A View of Developing Countries

Meaning of Third World

• Practical definition – poor developing countries

• Has lost some meaning– 1st World – Rich, non-communist market

economies– 2nd World – Communist countries (they have

practically disappeared)– 3rd World – non-communist poor countries

with “immature” economies

A More Realistic Approach

• Developed Countries (formerly 1st World)

• Developing Countries (all the other countries)

• What about the former 2nd World?– They are divided between the two groups –

i.e. the Czech Rep. is in the developed group, whereas Vietnam is in the developing group.

Latin America

300-900 AD

The Roman Empire was already declining.

Land of the MayaLand of the Maya

Mezoamerican Art

Housing much like that of Housing much like that of the Pre-Colombian Mayathe Pre-Colombian Maya

1st step in milpa agriculture - clearing

2nd step -- burning

Ashes serve as fertilizer

Will produce a decent harvest for several years only.

Typical rural town or village

market.

About 50 percent of Guatemala's 11 million people are Indians, who speak 24 indigenous languages.

Some are descended from Some are descended from the Mayathe Maya

1% of the population owns 80% of the land. 20% of “white” men own cars; only 5% of Indian men do.

99 percent of the population owns 20 percent

of the land.

Copal, resin collected from pine trees in the surrounding mountains, is burned in the Roman Catholic church.

Belize

Spanish cultural influence - architecture

1 Pepsi = 1 peso OR 1 peso = 20 kg. of corn for a family for

a week.

Comparative Values

The Cathedral in Mexico City is the largest in Latin America. It took 300 years to build. The Zocalo (plaza) in

front of it is the largest in the world.

lDeforestation results from high prices paid for tropical hardwoods.

Lumberjacks averaged $10-15 per week;

food for a family of six cost $6.

In the 19In the 19thth century the Yucatan was an informal century the Yucatan was an informal colony of Chicago’s International Harvester, which colony of Chicago’s International Harvester, which turned theturned the sisal sisal into bailer twine for Midwestern into bailer twine for Midwestern farmers. The planters built wedding-cake mansions farmers. The planters built wedding-cake mansions in Merida and sent their children to schools in New in Merida and sent their children to schools in New Orleans and HavanaOrleans and Havana..

Sisal Plants

Sisal cut & bundled for shipping

Sisal fibers drying

Loading primary products for export

Rainfall variations in

Central America

Checking coffee beans

Fields of cash crops for export

Raw latex?

Exposing poor, red lateritic soil

Tourism does little for the poor.

West Africa

350 years of slave trade here -- 9.5 million slaves

Portuguese Fort 1482

Dutch Fort 1637

South Asia

Galle, Sri LankaPortuguese 1580-1640

Dutch 1640-1796

British 1796-1948

Independence 1948

Tea is grown in the Hill Country, above 1,220 meters.

British colonials brought the Tamil Hindu (from India) minority to pick tea.

The British established coffee (until 1870s), and later, tea plantations; in 1948 the socialist government nationalized most of these private estates.

3 billion people in the world depend on rice for their food!

Sinhalese Buddhist are the majority in Sri Lanka.

What food is being sold at this roadside shop?

The bounty of the tropics. Why would people being hungry?

Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka's first capital in the 4th century BC.

A Buddhist statute

The rock fortress of Sigiriya, the Lion Rock was built by King Kashyapa, in the last quarter of the 5th Century to fend off the persistent South Indian invaders.

People climb up the 200-meter precarious metal steps to see the temple dancers painted in the caves 1,500 years ago.

And you think studying is hard work?