Chapter Ten

Latin America

Contrasts Amid a Common History

Geographic Contrasts

Geographic Conflicts

Regional Cultural History

Pre-European PeoplesThe Lasting Influence of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca• Maya• City-states• Tenochtitlán• Incas• Quechua

Regional Cultural History (cont’d)

Spanish Colonization• Treaty of Tordesillas

Spanish Control• Encomienda• Haciendas• Peninsulares• Criollos• Mestizos

Regional Cultural History (cont’d)

Portuguese Colonization

Other European Colonies

IndependenceIndependence from Spain

Brazilian Independence

Economic Colonialism

Continuing External InfluencesImport Substitution

Natural Environment

Tropical and Southern Hemisphere ClimatesMiddle America and the Caribbean Basin

Northern South America

El Niño

Southern South America

Natural Environment (cont’d)

High Mountains and Island ChainsInsular and Mainland Middle America• High-altitude plateau lands• Eastern and western Sierra Madres• Tehuántepec• Yucatán Peninsula

Andes Mountains• Altiplano

Natural Environment (cont’d)

Broad PlateausBrazilian Highlands

Guiana Highlands

Major River BasinsOrinoco River

Amazon River

Paraná-Paraguay River system

Natural Environment (cont’d)

Natural VegetationAltitudinal zonation

Tierra caliente

Tierra templada

Tierra fría

Tierra helada

Natural Resources

Environmental ProblemsSoil Erosion

Air and Water Pollution• Temperature inversions

Natural Environment (cont’d)

Conserve Tropical Rain Forest ResourcesTropical rain forest (TRF) resources provide a sink for carbon dioxide. Burning TRF vegetation adds carbon dioxide to the Earth’s atmosphere. TRF areas are a source of oxygen in the lowest level of the Earth’s atmosphere, where humans live and breathe.

Point-Counterpoint: Tropical Forests and Deforestation

Use Tropical Rain Forest ResourcesThere is incomplete carbon dioxide data for the Earth’s atmosphere. Large portions of the Earth’s surface are unreported. Ocean exchanges with the lowest levels of the Earth’s atmosphere are more significant than TRF exchanges.

Conserve Tropical Rain Forest ResourcesThere is a tremendous biodiversity in the plant life present in TRF ecosystems.

Use Tropical Rain Forest ResourcesThere is no conclusive evidence that TRF clearing will permanently change the biodiversity of the Earth as a whole.

Point-Counterpoint (cont’d)

Many medical treatments are derived from TRF products, including current treatments and potential cures come for cancer patients. Destruction may eliminate many undiscovered cures and treatments. TRF-derived pharmaceuticals earn billions internationally each year.

Medical treatments come from many sources. Many treatments and cures may be synthetically generated in laboratories and do not need naturally growing species from TRF.

Point-Counterpoint (cont’d)

Conserve TRF Resources

Use TRF Resources

Governments permit the rapid clearing of TRF resources and sell them internationally, claiming rights to destroy domestic resources that impact the entire Earth. Yet, the same governments may be corrupt and waste other resources and spend their cash foolishly.

Debt-ridden and impoverished countries need to have the right to use their natural resources for their own best interest. The wealthier countries of the world obtained high material living standards by depleting much of their own and others’ resources as they grew. Now those countries want to hold countries with TFR resource wealth back.

Point-Counterpoint (cont’d)

Conserve TRF Resources

Use TRF Resources

Indigenous tribes and local people are displaced by TRF clearing. In some cases, bloody conflicts ensure while government officials turn a blind eye.

Growing countries need to push their frontiers and develop their resources. “Productive” members of society have a right to use land in a manner that will benefit them and their country.

Point-Counterpoint (cont’d)

Conserve TRF Resources

Use TRF Resources

TRF resources provide an in-creasing tourism revenue potential. During the 1990s, travel to natural areas of the tropics was one of the fastest-growing components of the global travel industry (which is the world’s largest industry). Although some governments assert their ability to balance resource clearing for export sales and development goals with conservation for tourism growth, few have shown a true commitment to achieving such a balance.

Governments have the right to determine how they will earn revenue from their resources. Governments of TRF resource-wealthy countries assert their ability to balance resource depletion and extraction with conservation and replenishment.

Point-Counterpoint (cont’d)

Conserve TRF Resources

Use TRF Resources

TRFs provide a natural habitat for species found only in this biome. Removing the TRF would eliminate habitat and cause permanent loss to global species diversity. Loss of species could alter the ecological balance of the Earth.

A good source of income in a debt-ridden country with a large materially poor segment in its population is far more important than the conservation of a bird or a tree.

Point-Counterpoint (cont’d)

Conserve TRF Resources

Use TRF Resources

World Roles

The United States and Latin AmericaMonroe Doctrine

Financial Dependence

Political Change and the Global EconomyProtectionism

Global Cities

Regional Links

The Subregions

Latin American Population Distribution Patterns in the Subregions

The Mexican population is concentrated in the central region.

In Central America, the main concentrations of people are in and around the largest cities.

In the northern Andes, population distribution reflects the Spanish pattern of colonial settlement.

The Subregions (cont’d)

Latin American Population Distribution Patterns in the Subregions (cont’d)

Brazil’s population is distributed according to historical and contemporary regional development goals.

The main population centers in Southern South America are around the Río de la Plata and in central Chile.

Mexico

• Ejidos• Ejiditarios• PRI (Partido Revolucionario

Institucional)• PAN (Partido de Acción Nacional)• Zapatistas• Revolutionary tourists

Mexico (cont’d)

Regions of Mexico

People

Mexico City

Economic Development and the Human Landscape

Maquiladora

Central America

• Isthmus• “Banana Republics”

Countries

People

Economic Development

The Caribbean Basin and Environs

Countries

PeoplePopulation Dynamics

Migrations in the 1900s

The Caribbean Basinand Environs (cont’d)

Economic Legacy of the Colonial PastColonial Farming HeritageEconomic Strategies Following IndependenceThe Challenge of Economic Cooperation• Caribbean Community and Common

Market (CARICOM)• Association of Caribbean States

Tourism• Economic leakage

Island and Country Specialties

Northern Andes

Countries

PeopleDynamic Growth

Urban Growth

Ethnic Contrasts

Northern Andes (cont’d)

Economic DevelopmentAndean Common Market

Export-Led Underdevelopment

Patterns of Economic Diversification

The Northern Andes and the International Drug Trade

Brazil

Regions of Brazil

PeoplePopulation Dynamics

Increasing Urbanization• Favelas

Brazilian Cities

Ethnic Variety

Brazil (cont’d)

Economic DevelopmentVaried Economic History

Modern Mining

Farming Today

Manufacturing Expansion• Free trade zone

Amazon Backwater• FUNAI (Fundação Nacional do Indio)

Indebtness and New Policies• Hyperinflation

Southern South America

Countries

PeopleRelatively slow growth

Highly urbanized

Primate cities

European immigration

Southern South America (cont’d)

Economic DevelopmentParaguay

Colonial Legacy

Growing Engagement with World Economy

Economic Isolation

Chile

Uruguay

Argentina

Buenos Aires, Argentina