4.6 - Human Geography of Latin America

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Before Europeans

Recent evidence suggests that between 14,000 and 25,0000 years ago, groups of hunters and gathers from northeastern Asia spread throughout North America after crossing the Bering land bridge on foot or moving along shorelines in small boats or both. Some of these groups moved south across Central America reaching the tip of South America by about 13,000 years ago.

By 1492, 50 to 100 million indigenous people lived in Latin America. In some places population densities were high enough to threaten sustainability. People changed landscapes in ways that remain visible today - they modified the drainage to irrigate crops, they terraced hillsides, and they built paved pathways. They constructed cities with sewer systems, freshwater aqueducts, and ceremonial structures that rivaled the pyramids.

Many indigenous people relied on slash and burn agriculture. This method is still used today in the Amazon Basin.  Small plots are cleared in the forest, the brush is dried and burned releasing nutrients to the soil. The plots are small and used only for two or three years. They are then allowed to rest and reforest while the farmers move on to a new area. 

The  Aztecs of the high central valley of Mexico had  technologies and social systems that rivaled and sometimes surpassed those of Asian and European civilizations of the time.  Particularly well developed were urban water supplies, sewage systems, and elaborate marketing systems. By 1500 a.d. Aztecs probably lived more comfortably than their contemporaries in Europe. 

 

In 1492 the largest state in the region was the Incas, stretching from what is now southern Columbia to northern Chile and Argentina. The major communities were in the Andean highlands with cooler temperatures eliminating some tropical diseases, while still enjoying mild winters because of their proximity to the Equator.  The Incas had a very advanced society. They did not use money but relied on trade and barter.  Taxes were collected in the form of labor. They paved roads, created elaborate agricultural terraces, irrigation systems, and great stone cities. 

European Conquest

In the 150 years following 1492, the total population of Latin America was reduced by 90%, to just 5 or 6 million. Some of these deaths were the result of violent encounters between the Spanish, Portuguese and the Indigenous peoples but by far the most deadly were the diseases carried by Europeans to Latin America.  To obtain a new supply of labor to replace the dying indigenous people, the Spanish initiated the first shipments of enslaved Africans to the region in the early 1500s. Between 9 and 10 million enslaved people were brought to this region. The number of slaves in Latin America was many times greater than the number in North America (about 400,000).

By the 1530's, all the major population centers of Latin America had been conquered and were being transformed by Spanish and Portuguese colonial rule.  These colonies were part of an extensive regional and global trade network.  The colonies served one main purpose - to provide resources for European growth and expansion.  The colonial system established patterns of government that contribute to present-day corruption. Colonial officials were allowed and even encouraged to use their power to enrich themselves and their friends and family. This had an enduing impact on the way both government and business continue to run in the region.

From the earliest days of the conquest, plants and animals were exchanged between Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia via a network of trade routes.  Rice, sugarcane, bananas, citrus, melons, onions, apples, wheat, barley and oats were all brought to Latin America during this "Columbian Exchange".  Sheep, goats, oxen, cattle, donkeys, horses and mules were introduced to the region. Conversely,  corn, cotton, quinoa, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squashes, turkey, bison, peanuts, cashews, chocolate, tobacco, tomatoes, avocados all originated in Latin America and were spread around the world.

Independence

In the early 19th century, wars of independence left Spain with only a few colonies in the Caribbean. The supporters of the 19th century revolutions were primarily Creoles (people of primarily Spanish decent born in the Americas) and some relatively wealthy Mestizos (people of mixed European and Indigenous decent). Once these groups gained power, they became the new elites who controlled the still very weak nations in this region. They monopolized economic opportunities, controlling resource extraction and they allowed states to remain weak and unable to address the vast poverty created by the colonial past. Most people remained poor and relatively powerless.

Colonial Legacy

Latin America remained economically underdeveloped until well into the 20th century. Most people remained impoverished except for the elite maintaining tight control of the region's resources and political power. Economic development remained based on resource extraction. Dependence on resource extraction not only left the vast majority of Latin Americans poor and with few prospects for improved economic stability,  but the region overall suffered from economic instability.  Wide swings in prices for raw materials often occur in the global market.  A once profitable resource can suddenly plummet in value, leaving an economy reeling.

After WWII, there were numerous socialist political movements that challenged the economic domination of local elites and foreign investors. This was an era of relative prosperity in Latin America because the value of their natural resources rose in the global market.  Governments across the region worked to modernize and industrialize their national economies.  Many adopted a strategy of keeping money and other resources within their borders by replacing imports with local products.  Unfortunately, these new local industries were less profitable than hoped for in many countries. Brazil and Mexico, the two larges countries in the region had some success: Mexico developed strong manufacturing industries for automobiles and consumer goods, and Brazil made cars, consumer goods and aircraft. Even so, Mexico and Brazil remained dependent on raw material exports. By the 1970's, prices for raw materials were falling and in order to keep local industries going, Latin American countries began to borrow billions of dollars from international banks, most in the U.S. or Europe.  When the recession occurred in the 80's they were unable to repay their loans. We will discuss this further in Section 4.7 - Economy.