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LATIN AMERICA

Chapter 10

Objectives

This chapter will enable you to:

Appreciate how topographic variety creates a predictable range of environmental conditions and livelihood opportunities, and what geographic traits correlate with core and peripheral regions

Learn about the accomplishments of indigenous cultures and how European conquest and colonization impacted indigenous peoples

Objectives (cont’d.)

Recognize the predominant ethnic patterns of the region and how ethnicity correlates with livelihood, wealth, and political power

Recognize the economic and social inequities in rural and urban settings that hamper development and contribute to dissent

Objectives (cont’d.)

Understand the obstacles Latin American economies face in transitioning from dependence on primary commodities to diversified manufacturing and services sectors, and the roles of free trade and fair trade

Understand how U.S. interests have shaped the region’s political and economic systems, and how the Latin American “ideology of fury” has pushed back against American influence

Objectives (cont’d.)

Examine human–environment interactions in the contexts of natural hazards, climate change, and economic development

Area and Population

Extent of Latin America

Comprised of 38 countries

Spans more than 85° of latitude and 82° of longitude

Subregions

Middle America, South America

Population of 618 million people

Distributed mainly across “rimland” and “highland”

Region is 78% urban

Climates and Vegetation

Extraordinary climatic and biotic diversity, both within the region and even within some countries

Tropical rain forest

Tropical savanna

Humid subtropical

Prairie

Mediterranean

Desert

Steppe

Climates and Biomes

Figure 10.5 (a) Climates and (b) biomes of Latin America.

Elevation and Land Use

Altitudinal zonation

Terra caliente – hot country

Tierra templada – cool country

Tierra fría – cold country

Tierra helada – frost country

Air temperature decreases with elevation at a normal rate of approximately 3.6°F per 1,000 feet

Altitudinal Zonation

Figure 10.7 Altitudinal zonation in Latin America. Specific patterns of land use have evolved to take advantage of the region’s diverse altitudinal zones. This graph shows elevations and general land use patterns, which may also be compared with land uses in Figure 10.8. Elevations shown here are for the equatorial region and are somewhat lower toward the poles for the respective land uses.

Natural Hazards in Latin America

Pacific Ring of Fire

Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions

Largest earthquake ever recorded was magnitude 9.5 in 1960 off the coast of southern Chile

Two seasonal hurricane regions

Source of the El Niño climatic pattern

Responsible for global climate disruptions resulting in unusually high/low precipitation/temperatures for various places

El Niño

Figure 10.12 Normal and El Niño conditions in the Pacific Ocean.

Cultural and Historical Geographies

No “Latins” among the region’s inhabitants before the end of the 15th century

An estimated 50-100 million Native Americans inhabited the region when Columbus arrived in 1492

Emergence of early culture hearths

Andes region of South America

Southern Mexico and adjacent Central America

Native American Groups

Figure 10.14 Major Native American groups and civilizations in Latin America on the eve of the Spanish conquest.

Civilizations Predating European Arrival

Maya

Southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala

Complex civilization

Teotihuacános

Aztecs

Central Mexico

Inca

Ecuador to central Chile

Nazca

Chibcha

Languages in Latin America

Indigenous language families

Mayan language family

Quechua

Language of the Inca

European languages

Megalanguages

Creole languages

Slaves and indentured servants

The European Conquest

Christopher Columbus – 1492

Marked the beginning of profound changes in almost every aspect of life in what would become Latin America, including:

Death

Increased volume of trade products shipped overseas

European-introduced horses, cattle, sheep, donkeys, wheat, sugarcane, coffee, and bananas

Gold and silver

Introduction of Catholicism

Ethnicity in Latin America

Only Argentina, Uruguay, and Costa Rica have significant white European ethnic groups

Mixed heritage

Mestizos

Mulatto/Creole

Native American cultures

Some governments protect natives

Economic Geography

Latin America is generally a region of LDCs

Rely too much on the primary sector

Exports of non-value-added goods like cash crops and minerals

China now investing in Latin America

Commodities-dependent economies

Agriculture and Mining: The Primary Sector

Farms classified by size and system of production

Minifundia

Smaller holdings with a strong subsistence component

Generally, people who lack the money to purchase large and fertile properties

Usually marginal plots, often on sharecropping basis

Latifundia

Large estates with strong commercial orientation

Also called haciendas and plantations

Agriculture and Mining: The Primary Sector (cont’d.)

Over-reliance on coffee and bananas

“Banana republics”

United Fruit Company – American owned

Range of export crops has grown

Agriculture and Mining: The Primary Sector (cont’d.)

Major producer of key minerals

Raw and semi-processed forms

Some profits from mineral production has funded significant infrastructure, including roads, power stations, water systems, schools, and hospitals

Early 1980s debt crisis

Neo-liberalism / restructuring

Free Trade Associations and Common Markets

Mercosur (Southern Cone Common Market)

Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA): Canada, U.S., Mexico

Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)

Organization of American States (OAS)

Intellectual property rights

Fair trade movements

Remittances: Sending Money Home

Immigrant workers

Remittances

Earned savings sent home by people working abroad, especially in the United States

54% of immigrant workers from Latin America send money home

Grandparents caring for working parents’ children

Honduras

Remittances make up 17% of the country’s GDP

Tourism and the Service Sector

Tourism is a major regional economic asset, generating critical foreign exchange

Only oil exports are more valuable

Tourism revenues reflect distance-decay relationship

Highest tourism receipts flow to Mexico, the nearest neighbor to the wealthy countries

Tourism revenues fall off for more distant destinations

Geopolitical Issues

The U.S. has staked its geostrategic claim to the region

Monroe Doctrine (1823)

Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (1904)

Modern U.S. involvements in Latin America

Actions to support governments against nationalist insurgencies

Support insurgents against leftist governments

Cuba and the U.S. In Transition

1962 Cuban Missile Crisis

Close to nuclear war

Bay of Pigs invasion 1961

U.S. imposed sanctions

Frozen relations for decades

Obama administration opened dialogue with Cuba

The Panama and Nicaragua Canals

50-mile shortcut between Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

Link by water – series of locks

U.S. began canal construction in 1904

Was completed in 1914

Was sovereign U.S. territory

Transferred to Panama 1999

Nicaraguan canal

Chinese funded; complete in 2020

Access to Oil

Top providers in the region

Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia

FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia)

Narcoterrorist organization

Plan Patriot

U.S. backed operation to gain control from FARC

The Washington Consensus …

Political-economic philosophy

Press governments to expand neo-liberalism

Reforms would bring prosperity

Generally the U.S. neglected Latin America

… and Latin America’s Pushback

After 9/11, widespread disillusionment with economic conditions

Leaders had common stated intention to reverse U.S.-backed push toward free trade and free enterprise

Generally supported by indigenous Americans

Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America

Middle America: Mexico’s Stature

Largest, most complex, and most influential country in Middle America

Mexico City is the world’s 12th largest city in population with 120 million

Oil is Mexico’s most important export

90% of it goes to the U.S.

Trying to diversify economy

Remembering Mexican-American War 1848

South America: Venezuela’s Petroleum Politics

Large oil resources in the coastal area around Lake Maracaibo

95% of Venezuela’s exports by value

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez spearheaded regional quest for liberation from Spain

Bolivarian Revolution

Goal to build a coalition to counter U.S.-led free-trade efforts

South America: Brazil, The Stirring Giant

Brazil is the largest Latin American country

Area 3.3 million square miles

Population 202 million

An increasingly important role in hemispheric and world affairs

Large foreign debt

Sugarcane production for ethanol

South America: The Amazon, Its Forest, and Its People

Amazon River handles more volume than any other river in world

Basin covers some 2.7 million square miles

Home to world’s largest remaining expanse of tropical rain forest and some of world’s most remote populations of indigenous peoples

Its rain forest contains many species of plants and animals

Acts as a carbon sink to mitigate global warming due to excess greenhouse gas emissions

South America: The Amazon, Its Forest, and Its People (cont’d.)

Trans-Amazon Highway

Brazil began construction in 1970s on the main line of an interoceanic highway connecting Atlantic and Peruvian coasts

Regional Initiative for the Infrastructure Integration of South America

Ecological concerns about deforestation resulting from building this road

Deforestation in the Amazon

Figure 10.36 Deforestation in the Amazon Basin.