Latin America Flashcards
Prisoners of Geography - 2x main reasons
- In contrary to USA where after the formation of the nation states, the land taken away from its original inhabitants was sold or given away to small landholders, in LATAM the old world culture of powerful landowners was imposed which led to inequality.
- European settlers introduced another geographical problem that to this day holds many countries back from developing their full potential: they stayed near the cost (same for Africa)Most biggest cities and capitals where near the cost - often capitals and all roads from the interior where developed to connect to the capitals but not to each other.
% of inhabitants in metropolitan area of the capital city in Peru and Argentina
30%
Focus of the colonialists
Getting the wealth out of the region, to the cost and to foreign markets.
Mexico‘s Geography constraints
Desert wastelands in the north, mountains to the east and west (Sierras Madres)and its jungles in the south
All of these factors limit it’s economic growths
Brazil Geography constraints
its internal regions remain isolated from each other
Total LATAM population and GDP
600 mio inhabitants
GDP equals that of UK and France combined based on 125mio people
Longest continuous mountain chain of the world
Los Andes, 4,500 miles long
2nd longest river in the world
The Amazon river, 1st is the Nile
Treaty of Tordesillas
1494 btw Spain and Portugal where European colonialists drew lines on maps of faraway places they knew little or nothing about.
The two great European sea powers agreed that any land discovered outside Europe would be shared between them. The pope agreed.
War of the Pacific
btw Chile and Bolivia in 1879
where Bolivia lost a large chunk of its territory incl 250 miles coastline and has been landlocked ever since
Bolivia’s Natural reserve
3rd largest natural gas reserves in South America
will not supply any to chile
National pride and geographical need on both sides trump diplomatic compromise.
Border Disputes in the 19th Century
19th century:
British territory of Belize via straight lines to Guatemala who claims it
Chile and Argentins over the Beagle Channel
water route
Venezuela claims half of Guyana
Ecuador has historical claims to Peru, which led to three border wars over the past 75 years with the last one in 1995
Land Changes of 1847-8 Mexican War with the USA
Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona was part of Mexico
Half of Mexican territory being ceded to the USA
Population Mexico City
20mio
Mexican Border Smuggler Business
developed in the last 20years
as direct result of the US Government’s policy in Colombia 1,500 miles away to tge south
President Nixon declared a war of drugs in 1970
In 1990 overt assistance to the Columbian government, closing down many air an sea drug routes from Columbia to the USA.
The cartels responded by creating a land route up through central America and Mexico into the American Southwest.
