GEOG103 Chapter 3 Lecture

Chapter 3 Lecture
World Regional
Geography
A Developmental Approach
11th Edition
© 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Latin America
and the
Caribbean

Chapter Learning Outcomes
• Describe the role major environmental factors play in the location and
success of development in Latin America.
• Explain why Latin America is predominantly Roman Catholic in religious
affiliation, but is experiencing a rapid growth in Pentecostalism today.
• Characterize the increasingly important role played by China in Latin
America’s economy and trade.
• Explain the significance of indigenous social movements in economic
development throughout Latin America.
• Indicate the importance of mineral exploitation in the economies of Latin
America.
• Identify the strongest and the weakest economies in Latin America and
the Caribbean and explain the reasons for these national differences.
• Show how migration is reshaping Latin American economies and
population distribution.
• List the reasons for the high level of urbanization characteristic of most
Latin American countries.

Map

Landforms
• Three structural landforms
1. Eastern Highlands
• Central Brazil
• Southern Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and
French Guiana
• Southern Argentina
2. Central Lowlands—South America
3. Western Alpine Zone
• Southern Chile
• Argentina
• Into Central America and Mexico

Climate

Climate
• Varied as its landforms
• Flat-topped mountains
• Volcanoes
• Notable are its extensive areas of tropic
climates
• Savannas and rain forests

Ethnicity

European Arrival and Conquest
• Spanish conquest by conquistadores —gold, God,
and glory
• Native Indian civilizations
– All sustained by agriculture—mainly crop harvesting.
– Types
• Aztec—Most urbanized
– Tenochtitlan—one of the largest cities on Earth
(Mexico)
• Maya—Most ancient
– Guatemala and Mexico
• Chibcha
– Agricultural villages in Colombia
• Inca
– Noted for infrastructure development
– High mountains of southern Peru and Bolivia
– Excelled at authoritarian social and political order

Colonial Latin America

The End of Colonialism
• Lingering effects of colonialism
• Continued social stratification
– Peninsulares—Europeans born in the Iberian
peninsula
– Criollos—those born in American colonies
• Fundamental inequities in landholding
• Latifundios—large estates
• Three forms
1. Plantations
2. Haciendas
3. Estancias
• Centrality of marketplaces

Population

Contemporary Latin America
• Predominantly an urban society now
– 75% urbanized
– Rural-to-urban migration
• Self-perpetuating cycle of growth
• Large metropoli (megacities)
– Mexico City
– Sao Paolo
– Rio de Janiero
• Shantytowns/squatter settlements

Contemporary Latin America

Economy

Globalization
• Neocolonialism—depending on external
sources for investment to grow economies
• Debt crises
– Vestiges of expansive borrowing
– Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico all have had
crises in recent years.
• Privatization
• Emphasis on multinational economic unions
– Free Trade Across the Americas (FTAA)
– North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Regional Trade Blocs

Mineral Resources

Agriculture

Tourism
• Major source in Mexico, Jamaica, Puerto Rico,
the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, and
parts of the Lesser Antilles
• Less effective where there were beaches,
Indian ruins, nonproximity to the U.S., or where
political instability exists

Illegal Drugs: The Most Dangerous Export
• Organized crime syndicates
– Medellin
– Cali
• Control major cities in Colombia
• Large expanses of rural hinterlands
• Hired private armies
– Guerilla bands
– Homeless street children
• Have engaged in many lawless activities
– Kidnappings
– Assassination attempts
– Bribery of government officials

Religion
• Formal
– Small European upper-class
– Urban centers
– Emphasis on piety, faith, and Sacraments
– Emphasis on devotional societies, charities, and social clubs
• Nominal (“in name only”)
– Rural peasant population and urban poor
– Anticlericalism
• Folk
– Mixture of European Catholicism and non-Catholic faith and beliefs
– American Indian
• Pre-Colombian animalistic and medieval Catholic customs
• Centered in mountains and valleys
– Spiritism
• Caribbean-based
• Black and mulattos (term archaic and considered racist)
• Aspects of voodoo and Santería
• Threats to institutional Catholic Church
– Secularism
– Protestant fundamentalism
– Liberation theology

The Latin American Debt Crisis
• Excessive borrowing from international banks and their representatives,
including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank
• Neither borrower nor lender paid attention to ability to repay.
• Debt levels in 2006 in the hundreds of millions of dollars
– Brazil—$194 million
– Argentina—$122 million
– Mexico—$160 million
• Baker Plan (James Baker, U.S. Secretary of State)
– Bridge loans to cover interest on the debt
– Assumption that debt to cover debt is acceptable
– Bought time for lenders and borrowers
• Brady Plan (Nicholas Brady, U.S. Treasury Secretary)
– Strategies acknowledging that debtors may be unable to repay debts
without severely impacting their development
– Proposal to forgive a significant part of debt
– IMF and World Bank guarantees for remaining debt
– Requirements of debtor countries to enact changes in economic practices
– Changes sometimes had social and political ramifications.

Mexico
• 72% of all land in Middle America
• 57% of population of that area
• A land of revolutions
– Strangled by the mercantile system
– Stunted by class stratification
– Lapsed into political chaos and despotism
in 1800s
• Santa Anna—flamboyant demagogue
• Benito Juarez—liberal that followed Santa Anna
in 1855
• Dictatorship under Porfirio Díaz
• Revolution between 1910 and 1917
– Since 1917, relatively politically stable

Mexico
• Political stability brought beginnings of economic
and social development.
• Three approaches to strengthen national
allegiance
1. Establish public education as a national priority.
2. Glorifying Mexico’s “Indianness”
3. Encouragement of political activism by lower-class masses
• Political parties
– Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is dominant—almost
one-party state until 1990s.
– Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) is a leftist coalition.
– National Action Party (PAN) is a pro-business alliance; its
leader was elected president in 2000—first non-PRI president.

Central America
• Troubled region of six small countries
– Serious economic and political challenges
– Limited mineral wealth
– Physical isolation
– Poor transportation networks
– Small markets for manufactured goods
• Little changes since colonial era
• Torn apart in 1990s by various guerilla
movements, death squads, and U.S.
military intervention.

Guatemala
• Guatemala
– The largest, the poorest, and the most
politically troubled
– Sugar, coffee, and cattle widely produced
– 36-year civil war ended in 1996.
– CIA interference in 1950s (United Fruit
Company)

El Salvador
• Most densely populated
• Migration
– To shantytowns outside San Salvador
– To neighboring countries
• No agricultural frontier
• Emphasis on industrialization
• Relatively skilled and industrious labor force
• No minerals of significance
• Power mostly imported
• 1992—end of deadly 12-year civil war

Honduras
• Population of only 7 million; sparsely
settled
• Limited manufacturing
• Some maquiladoras
• Agriculture is almost sole occupation.

Panama
• Owes existence and economic vitality to U.S.
• Panama Canal
• Divides country into two parts
1. East
• Little developed rain forest
2. West
• Numerous banana plantations along Caribbean
coast
• Beef cattle, rice, staple food crops in interior
• Tertiary activities in Canal zone
– Retailing
– Shipping
– Banking
– Drug trafficking

Costa Rica
• Differs from other Central American countries
• Has developed a socioeconomic middle class
• Spirit of national unity
• 90% literacy
• Well-developed infrastructure
• Democratic government
• Considerable regional specialization
– Coffee
– Bananas
– Cut flowers
– Cattle ranching

Nicaragua
• Long history of political instability
• U.S. military occupation between 1912 and 1933
• 1937—Somoza family gained control and ruled
until 1979.
• Somoza controlled over half of the wealth in the
country.
• Sandinistas
– Took control in 1980s
– Later lost elections
– Currently seeking a comeback
• Sparsely populated and little developed
• Basically, an agricultural country

The Caribbean
• Greater Antilles
– Cuba
– Hispaniola
– Jamaica
– Puerto Rico
• Lesser Antilles
• Continental rimland nations
– Guyana
– Belize
– Suriname
– French Guiana
– Relatively small size and harsh environments
• Challenges
– Need to overcome colonial legacies
– Preserve both the local ways of life and the
environmental balance in the face of increasing numbers
of foreign visitors.

Cuba
• Ignored by Spaniards throughout the colonial era
• U.S. protectorate at beginning of twentieth century
– Tourism exploded
– Yellow fever eradicated
– Sugarcane became the “grass of Cuba.”
– Havana—mecca of gambling and nightclubs
• 1959—Castro overthrows the Batista government.
– Promises major reforms
• Lessen Cuban dependence on foreign nations
– Switched allegiances and dependencies on Soviet
assistance
– Breakup of USSR brought new economic challenges
• Diversify Cuban agriculture
• Succeeded in removing Hispanic historical prejudice against
farming
• Breakup of Berlin Wall and USSR has effects.
• 2006—Castro yields to his brother Raul.

Puerto Rico
• U.S. Commonwealth
– Pays no income taxes
– No full statehood
• Three-pronged development plan
1.Industrialization
2.Agricultural improvement
3.Expansion of tourism

Haiti
• Located on island of Hispaniola
• African and French elements
• Almost entirely black
• Extreme poverty
• Decay is everywhere.
• Erratic water and power supplies in
Port-au-Prince
• Criminality and lawlessness rule.

Dominican Republic
• Located on island of Hispaniola
• Hispanic flavor
• Subsistence agriculture, large ranches,
and mechanized farms
• Improving infrastructure
• Tourism is booming.

Jamaica
• British influences from 1655 when captured
from Spanish
• Severe social turmoil
• Rich in bauxite—aluminum ore
• Unemployment chronically high
• Crime increasing
– Shantytowns of Kingston
– Rastafarian marijuana dealers

Belize
• Independence from Britain in 1981, but
strongly influenced by English culture.
• Population less than 300,000
• Tropical hardwoods and other forest
products traditional base
• Sugar and citrus have become significant
exports.

South America

Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana
• Little known, culturally Caribbean nations
• Settled during sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries by Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch,
English, and French colonists
• Guyana and French Guiana—governed by
Britain
• Suriname—Dutch possession
• Sugarcane
– Importation of slaves
– Indentured laborers from Indian subcontinent in
nineteenth century

Andean South America
• Land of social and political fragmentation
• Dominated by high mountainous core
• Humid lowlands of Amazon and Orinoco
river basins
• Narrow coastal lowland
• Countries
– Venezuela
– Columbia
– Ecuador
– Peru
– Bolivia

Ecuador
• Deep social and economic divisions
– Tension between rural and urban groups
– Notoriously unstable political environment
• Ignored in favor of Peru during colonial era
by Spain
• Export economy
– Bananas
– Petroleum
– Fish products

Peru
• Spanish Conquest left deep divisions.
– European vs. Indian values
– Economic production systems
• Spanish influences
– Private property concept
– Large-scale commercial agriculture
– Mining
– Nation-state
– Urban/Westernized
• Indians
– Locally focused/emphasis on local traditions
– Agriculture/subsistence farming
• Coastal Peru a narrow ribbon of desert
– Arid
– Cool temperatures
• Economy
– Lima–Callao oasis
• Truck gardening
• Dairying
• Lima increasingly industrialized
– Fishing
• Guano—bird droppings from huge flocks of seabirds
• El Niño—warm equatorial front affecting fishing industry
– Crops
• Sugarcane
• Bananas
• Cotton
• Rice

Venezuela
• Rich and diverse resource base—notably oil
• Four regions
1. Andean Highlands
• Most of Venezuelan population resides here.
• Urban centers
2. Maracaibo Lowlands
3. Guiana Highlands
• Under development
• Vast iron ore and bauxite reserves
4. Llanos
• Troubled area
• Rough terrain
• Breeding ground for political dictatorships
• Petroleum-producing country
– Helped country to fund social infrastructure
– Profits threatened lately by increasing political instability
• Iron ores and bauxite reserves
• Urban centers
• 87% of 26 million population resides in cities.
– Caracas—3.6 million
– Maracaibo
– Valencia
– Maracay
– Barquisimeto

Bolivia
• Long been divided
– Small, elite European upper class
– Large underclass of Indians
– Chronic political instability from factional rivalries
• Altiplano
– High plain
– Perpetually cold and arid
– Rural farmers
• Economic development
– Highlands are one of the greatest mining districts in
the world.
– Large natural gas and petroleum deposits in Chaco
– Yungas area for coca production

Colombia
• Deep social divisions and history of violence
• Regional rivalries
– Conservative culture
• Medellin
• Cali
• Other cities of Cauca River Valley
– Liberal culture
• Bogota
• Magdalena River Valley
• Failure of government to control land east
of Andes
– Area harbors subsistence agriculture.
– Drug trafficking

Colombia
• Bogota major urban center in South America
– Cosmopolitan/7.6 million population
– Agriculture and industrial economies
• Barranquilla—Leading Caribbean port
• Manizales, Pereira, Medellin
– Textiles
– Food processing
– Banking
• Cali
– Most rapid growth
– Diversified economy
• El Cerrejón
– Coal deposits
– Petroleum production has increased.

Brazil
• Traditional and modern
• West sparsely populated
• East densely settled
• Six regions

Brazil / São Paulo region
• Economics
– Most modern and productive region
– Per capita income is far above the national average.
– Two-thirds of total national industrial output
– 55% of national manufacturing
– Leading financial center
– Leads the nation in agricultural production
• Megacity
– 19 million population
– Rural to urban migration
– Poor, illiterate, and unskilled
– Lack access to infrastructure
– Air pollution

Rio de Janeiro
• Second largest city
• Distinctive Carioca culture
• 11 million people
• 2016 Summer Olympics

Brazil: The South
• Distinctive flavor
• Nineteenth century settlement by German
and Italian farmers
• Agriculture is main economic livelihood.
• Urban areas are regional service centers.
• Typical manufacturing
– Milling
– Meat packing
– Tanning
– Textiles

Brazil: The East
• Modern meets the traditional.
• Large modern urban center—Rio de Janeiro
– Megacity
– 11 million
– Shortage of level land for urban development
• One of the most mineralized areas of
the world
– Mineral Triangle
• Gold
• Diamonds
• Iron ore
• Other gems

Brazilian Northeast
• Once the center of the country
• Now poverty-stricken
• Feudalistic social structures continue.
• Low levels of technology
• Three cities
1. Recife
2. Salvador
3. Fortaleza
• Service centers

Brazilian North
• Amazon Basin
– Vast region
– Multilayered rain forests
– Diversity of plant and animal life
• Reasons for failure
– Soils must be fertile.
– Reliance on single crop
– Cropping systems require fungicides and
herbicides antithetical to Green revolution.
• Trans-Amazon Highway
– Massive road system out of the Basin
– Encourage underemployed migrants to
settle there.

Chile
• Heart is the Central Valley
– Mediterranean climate
– Cohesive society
• Atacama Desert
– Very little rainfall
– Sparsely populated
• Minerals
– Nitrates
– Copper
– Iron ore

Chile
• Colonial roots
– Large, inefficient haciendas
– Inefficient labor supply of inquilinos
• Rapid industrialization following War of the Pacific
– Political power moves to reform-oriented urban parties.
– Greater control of foreign investment
• Allende elected first Marxist head of state (1970).
– Nationalized mining industry
– Accelerated land redistribution
– Took over banks and communications
– Opposition, inflation, and unemployment
• Military revolt in 1973 and Allende killed.
– Pinochet—military dictator until 1990
– Massive human rights violations
• Democratic elections after Pinochet

Argentina
• Second largest territory in Latin America
• One of the richest agricultural bases in the world.
• Colonial roots
– Europeans arrived sixteenth century.
– Spanish focused on gold and silver mines in arid NW.
– Agricultural communities formed along rivers.
– Expansion of Buenos Aires and the Pampa in
eighteenth century.
• Independence 1816
• 1946—COL Juan Perón takes over in a military coup.
– Nationalized major industries
– Jobs to descamisados in new, inefficient state-controlled
factories
– Perón ousted 1955

Argentina
• Series of military regimes
– 1973—Perón returns from exile.
– Wife, Isabel, succeeds him one year after his death.
– Isabel deposed 1976 by military junta.
– Dirty War follows.
• Military rulers prosecute failed war against Great Britain
over Falkland (Maldives) Islands.
• Menem elected amidst inflation and declining living
standards.
– Privatization
– Failed to curb rampant political corruption
• Major debt crises in early twenty-first century.
– Defaulted on international debts for three days
– Resulted in election in 2003 of President Nestor Kirchner.
– Kirchner’s wife succeeds him as president.

Argentina
• Buenos Aires and Pampa form heartland.
• 13.3 million—Buenos Aires (primate city)
• Manufacturing and service industries
• Other regions
– West
• Old cities of Córdoba, Mendoza, and Tecumán
• Important growth centers
• Agricultural base
– Some petroleum and metals in East Andes
– Patagonia
• Sparsely populated
• Sheep raising
• Irrigated alfalfa fields, cattle ranches, vineyards, and fruit
orchards

Uruguay and Paraguay
• Uruguay
– One of the small South American nations
– One of the highest standards of living
– Rich agricultural base
– Geologically, a transition zone
– Military rule in 1973 ended long-standing, two-party
democratic government.
– Civilian rule restored in 1985.
• Paraguay
– Poor and landlocked
– Gran Chaco
• Sparsely populated Western two-thirds
• One of the harshest environments on Earth
– Limited industry

Summary of Chapter
• Latin America and the Caribbean were created out of Europe’s accidental
discovery of two large continents connected by an isthmus.
• Dramatic change continued as the European powers imported between
10 and 12 million Africans for slave labor, and indigenous peoples were
concentrated into towns with plazas and Roman Catholic cathedrals.
• Latin America’s economy underwent two “shocks” and eras of
restructuring during the twentieth century. The Great Depression ushered
in an era of protected economies and the debt crisis and economic
restructuring of the 1980s led to the “lost decade.”
• Most countries reoriented their economies to export primary products,
assemble manufactured goods (EPZs), and attract tourists.
• Latin America has never been isolated, but through trade, tourism, and
migration it likely has never been more integrated into the global
economy.
• Latin America and the Caribbean can be divided into coherent, if
problematic, subregions.
• This region’s landscapes, economies, and environments will reflect
global processes such as climate change and economic globalization.

GEOG103 Chapter 3 Lecture

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