The history of modern Latin America begins after the Second World War when the economic changes wrought by the war, namely the shift towards manufacturing and urbanization, produced political and diplomatic changes across the Americas. The end of the war led to increased imports from the West, reducing the competitiveness of Latin American industry. Additionally, falling crop prices led to increasing urbanization. The result of these economic and demographic shifts was the rise of a populist movement throughout Latin America.
Populism in Latin America was characterized by a combination of nationalism, often coded with the language of anti-imperialism and anti-Americanism, and class politics. However, populism did not appeal solely to workers; rather, populist leaders attempted to create broad coalitions of people who believed that Latin American countries needed economic and political reform. The populists were generally opposed by the rural elite, which had held power throughout Latin America since the age of colonialism. Additionally, many Latin American leaders began to embrace dependencia theory; i.e. they believed that Latin America would remain poor and under the control of Western business interests as long as Latin America remained dependant on Western, specifically American, capital and imports. These leaders advocated Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI), a form of industrialization in which a country would become self-sustaining by replacing imports with domestic production. Often ISI involved substantial state interference into the economy. Examples of populist governments in Latin America include the Peronists in Argentina and the Vargas years in Brazil. The actions taken by the Institutional Rev...
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...fias, and drug cartels.
The people became divided and their safety is compromised. The correlation between kidnapping incidents and economic difficulty, seen in the figure below, support this claim.
Further studies have shown more overall connections between violence, poverty, and social instability: This section may need more.
Bloc Positions – Latin America:
It is hard to speak of specific blocs in Latin America, particularly as nations change and leaders or political parties rise and fall from power. In general, there is a divide between countries that tilt towards the Left, e.g. Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia, and countries that tilt towards the United States, e.g. Mexico and Colombia. Additionally, within these large groups there are varieties of opinions about economic, diplomatic, and political matters. This section needs more.
This paper will be exploring the book The Vanguard of the Atlantic World by James Sanders. This book focuses upon the early 1800 to the 1900 and explores the development of South American political system as well expresses some issues that some Latino counties had with Europe and North America. Thus, Sanders focus is on how Latin America political system changes throughout this certain time and how does the surrounding countries have an effect as well on Latin political system. Therefore, the previous statement leads into some insight on what the thesis of the book is. Sanders thesis is, “Latin American’s believed they represented the future because they had adopted Republicanism and democracy while Europe was in the past dealing with monarchs
Models for post-revolutionary Latin American government are born of the complex economic and social realities of 17th and 18th century Europe. From the momentum of the Enlightenment came major political rebellions of the elite class against entrenched national monarchies and systems of power. Within this time period of elitist revolt and intensive political restructuring, the fundamental basis for both liberal and conservative ideology was driven deep into Latin American soil. However, as neither ideology sought to fulfill or even recognize the needs or rights of mestizo people under government rule, the initial liberal doctrine pervading Latin American nations perpetuated racism and economic exploitation, and paved the way for all-consuming, cultural wars in the centuries to come.
Time and rules have been transforming countries in many ways; especially, in the 1850’s and the 1920’s, when liberals were firmly in control across Latin American region. Liberalism can be defined as a dominant political philosophy in which almost every Latin American country was affected. A sense of progress over tradition, reason over faith, and free market over government control. Although each country was different, all liberals pursued similar policies. They emphasize on legal equality for all citizens, progress, free trade, anti-slavery, and removing power from church. Liberals declared promising changes for Latin American’s future. But Latin America had a stronger hierarchical society with more labor systems, nothing compare to the United States societies. Liberals weren’t good for Latin America. What I mean by “good” is the creation of a turning point or some type of contribution towards success. I define “good” as beneficial or helpful. The Latin American economy was stagnant between 1820 and 1850 because of independence wars, transportation and the recreation of facilities. I describe this era as, “the era when Latin America when off road”.
“Latin America includes the entire continent of South America, as well as Mexico. Central America, and the Caribbean Islands. Physical geography has played an important role in the economic development of Latin America.” (Doc A and Doc G) Latin America has many unique cultural characteristics, industrial products, agricultural products, and human activity.
Walter Mignolo explored the ways America had emerged as the forth continental division in the European understanding of the world. Mignolo did this through: examining the continental triad of Christian cosmology, explaining how the mercantile economy was transformed into a capitalist because of the “discovery” of America, and explaining the consequences of the West becoming the place from where categories of dominant knowledge and classifications of the rest of the world were created. Those three topics defined how America was invented rather than discovered.
Harry E. Canden. , & Gary Prevost, (2012). Politics Latin America. (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Religion is a huge part of the lives of the people of Latin America. It is not so much just a belief but a way of life.Whenever you discuss religion in Latin America you have to be able to understand the meaning of the Church, because of the fact that approximately 90% of the people who live in this region practice Catholicism. Due to Spanish and Portuguese colonization that started in the 1500s. Latin America was under the control of the Catholic Church,and about 80% of the Latin Americans identified as Catholics. While the Catholic Church is a big part and has a big political impact too in Latin America, it can no longer be seen as the only religion practiced. The religious image of Latin America is further clouded and complicated by
Neoliberalism is a form of economic liberalism that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade, and relatively open markets. Neoliberals seek to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the political/economic priorities of the world and are generally supporters of economic globalization. During the 1930s and the late 1970s most Latin American countries used the import substitution industrialization model to build industry and reduce dependency on imports from foreign countries. The result of the model in these c...
The conquest of Latin America was a fairly quick process in which the theme of hegemony was vastly prominent. The cultures of colonialism and competitive nature to obtain wealth through exploitation were the main driving force of hegemony. It is natural to exploit the people of lower class or societal rank for one's own advantage, and that is what happened. As the pressure of power and control became overbearing toward the people, resistance was sure to follow.
There are situations that make the development of a country complicated, and sometimes those circumstances are not always in the hands of the country’s government. When that occurs it seems that progress for that country is questioned and resources that were once unlimited become limited and the country is at a standstill and no improvement is made. For Chile, their time of struggle came when Salvador Allende, a leftist party member, as well as leader of the Unidad Popular (Popular Unity) became President of the country in November of 1970. Salvador Allende was a leftist thinker and for the United States, as well as President Nixon this election was one they feared would change a lot of things and they did everything in their power to stop the rise of Salvador Allende as President of Chile (Oscar Guardiola-Rivera, 164). The United States saw the election of a leftist political party, in this case the mindset of a country pushing towards Socialism/Marxism government as somewhat perplexing but not for reasons of political differences, but for economic hegemony that was going to be lost.
Mignolo, W. D. (2005). The Idea of Latin America (pp. 1-94). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Latin American Independence was the drive for independence from Spain and France by the Latin American people. There were many contributing factors that ultimately led to the uprising of Latin American colonies. Europe's strong hold on the economic and political life of Latin America, was creating friction between the Latin Colonies and the European nations. Eventually, this would become enough for the Latin American people and the drive for independence from France and Spain would begin.
Latin America’s independence kicked of with the independence of Haiti. Before the the independence movement that overtook Latin America, Haiti had gained independence twenty years before the movement. The Spanish Empire had been in decline for a period of time after the rise of the English empire and many failed battles on the Spanish (class notes). The French Revolution and the American Revolution had inspired many of the Latin American countries to fight for independence (Chapter 3). They were inspired by the Enlightenment that washed over Europe. Of the inspired, one man stood out and took the movement by heart.
Conflict perspective deals with macro and some micro levels. Causes of poverty, health disparities, distribution of life chances via, social class, and gender.
Much G. L., 2004, Democratic Politics in Latin America: New Debates and Research Frontiers, Annual Reviews