Middle and South America: Part 2

The Peopling of Middle and South America

• By late 1400’s, 50 to 100 million people in region

• Had adapted to nearly every ecosystem

• Perfected irrigation, aqueducts, sewers, terraces

• Had shifting cultivation where woods were cut down, burned, farmed three years, back to woods

• The Aztecs of Central Mexico:

• Calendar, marketing system

• Tenochtitlan, better off than European cities

• Built on a lake, surrounded by mountains

• The Inca Empire of the Andes:

• Took advantage of cooler highland temperatures, stretched across huge area

• Had highly organized system to administer society, as well as paved roads and mail

The Conquest

• One of most significant events of human history

• Within 40 years of contact, all major population centers had been conquered

• Mayas hardest of large groups to subdue

• Lack of resistance to European disease biggest factor (military tech also a factor)

• Population dropped from 50-100 mil. to 5.6 million

• Middle and South America split between Spain and Portugal

• Done under Treaty of Tordesillas, divided the Americas at 46 degrees West Longitude

• This is why Brazil speaks Portuguese

• Aztecs and Incas ravaged by smallpox

• Levels Aztec capital, builds Mexico City, seat of Viceroyalty of New Spain

• Built Lima to run Viceroyalty of Peru, got rich from Silver mines

• Only deep Amazon left alone, because to difficult to remove resources

The Legacy

Diets drastically changed around the globe

• From Americas

• Tubers: Potato (mid latitude) and Manioc (tropical)

• Potatoes caused a population explosion in places where introduced

• Tomatoes, Peppers, Peanuts, Cacao, Corn, Tobacco

• To Americas: rice, sugarcane, rubber, bananas, wheat, horses, sheep, cows

The Legacy (cont)

• In region: Inequality

• Under colonialism, Spanish and Portuguese controlled production and trade, oriented economy towards raw material export (mercantilism, pg 111) not trade with neighbors

• After wars of independence, revolutionary leaders just continued old patterns

• Were creoles (euros born in New World) or mestizos (euro/indigenous)

• Still low social mobility, hard for entrepreneurs

• Corruption and uneven education systems are also now factors

Income disparity

• Income disparity has fueled political turmoil in region

• Three major economic phases in Latin America:

• The Early Extractive Phase – raw materials removed, profits to Europe or North America, low wages for most

• Land Types:

• Haciendas – large estates in the interior given to European elites

• workers split time between owner’s, own fields

• Only small export for huge land area

• Plantations – one crop, coastal for export, grow year round

• Much more labor intensive, productive

• Used slave labor for a long time

• Also cattle ranches, mines, missions

Income disparity policy

• The Import Substitution Industrialization Phase

• Where state took over extractive industries, used profits to fund industries, put up tariffs to keep competing products out

• Largely failed, no economies of scale, little research & development

• Auto production in Brazil worked (forced international makers to build in Brazil), as did their pharmaceutical efforts

• Also some land reform, where land on big farms re-distributed to the landless

The Structural Adjustment Phase

• Preceded by the Debt Crisis

• Prices for raw materials (besides oil) decreased in the 1970s

• Exports could no longer support the region’s economy.

• Countries took out loans to continue to try to industrialize, never made projected income to pay back loans

• This led to SAP’s (Structural Adjustment Programs)

• It was a neoliberal (less economic restrictions) policy, designed primarily to pay back loans

• To attract investment, forced selling state assets to foreign corporations

• Also involved less social spending, regulation

Outcomes of SAPs

• Extractive industries, overall economic activity, entrepreneurship and investment grew; some in roads against corruption

• Some countries tried free trade/export processing zones (areas where there are no taxes, little regulation) to get exports.

• These often have little effect on wider economy of government revenue

• Poverty, inequality also increased

• Little regard for working conditions, environmental impacts

• Social services disappeared

• In early 2000s, major backlash in region against these

• Even IMF no longer pushes these; now promotes Poverty Reduction Strategies Papers.

• China has also become more willing to lend to countries in the region directly…

Trade

• Apart from NAFTA (and CAFTA) there was

• Mercosur: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela

• Encouraged trade with each other, not just U.S., Europe, Asia

• Roads, rail links few

• Suffers from differing expectations

• Was replaced in 2008 by UNASUR

• Countries from region leading charge against agricultural protectionism in U.S. and E.U.

• Until the last couple of years, Brazil grew its economy by once again exporting a lot of raw materials, but this time to China.

• Chile did as well; but it has a more traditionally structured economy and isn’t collapsing.

The Informal Economy

• Causes

• Underemployment, lack of government support

• Positive effects:

• Work is often challenging/strategic

• Provides services instantly, where needed

• Especially recycling, meals

• Keeps people from hitting rock bottom

• Negative effects

• Workers pay bribes instead of taxes

• No protection of health and safety.

• Supplementing this in many places are remittances, which occur both within countries (between big cities and the countryside) and internationally (mostly in US, but also Canada and Europe).

• The internet and cell phones have vastly changed the experience of migration, where it is much easier to stay in touch and even move money with less expense

Food and Development

• At the Personal Scale

• On plantations, laborers have lost personal hacienda plots as ownership changes to corporations

• Wages low, anti-union, jobs short term

• Small farmers can’t compete with big export operations

• This has sparked resistance in some areas

• Landless movement in Brazil has seized unused area the size of Kansas

• Part of long land redistribution tradition

Food (cont.)

• At the Community Scale

• New towns in Brazil’s interior are former haciendas now owned by the workers in cooperatives

• Able to spend on both technology and services

• At the National Scale

• Large farms help feed urban populations in country, make it less dependent on imports

• Farmers out of work, come to cities

Politics

• In general, democracy in the form of regular elections is on the rise

• Far fewer dictators than even 20 years ago; sharp decrease in coups and mass uprisings

• Despite the history of dictators, there is also a long history of “popular” political movements that react to adverse conditions (Zapitistas in Mexico fighting for indigenous rights; landless movement in Brazil for land reform).

• They have rarely taken power, because elite interests kept them out

• Even when in power (as in recently), turns out they are not immune to…

• Corruption

• Still wide spread, even new governments get caught up

• The drug trade is a major factor

• Problem is, in many areas, it is a good way for small farmers to make a living

• U.S. spends millions fighting the trade, to very spotty results

• The US can stop production in one area or help take down one gang; but other areas and gangs pop up.

More Politics

• Foreign Involvement in the Region’s Politics

• U.S., as well as former colonial powers, USSR involved in the region

• Cold War between U.S. and Soviet Union played out on the lives of people in smaller countries

• Thus U.S., to fight communism, ended up supporting dictators, putting alliances above people

• Overthrew Allende of Chile

• USSR also showed extremely great disregard for people

• Military aid still equals/exceed amount of social aid

Population Patterns/Urbanization

• The population grows quicker from natural increase, but at far lower rates than even 20 years ago.

• Some countries (Cuba, Barbados, T&T) gone through demographic transition due mostly to health care

• Lots of internal migration from rural to urban

• Primate cities (the one city in a country that dwarfs others) concentrate wealth, draw most of the migrants (Mexico City, Santiago, Managua, Buenos Aires)

• Hard for infrastructure to keep up

• Citizens claim land, build neighborhoods themselves, and then agitate for services

• Called colonias, barrios, favelas, barriadas

• Major issue is transportation; sometimes people have commutes of 3 hours each way

• Many cities in region looking at innovations like gondola lifts (ie cable cars); bike ways

• Rich neighborhoods often walled off; sometimes physically separated as satellite suburbs.

• This migration drains rural areas of labor, talented individuals (brain drain)

• Women migrate in equal numbers as men

Speaking of Urban Transportation

• Watch this Video

Measures of Human Well-Being

• GDP per capita (in the middle range) masks the very wide disparity of wealth in the region

• Some countries do better on GEM and HDI (Barbados) that invest in equal opportunity across gender and class

Diversity and Race

• Ethnicity

• Besides immigrants from Spain, and indigenous populations, includes:

• Former African slaves, former indentured servants from South Asia, other European migrants, Lebanese/Syrians/Palestinians, Japanese

• However, there is more mixing among groups than in North American context

• Skin color (light, dark) tends to be more operative category than “race” in much of the region

• However, class (family, wealth, education) is more important divider in the region than skin color

Family and Gender Roles

• Extended Family, more than individual, important in region

• Migration often part of a family strategy

• Often family compounds, not distinct houses

• While Marianismo (following example of Mary) and Machismo were once the primary model for gender roles…

• Now having less children, and empty nests, are leading to more female employment

• This, along with improved access of women to education, explains much of decline in birth rate

• 1/3 of children in region help supplement family income

• Many sell small items, some begging syndicates, farm work

Religion

• Catholic Church was partner of colonization, dominated region

• Church was made large land grants as well

• Over time, church and elites generally split

• Many in church in 20^th century practiced Liberation Theology, based on Jesus as friend of poor

• The current Pope, Pope Francis, has obviously been influenced by some aspects of this (although he was generally quiet during the Argentine dictatorship of the 1980s)

• Evangelical Protestantism is making inroads

• Does give hope, assistance to poor individuals

• Can sometimes divide villages, families