Middle & South America

Middle and South America exhibit fragmented physical connectivity and a distinct pattern of colonial development.

🗺 Regional Divisions

• Isthmus of Panama: Divides North and South America.

• Middle America: Includes the area between North and South America and the Caribbean. Shares cultural and historical similarities with South America. Mexico is grouped with Central America due to cultural and historical ties.

• South America: Extends from Colombia to Chile and Argentina.

🌋 Tectonic Activity

The region's location at the intersection of tectonic plates makes it prone to earthquakes and volcanoes.

• Haiti: Located on the edge of the Caribbean plate along a transform plate boundary, experienced a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in 2010.

• Mountain Ranges in Mexico:

  • Sierra Madre Occidental (west)

  • Sierra Madre Oriental (east)

  • Sierra Madre del Sur (south)

• Caribbean Archipelago: Formed by the tectonic collision of the Caribbean plate and the North American plate. Islands are the tops of underwater mountains.

🏝 Caribbean Islands

Divided into the Greater Antilles and the Lesser Antilles.

🌀 Severe Weather

The region is susceptible to:

• Tropical Cyclones (Hurricanes): Frequent along the Gulf of Mexico.

• El Niño: The warming phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle contributes to severe weather. Results in warmer temperatures in North America and increases tropical cyclones and rain in South America.

🏔 Altitudinal Zonation

High relief creates distinct agricultural and livestock zones. As altitude increases, temperature decreases.

🏞 South American Geography

• Andes Mountains: Formed from the subduction of the Nazca and Antarctic plates below the South American plate. Highest mountains outside of Asia.

• Altiplano: High elevation plains in the Andes, central to early human settlement.

• Amazon Basin: Key geographic feature.

  • The Amazon River is the largest river in the world in terms of discharge.

  • The drainage basin covers over 7 million square kilometers.

• The Amazon River: is South America’s longest river and the largest in the world in terms of discharge

🌊 Water Features

• Lake Nicaragua: Large, freshwater lake in Central America with economic and recreational benefits.

• Panama Canal: Connects the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

📜 Colonization and Conquest in Middle America

🏛 Early Civilizations

• Mesoamerican Cultural Hearth: One of the earliest civilizations in the world.

• Maya Civilization:

  • Began around 2000 BCE.

  • Stretched across present-day Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and the Yucatan peninsula.

  • Theocratic structure with a divine ruler.

  • Developed hieroglyphic script, a calendar, mathematics, and astronomy.

  • City-states linked by trade.

  • Monumental architecture (e.g., Chichen Itza).

  • Decline by the 9th century CE due to possible ecological damage, disease, infighting, or famine.

• Aztec Empire:

  • Developed in the 15th century CE.

  • Centered around Tenochtitlan (present-day Mexico City).

  • Extraordinary architecture, art, and trading systems.

  • Conquered by the Spanish in 1521, led by Hernán Cortés.

🇪🇺 Colonial Landscape

Colonization reshaped the landscape, politics, and land-holding patterns.

• Mainland and Rimland: Middle America divided into two spheres with distinct colonial histories.

• Rimland: Fragmented realm of islands, accessible to European colonists. First reached by Christopher Columbus in 1492.

• Plantations in the Rimland: Focused on growing crops (mostly sugar) for export using African slave labor.

  Subsistence Farming: Farmers grow enough food to feed themselves and their families

  • Monocultures: Single crop grown for maximum efficiency and profit.

• Mainland: Blending of indigenous and Spanish cultures.

  Mestizo: Someone of mixed European and Amerindian descent.

  • Haciendas: Spanish estates growing a variety of crops for local and international markets.

  • Land Alienation: Land taken from one group and claimed by another.

🌍 South American Colonial Landscape

⛰ Inca Empire

• Settled in the altiplano of Peru.

• Largest pre-Columbian civilization.

• Expanded to encompass four territories with over 4 million people.

• Conquered by the Spanish, led by Francisco Pizarro, by 1526 CE.

🤝 Treaty of Tordesillas (1494 CE)

Divided territory in the New World between Spain and Portugal.

• Spain: Controlled territory to the west of the line.

• Portugal: Controlled territory to the east (present-day Brazil).

🏘 Colonial Development

• France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom established colonies in coastal South America, similar to the Central American rimland, with plantations and slave labor.

• Portugal established plantations along coastal Brazil.

• Lima became one of the wealthiest cities due to silver deposits.

🏙 Urban Transformation

• European colonizers razed existing structures and built new ones with little regard for local development and cultural values.

• Laws of the Indies: Regulated social, economic, and political life in Spanish territories and prescribed urban planning guidelines (Plaza Mayor, grid system).

• Example: Mexico City Cathedral built over the ruins of the Aztec Templo Mayor.

🕊 Independence

• In the early 19th century, most colonies gained independence.

• Larger colonial possessions separated into smaller independent states.

• Many island nations are still controlled by other countries (France, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands).

🌆 Urban Development in South America

🏙 Urbanization

• South America: Highly urbanized (over 80% in cities).

• Central America and the Caribbean: Slightly less urbanized (around 70%).

📍 Primate Cities

• Example: Montevideo, Uruguay

🏙 Megacities

• Mexico City, Mexico (22 million)

• São Paulo, Brazil (21.5 million)

• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

• Buenos Aires, Argentina

• Challenges: affordable housing, employment, infrastructure.

🚶 Rural to Urban Migration

Poor rural farmers migrated to cities for industrial jobs.

🌆 Latin American City Model

1. Central Business District (CBD): Located in the center of the city, often with a central market.

2. Spine: Industrial and commercial development extends along a major boulevard.

3. Elite Residential Sector: Housing for the wealthiest residents.

4. Zone of Maturity: Middle-class housing.

5. Zone of In Situ Accretion: Transitional area between middle-class housing and slums.

6. Zone of Peripheral Squatter Settlements: Residents occupy unused land (squatting), often in the informal sector.

7. Disamenity Sectors: Areas along highways or rail lines where the city’s poor live in the open.

🏘 Slums (Favelas)

• One-third of people in developing countries live in slums.

• In Brazil, slums are known as favelas.

• Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro is Brazil’s largest favela.

• Rural to urban migration has outpaced housing construction.

💰 Income Inequality in Middle and South America

📊 Wealth Distribution

• Top 10% (Latin America) control around 71% of the region’s wealth.

• Half of Mexico’s population lives in poverty.

• The wealthiest 10% in Brazil own almost three-quarters of the country’s wealth.

🚜 Land Ownership

• Farmers struggle with land ownership due to alienation during colonization.

• Small farmers can't compete with large-scale producers.

🏛 Government Responses

• Some countries turned to socialism, financed by natural resource exports.

• Example: Venezuela's economy declined due to falling oil prices.

💸 Taxation

• Minimal effect on improving the lives of the poor.

• Wealthy people hold money offshore to avoid taxation.

• Tax breaks given to multinational corporations for short-term economic gains.

📚 Education and Political Power

• Unequal access to education and political power.

• Example: Bolivia had its first indigenous president in 1998.

• Educational advancement is linked to economic advancement.

🙏 Liberation Theology

• Blends Christianity with political activism.

• Emphasizes social justice, poverty, and human rights.

✈ Migration

• Most countries have net out-migration.

• Around 15% of all international migrants are from Latin America.

• The United States is the top destination.

🌐 Patterns of Globalization in Middle and South America

🧠 Brain Drain

• Example: 84% of Haiti's college graduates live outside the country.

💰 Remittances

• Significant portion of some countries' GDP.

• Mexico's remittances totaled over $25 billion in 2015.

🌴 Small Island Developing States (SIDS)

• Island nations of the Caribbean face challenges to sustainable development due to small size, limited resources, and fragile ecosystems.

• The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) promotes economic integration and cooperation.

🏦 Offshore Banking

• Located outside a depositor's country of residence, offering increased privacy and little or no taxation.

• Popular locations: Belize, Panama, the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands, and the Cayman Islands.

💰 Drug Trade in Middle and South America

• Some regions in Middle and South America have turned to the production and trade of illicit drugs like cocaine and marijuana as a way to generate income.

• Coca, the plant used to make cocaine, is grown and harvested in the Andes Mountain region, particularly in Bolivia, Columbia, and Peru.

• In 2013, Peru overtook Columbia as the global leader in cocaine production.

• The drug trade has led to the rise of cartels, criminal drug trafficking organizations, and widespread violence in the region.

• Cartels often fight each other for territory, with civilians caught in the crossfire.

• In many areas, drug organizations have infiltrated police, military, and government institutions.

• In Mexico, the ongoing Mexican Drug War between the government and drug traffickers shipping cocaine from Central America to global buyers has killed more than 100,000 people.

• The United States is the largest market for illegal drugs, with Americans purchasing around $60 billion in illegal drugs annually, funding drug violence and drug trade in Middle and South America.

🌳 Deforestation and Environmental Concerns

• As countries throughout Middle and South America have increased their development, there have been some significant environmental concerns, particularly deforestation.

• When urban areas expand, forests are often cleared to make room for new housing and industry.

• As agricultural lands expand and commercialize to feed growing populations and produce crops for export, it often leads to deforestation.

• Nutrients in soil decline over time without careful land management, and after lands are intensively farmed for some time, soil fertility declines and new agricultural lands are cleared.

• Around 75 percent of Nicaragua's forests have been cut down and converted to pasture land.

• The Amazon rainforest, which holds around 10 percent of the entire world's known biodiversity, is down to around 80 percent of its size in 1970.

• The majority of the deforestation in the Amazon has occurred as a result of the growth of Brazil's cattle industry and its global export of beef and leather.

🌎 Dependency Theory

• Despite slowing rates of deforestation and strides to address income inequality, this region remains largely in the global periphery.

• Some argue that it is to the advantage of countries like the United States to keep this region in the periphery, as it allows them to import cheap products.

• This idea is known as dependency theory.

• As Middle and South America continue to develop, they will face new challenges of how to do so in a way that is both ecologically and socially sustainable.