have
  ended Presidente Fox of PAN
• Democratically elected governments in all
  countries except Cuba
• even in Cuba communism is changing due to the
  loss of Soviet/Russian financial assistance
• When Castro retires (or probably when he dies)
  there may be greater change i.e., the Popes
  visit would have been unheard of 20 years ago
• One can even see the possibility of the
  resumption of U.S. diplomatic relations on the
  horizon

54
A Glimpse of Mexico

• Click on the map to see the video

55
Dependent Economic Growth

• Most Latin American countries are middle income
• Extreme poverty in the region, however
• Development Strategies
• Import substitution policies that foster
  domestic industry by imposing inflated tariffs on
  all imported goods
• Industrialization
• Manufacturing emphasized since 1960s
• Growth poles planned industrial centers
• Maquiladoras and Foreign Investment
• Maquiladoras Mexican assembly plants lining U.S.
  border
• Other Latin American countries attracting foreign
  companies
• The Informal Sector
• Provision of goods services without government
  regulation
• Self-employment construction, manufacturing,
  vending, etc.

56
MAQUILADORAS
Ciudad Juarez
Nogales
Tijuana
Chihuahua
Reynosa
Matamoros
Monterrey
57
MAQUILADORAS

• Initiated in the 1960s
• Assembly plants in Mexico that pioneered the
  migration of industries in the 1970s
• Today
• gt4,000 maquiladoras
• gt1 million employees

58
MAQUILADORAS

• Modern industrial plants
• Assemble imported, duty-free components/raw
  materials
• Export the finished products
• Mostly foreign-owned (U.S., Japan)
• 80 of goods reexported to U.S.
• Tariffs limited to value added during assembly

59
MAQUILADORAS

• Maquiladora products

• Electronic equipment
• Electric appliances
• Auto parts
• Clothing
• Furniture

60
MAQUILADORAS

• ADVANTAGES
• Mexico gains jobs Mexican workers have more
  money to spend on both Mexican and U.S.-made
  products.
• Foreign owners benefit from cheaper labor costs.
• EFFECTS
• Regional development
• Development of an international growth corridor
  between Monterrey and Dallas - Fort Worth

61
NAFTA

• Effective 1 January 1994
• Established a trade agreement between Mexico,
  Canada and the US, which
• Reduced and regulated trade tariffs, barriers,
  and quotas between members
• Standardized finance service exchanges
• May expand membership

62
NAFTA
How has Mexico benefited from NAFTA? Will Chile
join it?
63
MEXICO AND NAFTA

• Foremost, it promises a higher standard of living
  more people with higher incomes may also buy
  more U.S. products.
• NAFTA creates more jobs for Mexicans as US
  companies begin to invest more heavily in the
  Mexican market.
• Mexican exporters increase their sales to the US
  and Canada.
• Is that the entire story?

64
WAGE RATES COMPARED
20.21
25
17.38
20
15
10
1.55
2.87
5
0
Assemblers
Skilled Labor
History shows that over time, wages will increase
in Mexico, closing the gap somewhat
65
Economic and Social Development (cont.)

• Primary Exports
• Latin America specialized in commodities into the
  1950s
• Bananas, coffee, cacao, grains, tin, rubber,
  petroleum, etc.
• Agricultural Production
• Since 1960s, agriculture has become more
  diversified and mechanized
• Machinery, hybrid crops, chemical fertilizers,
  pesticides, make agriculture very productive
• Mining and Forestry
• Products silver, zinc, copper, iron ore,
  bauxite, gold, oil, gas
• Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador export oil
• Mining becoming mechanized, laying off workers
• Logging
• Exportation of wood pulp provide short-term cash
  infusion
• Plantation forests of introduced species replace
  diverse native forests

66
Economic and Social Development (cont.)

• Latin America in the Global Economy
• Dependency theory
• Dependency theory holds that expansion of
  European capitalism created Latin American
  condition of underdevelopment
• Creates prosperous cores and dependent, poor
  peripheries
• Increased economic integration within Latin
  America and dominance of U.S. market
• Neoliberalism as Globalization
• Neoliberal policies stress privatization, export
  production, and few restrictions on imports
• Benefits include increased trade and more
  favorable terms for debt repayment most
  political leaders are embracing it
• Some signs of discontent with neoliberalism and
  support for reduction of poverty and inequality

67
Latin America in the Global Economy

• Dollarization
• Dollarization process in which a country adopts
  (in whole or in part) the U.S. dollar as its
  official currency
• Full dollarization U.S. dollar becomes only
  currency
• Until 2000, Panama was the only fully dollarized
  Latin American country
• Ecuador also became fully dollarized in 2000
• El Salvador considering
• Limited dollarization more common strategy
• U.S. dollars circulate with countrys national
  currency
• Tends to reduce inflation, eliminate fears of
  currency devaluation, and reduce costs of trade

68
Developing countries seek a bigger and better
piece of the pie

• Banana plantations are declining in importance in
  Costa Rica, whereas there are growing numbers of
  workers in high-tech fields and tertiary and
  quaternary activities.

69
Social Development

• Marked improvements since 1960
• Declining child mortality rate, along with higher
  rates for life expectancy and educational
  attainment
• Most countries had child mortality cuts of 50 or
  more
• Important role for non-govt. organizations (NGOs)
• Humanitarian organizations, churches, community
  activists
• Still, regional social differences within
  countries
• Race and Inequality
• Relative tolerance, but Amerindians and blacks
  over-represented among the poor
• Hard to ignore ethnicity and race when explaining
  contrasts in income and availability of services

70
Mapping Poverty and Prosperity (Fig. 4.29)
71
Status of Women

• Many women work outside the home (30-40)
• Lower than rate in U.S. but comparable to many
  European countries
• Legally, women can vote, own property, and sign
  for loans, but less likely than men to do so
• Reflective of patriarchal tendencies
• Low illiteracy rates
• Highest rates in Central America
• Trend toward smaller families
• Related to education and workforce participation

72
Monroe Doctrine U.S. Intervention

• Panama aided its revolt for independence
• Guatemala
• Nicaragua helped create Somoza dictatorship
• Haiti
• Dominican Republic
• Mexico (took ½ Mexicos territory) 1912
  invasion to capture Pancho Villa (failed)
• Spanish American War took Puerto Rico kept
  right to intervene in Cuba until 1935

73
U.S. Intervention Since 1960

• Cuba Bay of Pigs, Cuban missile crisis,
  economic embargo relations now improving
• Troops to Dominican Republic (????)
• Illegal Iran-Contra involvement in Nicaraguan
  civil war
• Troops to Grenada
• Invasion of Panama to capture its president
  Noriega brought to U.S. tried for drug charges
  and imprisoned in U.S.
• Intervention in Haiti to restore president

74
Perceptions Differ

• The U.S. likes to be perceived as a friendly
  neighbor upholder of principles of human
  dignity. Not easily accomplished when one is a
  big power seeking its best interests
• Middle South American perspective
• Gringo isnt a complimentary term
• U.S. often called the colossus of the north.
• U.S. often supported dictators if they were
  avowedly anti-communist. disastrous in Cuba
  Nicaragua
• U.S as an economically imperialistic country

75
Conclusion

• Latin America is the first region fully colonized
  by Europe
• Demographic recovery slow after early population
  decline
• Latin America is rich in natural resources
• But will resources be exploited for short-term
  gain or sustainability?
• Active informal economy, rapid development

End of Chapter 4 Latin America