GEOG 101 – World Regional Geography

Professor: Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue

Chapter 5 – South America

A – Defining the RealmB – The Pillars of Latin AmericaC – Regional DivisionsD – Brazil: The South American Giant

Defining the Realm

■ Physiography• Dominated by the Andes mountains and the Amazon basin.

■ Population• Concentrated along the eastern coast.

■ Cultural pluralism• Exists in most countries and is expressed regionally.• A mix of pre-Columbian, African and European cultures.

■ Regional economic interaction• Been minimal in the past.• Attributed to colonialism.

AA

Amazonian Basin

Andes

Pampas

BrazilianHighlands

Defining the Realm

■ Inca Civilization• Culture hearth:

• Intermontane basin around Cuzco (1200-1535 AD.)• Most of the population in the Andes mountains (west).• Altiplanos were key to settlement patterns.• 20 million subjects at its zenith• A highly centralized state.• Transportation networks and integration efforts.• Collapsed in the early 16th century.

■ Iberian invasion• Pizzarro overthrew the Inca

empire in 1533.• Process of land alienation and

forced labor.• Lima:

• Coastal city.• Capital of the Viceroyalty of

Peru.• Became one of the richest cities

in the world.• Viceroyalties of La Plana and

New Grenada.• Urbanization along the coast.• Portugal took the eastern part of

the Tordesillas line (Brazil).

Defining the Realm

■ Plantations and imported labor• Portuguese applied a similar plantation system than in Middle

America.• Notably sugar cane.• Forcefully imported labor from Africa.• Mainly along the tropical coast of Brazil:

• Climate and proximity to Africa.• Brazil has the largest Black population in South America.• 78 million out of 178 million (44%).

Defining the Realm

■ Independence• Restrictive colonial trading pattern:

• Limiting the ability to trade with nations other than Spain.• Spain had been economically eclipsed by the development of Britain,

France, and the Netherlands.• Deprived the elite of the opportunity to have lucrative trading relationships

with other European powers.■ Gaining independence

• Major independence movements:• South American War of Independence in the early 1800s.• Led by Simon Bolivar (Bolivia).

• Did not produce unity:• Formation of nine different countries.• Geographical factors of division (e.g. Andes).

Tropical plantationResembles Middle America’s Rimland.Locations, soils, & tropical climates favor plantation crops, especially sugar.Initially relied on African slave labor.

European commercialThe most “Latin” part of South America.Population of European descent.Includes the Pampas - temperate grasslands.Economically most advanced.Good transportation networks and quality of life.

Amerind subsistenceCorrelates with the former Inca Empire.Feudal socioeconomic structure persists.Includes some of South America’s poorest areas.Subsistence agriculture must contend with difficult environmental challenges (high altitude).

Mestizo-transitionalSurrounds the Amerindian-subsistence region.A zone of mixture, culturally & agriculturally.Transitional economic connotations.

UndifferentiatedSparsely populated.Isolation and lack of change.Development of Amazonia may prompt significant changes.

Banana Production, 2003

Millions of tons (2003)Less than 250,000

250,001 to 1,000,000

1,000,001 to 2,000,000

2,000,001 to 5,000,000

More than 5,000,001

Banana Trade, 2003 (M of tons)

2,300,000

Imports

Exports

Pillars of Latin American Society

■ Transplanted elites and their descendents• Main beneficiaries of the poor distribution of wealth and

resources within Latin American societies.• Reactionary to any challenges to its authority and power.• Not very innovative economically:

• Particularly in the agricultural sector.• Thwarting Latin America's development potential.

Pillars of Latin American Society

■ Military• Plays a vastly different role than in most democratic societies:

• Used to ensure internal control. • Serves to support the elites and is frequently led by them.• Serves as a social mobility vehicle.

• Military dictatorships:• Characterized regional politics since shortly after independence.• Authoritarian means of governance that has focused on social control.

• Demise of military dictators in Chile (1990), Panama (1989), and Paraguay (1989).

• The region has at least nominally democratic regimes in place throughout, Cuba representing an exceptional case.

Pillars of Latin American Society

■ Church• Arrived with the conquistadores.• Spent the majority of the centuries since firmly supporting the

status quo.• One of the largest landholders and wealthiest entities.• Leadership:

• Historically been conservative.• Derived its membership from the upper strata of society. • Contributed to the social control of the masses.• Accepting their poverty and powerlessness.

• Rise of Liberation Theology:• Grassroots movement involving parish priests at the local level.• Work most closely with the impoverished masses.• Worked its way upward through the Church hierarchy.

Pillars of Latin American Society

■ United States• Since the late 1800s, upholding the unequal status quo in the

region.• US commercial interests in the region:

• Involvement of many US-based corporations.• The US government has seen fit to ensure that a good business climate

exists in the countries where these corporations operate.• Allied the USA with the other three pillars against popular movements

among the Latin American masses.

Regional Divisions

■ Economic integration• Mercosur:

• Launched in 1995.• A southern cone common market.• Includes brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay.

• Andean community:• Initially formed in 1969 (Andean pact).• Restarted in 1995.• Members are Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia.

• Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA):• Attempt to create a free trade zone by 2005.

Regional Divisions

■ Urbanization• The movement to and clustering of people in towns and cities.• The percentage of a country’s population living in cities.• 79% - continent-wide in South America.• South America's increase based on rate of “natural increase” and

internal migration.• Fast urbanization:

• Resulted in the creation of vast shantytowns (barrios or favelas).• Placed stress on South American cities.

% of Urban Population, 1950-2030

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

World

Africa

Europe

North America

Latin America

Asia

2030

2000

1975

1950

Why People Move to Urban Areas?

Factor Condition Issues

Instability / Disasters / Wars / Famines

Push Creation of refugees. Cities as safe heavens.

Expectation of jobs Pull Higher wages but higher living costs. Large labor markets. Informal sector dominant.

Deterioration of rural life

Push Demographic growth. Land tenure (landless peasants). Mechanization (surplus labor).

Transportation Intervening opportunities

Increased mobility. Lower costs. Construction of roads and rails. Access to rural markets.

More and better services

Pull Better schools and health services. Access to water and electricity. Overcrowding and pollution.

Why People Move to Urban Areas?

■ Urbanization and economic survival• Decision to move to an urban area:

• Part of a complex survival strategy.• Families minimize risk by placing members in different labor markets.• Largest labor market maximizing the chances of employment and

survival.• Cities are the largest labor markets.• Favelas (squatter settlements) of Rio de Janeiro:

• Cannot be understood without reference to the latifundia land system in rural Brazil.

• Characterized by large landholdings owned by a limited elite.• Peasants as contract labor with no ownership.

Shantytowns

■ Definition• Dwellings are built by the current or original occupant:

• Rudimentary construction materials.• Did not receive a construction permit.• Do not follow norms in terms of housing and sanitation.

• Inhabitants have no legal title to the land:• Most are located in areas being declared inhabitable.• Own by the municipality.• Abandoned private land.• Exploiting a legal vacuum of land ownership.

• Lack of urban services:• Generally not serviced by public utilities such as tap water, electricity,

roads, public transportation and sewage.

Shantytowns

■ Setting• Shantytowns are constructed

over the least desirable land.• Put the population at risk.• Caracas, Venezuela, 1999:

• Mudslides killed 50,000 inhabitants.

• Created 400,000 homeless.• 500,000 of the 6 million

inhabitants were considered at high risk.

CBD

Disamenity Disamenity

Commercial/Industrial

Elite Residential Sector

Zone of Maturity

Zone in Situ Accretion

Zone of peripheralsquatter settlements

Regional Divisions

■ Guyanas• Guyana, Surinam, and French Guyana.• Borders the Caribbean Sea.• Limited population (less than one million each) and development.• Poor agricultural land.• French Guyana is controlled by France and serves as a

launching pad for the Ariane rockets (Aerospatiale).

Regional Divisions

■ Andean group• Including Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and

Bolivia.• Derive their name from their shared primary physical feature - the

Andes Mountains.• Highest mountain range in the Western Hemisphere

• Many peaks reaching over 20,000 feet in elevation.• Mainly native population with some European and Asian

influence.• Vast array of mineral resources.• Large oil reserves:

• Venezuela (world’s 7th largest), Columbia and Ecuador.• Income used to fund socialist policies.

Regional Divisions

■ Semi-arid coastal plain• Cities located next to rivers.• Fisheries very important due to

maritime currents.■ Altiplano region

• Long corridor linking Peru and Bolivia.

• Plateaus bordered by mountain chains.

• Average 4,000 meters of altitude.• Highest inhabited region of the

world.• Several minerals.

■ Front of the Amazon• Names yungas in Bolivia and

montana in Peru.• Covered by forests.

Peru

Bolivia

Brazil

Ecuador

Argentina

Chile

Regional Divisions

■ Southern Cone countries• Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.• Important cattle producers and agricultural exports.• Pampa zone for grazing.• Region of rich soils and produces vast amounts of wheat and

other grains, corn, alfalfa, beef, wool, and hides.• One of the major areas of surplus agriculture in the world.• Opposite seasons are a significant advantage to export food to

the northern hemisphere. • 95% of the population of white background.• The most European part of Latin America (Buenos Aires and

Montevideo).

Brazil: The South American Giant

■ Context• Sub-continent, the fifth largest territorial state on Earth.• 50% of the South American territory.• Large agricultural producer.• The sixth most populous country (175 million).• With such size, both physical and cultural diversity abound.

Brazil: The South American Giant

■ An Agricultural Giant• World's largest exporter of beef, chickens, orange juice, sugar,

coffee and tobacco.• Large amounts of cheap land.• Development of a tropical agricultural technology.• Well-drained tropical savanna (cerrado):

• Traditionally considered as low fertility.• Application of small quantities of fertilizers increase significantly

productivity.• Economies of scale unparalleled in the world.• Intense diversification of agricultural production.• Growing exports to China.

Major Coffee Exporters (Green Beans), 1990-2002

0 200,000 400,000 600,000 800,000 1,000,000 1,200,000 1,400,000 1,600,000

Brazil

Viet Nam

Colombia

Indonesia

Guatemala

Uganda

Peru

India

Honduras

Mexico

Côte d'Ivoire

Costa Rica

Ethiopia2002

1990

World Coffee Production and Trade, 2003

Coffee Production (M tons)

Less than 300,000

300,001 to 600,000

More than 600,000

Coffee Trade

690,000

Imports

Exports

Brazil: The South American Giant

■ People• Considered by some to be the most diverse population on Earth.• Relative harmony, though with vast inequalities.• Indigenous groups:

• Many of whom are still unassimilated.• Primarily in Amazonia, many who earlier were incorporated into various

mixed races through intermarriage with other groups.• Blacks:

• Slaves in the mid-16th century to work on the sugar plantations in the Northeast.

• Slavery was not abolished in Brazil until the 1880s.• Many aspects of African culture have been preserved much more in

Brazil.• African influences can be found in Brazilian music, food, and religion.

Brazil: The South American Giant

• Europeans:• Mostly from Portugal during the colonial period.• Following independence in 1822, more diverse European origins were

represented.• Between 1822 and World War II, Italy (34%), Portugal (30%), Spain

(12%), and Germany (3%) were the primary sources. • Japanese:

• Brazil also counts more than 750,000 Japanese, most of whom are Brazilian born.

Northeast

South

Southeast

Mato Grosso

Amazonia

Brazil: The South American Giant

■ Northeast• Historic core and colonial hearth of the country.• Early destination of most immigrants, including the majority of the

slaves.• Contains a third of the population.• Plantation economy.• Greatest poverty, excess rural population, and emigration.• Subject to frequent droughts, that devastates the economy.• Intense migration to coastal cities of the southeast.

Brazil: The South American Giant

■ Southeast• Contains Rio de Janeiro, the historic capital, and Sâo Paulo, its

manufacturing and business center.• Two of the world's largest cities and both are growing rapidly. • Provided the major source of domestic capital for investment in

Brazilian industry.• Most of this capital was invested in the Southeast, resulting in

agglomeration to the detriment of most of the rest of Brazil.• Focus of the country's transport system, due to its higher level of

development.• Major coffee and citrus plantations; world leading producer.

Brazil: The South American Giant

■ South• Most temperate region, climate-wise.• Recipient of a large share of the European immigrants, following

the Southeast.• Soybeans:

• Become an important export crop in the south.• Brazil is challenging the USA as a major world source of that crop.

Brazil: The South American Giant

■ Mato-Grosso or West-Central region• Includes much of the near interior of the country.• Brazil's fastest growing region, the recipient of much of the

recent infrastructure development.• Brasilia:

• Capital of Brazil; population close to 2 million.• Constructed between 1956 and 1960.• A symbol of Brazil’s development.• Located in the interior.• Moving development away from the coast.• Part of a national plan to stimulate the development of the interior.• Viewed as Brazil's future, and to re-orient its historic focus away from the

coast.

Brazil: The South American Giant

■ Amazonia• Least populated region but highly urbanized. • Remote and inaccessible region.• Brazil's frontier, the source of much development activity:

• 200,000 new settlers per year.• Construction of roads:

• Followed by a flow of people from other parts of the country, especially the nearby Northeast.

• Highly correlated with deforestation, which is proceeding at rapid rates.• Much of the clearing of forests has been to open up land for farming or

animal grazing.

Brazil: The South American Giant

• Tropical soils – latosols:• Most of the forest are poorly suited for agricultural development.• Heavy rains leach the soils of its nutrients downward beyond the reach of

most plant root systems.• Soils loose their nutrition quickly, resulting in the need for farmers to move

on after a few years, clearing ever more of the forest away.• Minerals are being exploited as part of Amazonia's development,

as is the region's hydrologic potential.

Brazil: The South American Giant

■ Inequalities• Brazil is the least equal society on Earth.• The poorest distribution of wealth.• Yields a society of extreme contrasts: fabulous wealth, grinding

poverty.• Contains the potential for instability.• GNP per capita-$7,300; Largest income gap in the realm • Wealthiest 10% of the population:

• Own 2/3 of the land.• Control over 50% of the country’s wealth.• Poverty has increased by 50% since 1980