F
-.
;·, ~·
CHAPTER 11
......~·
South America
IMPORTANT TERMS
CONCEPTS AND ISSUES
El Nino
Slash and burn agriculture
• Pressure of frontier settlements in the Amazon lowland on tropical
rainforests and native peoples.
Entrep6t
Plantatio n
• Impact of cocaine production o n loca l or regional economies and
cultures.
Carrying capacity
• Pan-Americanism and the dominance of the United States.
Squatter sectlements
• Rural migration to urban centers and frontier areas.
Frontier migration
Greenhouse effect
CHAPTER O UTLINE
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
Physiography
Climate
Vegetation
Soils
Resources
HUMAN ENVIRONMENT
Aboriginal Inhabitants
Colonial Impacts
Modern Population
Culture
Human Landscape
Regions of South America
SPATIAL CONNECTIVITY
Economic Linkages
Trade
Transportation
Telecommunications
Tourism
PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS
Population Growth
Environmental Degradation
Economic Develo pment
Political Stability
J78
PART THREE
THE DEVELOPING WORLD
outh America is a contine nt of contrasts in
terms of both physical and cultural variatio n .
Glacie r-capped mountains nearly 23,000 feet
(7000 meters) high in the southern Andes stand in sharp
contrast to the lowland pampas of Argentina and the
coastal plains of the Guia nas. The driest deserts o n earth
are found alo ng the no rthe rn coast of Chile, yet across
the Andes are the lush rainfo rests o f the uppe r Amazon
Basin. While some Ame rindia n inhabitants of the rainfo rest have onl y recently made contact with the o utside
world, the urbanites of Rio de Jane iro, Sao Paulo , and
Buenos Aires look to Paris, Mila n, and New York for the
latest fashions in attire.
Inhabited o n the eve of European d iscovery by perhaps 15 million aboriginal "Indians," whose cultures
ranged from very traditional lo highly developed , South
Ame rica was q uickly d ivided up betwee n the Ibe rian
countries o f Spain and Po rtugal. Iberia n colonists were
sent to claim, settle, and explo it the new te rritories.
Many demographic changes soon took place, including
the decimation of much of the native po pulation by introduced diseases. Fo llowing ill-fate d atte mpts at e nslaving the indigenous peoples, a labor supply fo r the
mines and pla nta tions was fo rcibly imported from Africa. Today a high pro po rtion of the coasta l population
of the ea t a nd north coasts of South An1erica is of African descent Elsewhere, the re was substantia l mix ing
of the European and nati ve populations, which resulted
CHAPTER 11
FIGURE II.I
in a large m estizo class that is characteristic of much
of highland South America today. European immigratio n
was impo rtant in the tempe rate southern South Ame rican countries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, and today portions of those countries rema in
quite Euro pean in terms of both population and cultural
landscape .
South Ame rica's prese nt p o pulation of nearly 300 million is distributed rathe r unevenly among 12 indepe ndent countries and the two small fo re ign "dependencies" (Figure 11 .1). Over half the total populatio n is in
the Portuguese-speaking country of Brazil, which comprises slightly less than half of the lotal landmass. With
the exceptions of the three sparsely populated
Guianas-Guyana (formerly British Guiana), Suriname
(formerl y Dutch Guiana), a nd French Guiana (offi cia lly
a French overseas departement)-and the 2000inhabita nt offshore British colony of the Falkland Islands (or Islas Malvinas, as Argentina claims), the rest
of the South American countries are Spanish speaking
and trace their po litical roots to the d isintegration of the
panis h colonial empire in the 1820s. Arge ntina, with
slightl y over 32 million inhabitants, is the most populous
o f the Spanish-speaking counlrie1;, and its northern
ne ighbor Paraguay is the least populous with 4.3 millio n. Altho ugh the overall population density is relative ly mode rate (41 inhabitants per square mile; 16 inhabita nts pe r square kilometer), South Americans are
J79
SOUTH AMERICA
Polltlcal Units and Major Cities of South America
Medellin
COLOMBIA
®Bogota
~Cali
GALAPAGOS
ISLANDS (Ee.)
Guayaqu
R10Slio
Franc,sco
/-..,.
{
l
(
'i
)
.cuzco
Brasilia
®
La Paz
•
BOLIVIA
~/
®
Sucre
ll
q_lli
i ,/
Sao Paulo
10 de Janeiro
00
Santos
Chincheros village market near
Cuzco in the highlands of Peru.
Open markets where people
buy and sell produce, meats,
and o ther goods are quite
typica l of the Latin American
landscape.
Rosario
Valparaiso
Mendoza
~ago
•
Buenos
Airif
ARGENTINA
@
National capitals
Other major cities
0
0
URUGU
®Montevideo
• Recife
380
REGION OR
COUNmY
Argentina
Boliv,a
Brazil
PART THREE
Millions
32.3
7.3
150.4
Chile
132
Colombia
31 .8
Ecuador
10 7
Falkland Islands
0002
French Guiana
009
Guyana
0.8
Paraguay
4.3
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela
21 .9
04
3.0
19 6
THE DEVELOPING WORLD
Population
Life
Area, Thousands Population
Natural Projected
Infant Expectancy
Urban
Per Capita
of Square
Density,
Increase
to 2000 Mortality at Birth
Population GNP, 1988
Miles
No.lmi2
(Annual
(Millions)
Rate
(Years)
(% )
fUS$)
fKm 2 J
(No./km2
1.3
36.0
32
71
85
2640
1068 3(2766.9)
30(12)
26
9.3
110
53
49
570
424.2(1098 6)
17(7)
1.9
179.5
63
65
74
2280
3286.5(85 12)
46(18)
17
15.3
18.5
71
84
1510
292.3(757)
45(17)
2.0
38.0
46
66
68
1240
439 7(1139)
72(28)
2.5
13.6
63
65
54
1080
109 5(283. 6)
98(38)
59
4 7( 12.2)
0.4(0.2)
73
351(91)
2.6( 1.0)
1.9
0.8
30
67
33
410
83.0(2.5)
9(3)
28
5.5
42
67
43
1180
157 1(406 8)
27(1 1)
2.4
26.4
76
65
69
1440
496.2( 1285.2)
44( 17)
20
0.5
40
68
66
2450
63.0( 16:; 3)
6(2)
0.8
3.2
22.3
71
87
2470
68.0(176 2)
45(17)
2.3
24 1
33
70
83
3170
352 1(912)
56(22)
u'.1evenly distributed. Ma ny highland a nd coasta l region~ are so overcrowded that they are at or near their
carrymg capacities, at least under present levels of techno logy and economic development.
. Population pressures have led both to the degradation of natural resources, such as agricultu ra l and forested la nd, and to the proliferation of slums, or squatter
settlements ' in the nu merous 1arge c1lles
..
scattered
~ro ~nd _the periphery of the continent. Rates of urba n1zat1o n I~ several of the countries, especiall y those sub1ect to high rates of Europea n immigration duri ng the
last hundred years, eq ual or exceed those of most develo~ed countries of the world . The traditionally more
~gran~n countnes-with a higher percentage of Indian
mhab1tants-have a proportionally lower urban com~o~ent a~d are, in regard to levels of urbanizatio n, more
111 l_me with patterns of developing countries of As ia and
Afnca.
~lth~ugh spare~ the nineteenth-centu ry European colorual scrambles that characterized Asia and Af .
·
nca,
So ti A
u 1 menca's economic dependency upon the developed world has resulted in numerous boom-and-bust
cycles. 1:fistorically, the economy of South America has
been o nenred toward demand fo r its raw mate rials by
Europe and orth Am~rica, and fluctuations in exports
of sugar, gold, silver, tm, copper, rubber, bananas, and
coffee have not allowed for the development of
~t~~le econom~es. In the 1980s, new types of expo~:ry
ill1c1t drugs, : h1efly cocaine and marijuana-have fue led
the econo~1es of several South American countries.
over th is new trade hav..'" led to muc h anControversies
.
tagon1~m between the beneficiary South Ame rican
~ou~tnes and the developed countries that are the dest111at1ons of the illicit exports. In recent decades, Common Market-style economic liaisons have stimulated int~rnal economic growth, but the traditional trade
hnka?es with Europe, North America, and now Japan
re ma m as the strong spatial connectivity links today.
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
PHYSIOGRAPHY
Stretching nearl y 5000 miles (8000 kilometers) north to
south (from ~bo ut 120 north to 550 south latitude) and
over 3000 miles (5000 kilometers) from east to west
CHAPTER 11
(from about 35° to 80° west longitude) not counting offshore islands, the familiar triangular-shaped contine nt of
South America encompasses an area of nearly 7 million
square miles (18 million square kilomete rs), almost
twice the size of the United States.
Physiographically, the continent can be divided into
three major units: a plateau region on the eastern side,
lowland plains in the central po rtio n, and a narrow
range of high mountains on the weste rn side (Figure 11.2). The two major plateaus-the Guiana and Brazilian highlands-are the o ldest sections of the continent. They have the appearance of a highly weathered
and eroded landsca pe, partly covered by stratified rocks
and lava flows. Except for the lushe r vegetation cover,
the remote Guiana highlands resemble the eroded plateau landscape of Arizona's Monument Valley. Angel
Falls, descending nearly 3300 feet (1000 mete rs) from a
high plateau (tepuiJ in Venezuela, is the world's highest
waterfall. The Brazilian highlands extend quite close to
the Atlantic, forming a sharp escarpme nt, or cliff, at the
edge of the narrow coastal plain upon which cities such
as Rio de Jane iro and Salvador de Bahia are located.
Although quite scenic in appearance, this escarpment
historically has served as a barrier to easy colonization
of Brazil 's interior. The inte rior low plains of the contine nt have received many of the sediments e roded from
381
SOUTH AMERICA
the older highlands, and most of South America's major
river systems-including the Orinoco, Amazon, and Parana/ Paraguay-are found here.
The third major physical unit is the geologically
young Andean cordillera. South America is e ntire ly
embedded in a contine ntal plate, and at its western
edge, plate collision has forced the subduction of the
Pacific continental plate under the South American
plate. As a result, deep oceanic trenches lie immediate ly
offshore, and extensive volcanic and earthquake activity
has created a mountain chain with over 50 peaks exceeding 20,000 feet (6000 meters) in elevation. The Andean cordillera, although over 5000 miles (8000 kilometers) lo ng, has an average width of only about 200
miles (320 kilometers), except near the Peru-Bolivia
border. In this area, the Andes split into an eastern and
western chai n, and between them lies the altipla110, a
basin 14,000 feet (4250 meters) high within which seve ral lakes have formed from local snowmelt. Lake Titicaca, encompassing 3200 square miles (8300 square kilometers), is the largest lake on the contine nt.
CLIMATE
As much of South America lies within the tropics, tropical rainy climates prevail over a large portion of the
A vista of the Brazilian
Highlands near Petr6polis.
Petr6polis is located slightly
north of Rio de Janeiro on the
southern edge of the Brazilian
Highlands. The highlands are
important for agriculture,
livestock ranch ing, and
mining-particularly iron ore.
38Z
PART TWO
THE DEVELOPED WORLD
CHAPTER 11
FIGURE 11.Z
Physica l Features of South America
,o·
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
PACIFIC
OCEAN
ATLANTIC
セ@
100"
OCEA
ELEVATION
Meters
Feet
~,·.= ~
Over 13,120
500-1 ,999
1 ,640-S,559
2,00Q--4,000
Q--499
0
0
250
250
11,·
500
500
750
6,560-13,120
0-1,639
750
1,000 miles
1.000 lulome1ers
lW"
90"
80'
383
SOUTH AMERICA
continent (Figure 11.3). The Amazon basin, along the
equator, is hot and wet year round with temperatures
varying little from a daily average of 80°F (27°C) and
annual rainfall of about 100 inches (250 centimete rs).
Flanking the Amazon Basin to north and south are tropical wet-and-dry (savanna) climates characte rized by
distinctive rainy seasons ("winter," or inviemo) in their
respective high-sun periods. The low-sun dry seasons
are considered "summer," or verano, and shorter dry
spells within the rainy season are locally referred to as
a vera,iillo ("little summer"). The southeast trade winds
and warm offshore currents bring moisture to a narrow
coastal belt of Brazil, thereby extending a wet tropical
climate to slightly south of Rio de Janeiro. ortheast
Brazil is a dry region, however, receiving only between
10 and 20 inches (25-50 centimete rs) of rainfall. Precipitation he re is also quite variable, and several prolonged
droughts have led to crop failures and out-migration of
people.
The narrow southern portion of South America, although situated within temperate latitudes, is not subject
to the extremes of heat and cold (continentality) that
characterize the large temperate landmasses of Eurasia
and North America. Much of southern Brazil, Paraguay,
Uruguay, and northern Argentina is humid subtropical ,
quite similar to the southeastern United States. Central
Chile is classed as Mediterranean, a climate characterized by a marked summer (high-sun) dry period.
The Andean cordillera has a very pronounced effect
upon South America's climate. Because of extreme variatio ns in elevatio n and latitude, many microclimates are
found within the co rdillera. In the tropical Andes, the
climates a re best described in te nns of the vertical zon atioit concept introduced in the last chapter. As one
climbs in elevation, hot and humid equatorial climates
grade into temperate and even polar climates. The Andes also modify the distribution of precipitatio n by
means of the orographic effect. Incoming moistureladen air masses rise and cool as they reach the highe r
mountains, thus causing precipitation. Consequently,
the windward sides of the mountains receive the bulk
of the rainfall whereas the leeward sides, in the rain
shadow of the mountains, remain dry. This patte rn is
bes t seen in extreme southe rn South America, where
westerly winds have produced a wet marine west coast
climate on the west side of the Andes while dry climates
characterize Patagonia on the east side. Even within the
Amazon Basin, the highest amounts of rainfall-and
lushest vegetation cover-are found along the eastern
slopes of the Andes, which in these latitudes represent
the windward sides. The narrow band of west coast desert extending th roughout Peru and northe rn Chile is
produced both by the rain shadow effect and also by
the cold, north-flowing offshore Peru (or Humboldt)
Current. As the moist, cool ocean air above the cold
current moves overland and is warmed, the relative humidity drops, thus precluding condensation (reaching of
the dew point).
VEG ETATION
The distribution of vegetation reflects the influence of
the prevailing climate, the soils, and the availability of
moisture (Figure 11.4). The Amazon Basin is covered
with tropical rainforest, or selva, in which the continuous tree canopy precludes sunlight from reaching the
forest floor. As the climate grades from "tropical wet"
to "tropical wet-and-dry" with increasing distance from
the equator, evergreen rainforests grade into more deciduous types of tropical forest as well as a variety of
savanna (tropical wet-and-dry grassland) associatio ns.
Whether these avannas formed naturally or by periodic
burning by Indians is debated, although extensive conve rsion of forest to savanna has been noted in historical
times. Several large expanses of savanna, including the
llanos of Colombia and Venezuela and the partially
wooded campos of Brazil, are important cattleranching zones. The dry northeastern area of Brazil contains a thorny, drought-resistant woodland known as
caatinga, and agricultura l colonization in this region is
periodically set back by extended droughts. Perhaps the
most inhospitable te rrain in South America is the Gran
Chaco of western Paraguay. Containing a thorn forest
somewhat similar to Brazil's caatinga, the Chaco is characterized by extensive desiccation of the topsoil during
the annual dry season d roughts and widespread flooding during the summer rainy season.
Biogeographically, South America exhibits a southe rn
hemispheric equivalent of temperate orth America. In
Chile, for example, the vegetation grades from sparse
xerophytic scrub in the northern Atacama Desert to eve rgreen woodlands in the central Mediterra nean region
to a southern temperate marine west coast forest. These
distributions are quite similar to vegetative changes
along the Pacific coast from Baja California to British
Columbia. As with the Sie rra Nevada and Cascade
Mountains of the United States, the rain shadow zone
east of the southe rn Andes (Patagonia) consists of
steppe and desert vegetation. The humid subtropics of
east central Argentina and Urugua y, similar to the Great
384
PART TWO
CHAPTER 11
THE DEVELOPED WORLD
385
SOUTH AMERICA
FIGURE 11.3
FIGURE 11.4
Climates of South America
Vegetation of South America
10"
!tr
AT
ATLANTIC
NTIC
OC
OCEAN
N
0
10
PA
IC
AN
20
PACIFIC
A7i
OCEAN
TIC
GEAN
Tropical Rainy Climates
30
Tropical rainforest
D
Tropical savanna
Dry Climates
100'
"'°
•
0
250
250
1Q
500
500
750
750 1,000 kilometers
...
Tropical rainforest
ATLANTIC
Deciduous scrub forest
Semideciduous subtropical forest
Steppe
Temperate forest
Desert
Evergreen scrub woodland
OCEAN
Savanna with palm forest
Humid Mesothermal Climates
40
0
•
Mediterranean subtropical (dry summer)
Swamp-palm savanna
Humid subtropical (warm summer)
Savanna (tropical grassland)
Marine west coast (cool summer)
Prairie (temperate grassland)
D
•
Xerophytic scrub and desert
250
1Qq'
500
750
1,000 miles
....~;;;;;2~
-===
750 1.000 1o1ome1e,s
Undifferentiated high mountains
250
II()
I~..._,-----
500
386
PART TWO
THE DEVELOPED WORLD
Plains, contain agriculturally fertile grasslands known as
pampas. A small amou nt of tundra vegetation is found
at the very southern tip of the continent and in the Fa lkland Islands, and similar cold-tolerant grasses-locally
known as paramos and puna-occupy higher e levations within the Andes.
SOILS
The soils of South America reflect the influence of several factors, notably climate, vegetation cover, and parent material. From an agricultural standpoint, the richest
soils are fou nd in the pampas of Argentina and Uruguay, the narrow and flat coastal plain of Brazil and the
Guianas, and intermontane Andean basins. Rive r valleys, coastal plains, and highland basins contain a large
amount of rich alluvial soils deposited by streams and
rive rs, and these are especially conducive to agricultural
production . Even the d1y river valleys of coasta l Peru
contain rich alluvial soils that, when irrigated, have
proved to be agricultu ra lly productive. The soils of the
lush rainforests o f the Amazon Basin-oxisols-are deceivi ngly poor fo r agricultu re, however. The abundance
of plant life is maintained by an elaborate system of
nutrient cycling within the trees and other vegetation,
and once the la nd is cleared for agriculture, the nutrients
are leached, or dissolved, out of the uppe r layers of the
soil. Ofte n, this process of laterlzatio11 leaves be hind
a hardpan, infertile reddish soil- rich in iron and aluminum, but low in plant nutrients.
RESOURCES
South America has considerable natural resources ra nging from minerals and energy resources including petroleum to rivers that, if dammed, could generate hydroelectric power. Fis h a nd forest products are a lso
available, although these, like the othe r resources, must
be well managed if they are to achieve the ir full
potential.
Mineral and Energy Resources
South Ame rica is a leading producer o f several importa nt minerals a nd e nergy resources (Figure 11.5). Peru
and Chile account for nearly 20 percent of world copper
production. The agricultura lly poor, yet mineral-rich oxisols o f the humid tropics have be nefited Brazil, Venezue la, and the Guianas in terms of bauxite (the raw material for aluminum), iron, and manganese deposits.
CHAPTER 11
Other important mineral deposits include tin and tungste n (Bolivia), uranium (Brazil), and zinc (Argentina ,
Bolivia, and Peru). Historically, silver mining was important in the Peruvian and Bolivian highlands. Gold
and diamond mining is locally significant in the older
Brazilian and Guiana highlands. Colombia is also a
small producer of gold (derived mainly from placer
mi11i11g) in addition to being the world's leading source
of e meralds. Coal deposits are found in several of the
countries, and although volumes are relatively low by
world production standards, they are of local econo mic
importance.
387
SOUTH AMERICA
FIGURE 11.S
Mineral and Energy Resources of South America
,rr
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
Most of the continent's petroleum deposits are associated with the inte rior flanks of the Andea n cordillera,
although impo rtant coastal and offshore fields lie along
the Venezuelan and Brazilian coasts. Petroleum exploratio n dates to the turn of the century when Venezuela's
famous Lake Maracaibo oil fields were discovered. Venezuela a nd Ecuador are OPEC members, and Peru has
also recently joined the list of oil exporters. More populous Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia are also important oil producers, but high internal demand has so far
precluded a ny net exporting.
u
rr
.Bx
~"'4'
,I
Cu
Sn セ@
4
'
u
Cu
io
Water Resources
With ample annual precipitation, and a large interior
basin, humid tropical South America is dra ined by several large river systems (Figure 11.2). The largest is the
Amazon River and its tribu taries, which drain nearly half
of the contine nt. The 4000-mile (6400-kilometer) long
river, only slightly sho rter than the Nile yet carrying a
volu me 11 times greater than the Mississippi, cuts its
way from the high Andes to the Atlantic Ocean approximate ly at the equator between the Guiana and Brazilian
highlands. To the no rth, the Orinoco River drains the
llanos (plains) of Colom bia and Venezuela. The southe rn lowlands of South America are drai ned by the Parana/ Paraguay river system, which empties in the Rio de
la Plata estuary near Buenos Aires. The Rfo Sao Francisco flows to the Atlantic through the eastern Brazilian
highlands .
In spite of the exte nsive network of rivers, their importance historically has been less than that of rivers
such as the Mississippi or ile. The Amazon, although
navigable into Peru, flows through what historically has
been an undeveloped wilderness. Because of the generally poor soils eroded from the eastern highlands, agriculture only flourished in narrow strips along the
lower reaches of the river. The Rio Sao Francisco con-
20"
•
:ID
•
c
0
Major oil pipeline
ATLANTIC
Coal
Bauxite
Cu
Copper
Fe
Iron
Sn
Tin
w
Tungsten
Zn
Zinc
250
250
Oilfields
Oil shale
Bx
u
0
Oil Refinery
500
OCEAN
Uranium
500
750
750
1.ooom,les
1.000 kilometers
11)"
. ( 1980) and Goode's World Atlas.
SOURCE: Adapted from International Petroleum Encycloped ,a
20"
388
PART TWO
THE DEVELOPED WORLD
tains rapids close to the coast, and this precluded easy
access to the interior. The Parana River served an important role as a transportation artery into the interior,
but its shallow waters have severely limited its use in
the modern era. The greatest resource value of South
America's rivers lies in their hydroelectric potential, especially for po pulous developing nations such as Brazil.
The upper Parana contains 11 major hydroe lectric
plants, including the famous Itaipu Dam o n the Brazil/
Paraguay borde r, the largest power-generating facility in
the world. On the western side of the Andes are man y
short rivers that, if dammed, would both alleviate periodic severe fl ooding and yield great hydroelectric
potential.
Fishing and Forestry
Altho ugh subs istence fishing takes place througho ut the
continent, especially in the rivers of the interior, commerc ial fishing is largely restricted to the coastal and
offshore areas. Shrimping is an impo rtant activity o n the
Atlantic coast of Brazil and the Guiana , and Peru has
been a world leader in the harvest of a nchovies. Because the west coast of South America is was hed by the
cold Peru (Humboldt) Current flowing no rthward fro m
Antarctic waters, the upwe lling (replacement of surface
waters with colder water fro m greater de pths) associated with this cold current brings rich bounty of plankto n and anchovies close to the sea s urface where the
latter are easily harvested. Jn some years, Pe ru has attained the distinction of be ing the leading fis hing natio n
in the world, although in o ther years freak warm currents (El Nino, the Christ Child) in winter o r overfishing
have led to collapses in the industry . A po tential for
greate r commercialization of fishing exists in South
America as lo ng as the resources are well managed . Recent progress is apparent in both the commercial development of inland fisheries in the Amazon Basin and
the expansion of aquaculture, mainly shrimp fa rming,
in Ecuador.
Because of the hig h dive rsity of species and re lative
inaccessibility, comme rcial lumbering has been relatively minimal in the vast tropical rai nforests. Selective
cutting of valuable hardwoods is practiced, a nd atte mpts
at tree farming have been made, but the economics of
large-scale tropical forest lumbering are not favorable.
(The rainfo rests are disappearing at alarming rates, however, but more as a result o f conversio n to low-intensity
agriculture and gra zing la nd.) Commercial forestry is
more widespread in the temperate portions of the con-
CHAPTER I I
tinent, especially in southern Brazil where extensive
stands of softwoods are found.
SOUTH AMERICA
FIGURE 11.6
Aboriginal Economies of South America
HUMAN ENVIRONMENT
Like the physical e nvironment, the human environment
of South America exhibits considerable diversity. ative populations, voluntary immigrants from Europe,
and invol untary immigrants (slaves) from Africa as well
as va rio us mixtures of these groups are all reflected in
the po pulation of South America today. Patterns of population den ity and distribution are similarly diverse;
South America is the home of some of the world's largest cities as well as large sparsely populated areas and
frontier regions.
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
Tropical
Forest
Farmers
Tupi
ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS
Although a rchaeologists are still in disagreement as to
the exact antiquity of humans in the New World, we do
know that the Americas were among the last of the major world regio ns to become populated. Estimates of
earl iest settlement range as far back as 30,000 years before the present (B.P.), but recent revisions have lowered this figure to between 12,000 and 15,000 years B.P.,
o r shortly after the last glacial maximum of the Ice Age.
By 11,000 years B.P. , however, descendants of the pioneering Asiatic forebearers had reached the southern
tip of South America (Tierra del Fuego), and over the
subseque nt mille nnia, a variety of distinctive native cultures evolved.
AL the time of European contact, perhaps 15 million
natives of varying culture levels inhabited South America (Figure 11.6). Most of the continent was inhabited
by tropical forest fam1 ing peoples who lived along the
numero us lowland rivers and practiced shifting, or
slash and burn , agriculture. Cassava (manioc) and
sweet potatoes comprised the basic food staples, and
protein was derived predominantly from fish but also
from wild game and peanuts. Since these people were
river o riented , they traveled considerable dista nces; notable examples were the Arawaks and Caribs who respectively had migrated, with their Amazon lowland
culture tra its, into the Antilles by the time Columbus
"discovered" this New World. Other well-known lowland cultures include the Tupi, Ge, and Guarani of
eastern and southern Brazil and adjacent Paraguay.
A temperate latitude slash and burn culture-the
10-
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
Hunting and gathering
Simple farming
Civilizations (advanced farming)
0
250
1111• ~ ~
250
500
750
1,000 miles
500
~;:.;;;
750
~ 1~.000
~ k"."
,10::
m':
ete: ,s=
10
SOURCE: Adapted from Robert C. West. " Aboriginal and Colonial Geograpi~~atin America." in Brian W Blouet and Olwyn M. Blouet. eds.. Latin
America· An Introductory Survey (New York: John Wiley & Sons. 1982). pp.
.
390
PART TWO THE DEVELOPED WORLD
Araucanians--occupied humid, forested south central
Chile , and their agricultural basis was more complex. In
addition to adopting food complexes prevalent in Mesoamerica and Andean America (including maize,
beans, and squash), the Araucanians domesticated what
we now call the Iri h potato. Geographe rs a nd botanists
argue that potatoes were introduced into the central Andes-and the rest of the world-from this source area.
Hunting and gathering cultures inhabited several of the
tropical grasslands (campos) of Brazil, the temperate
grasslands (pa mpas) of Argentina and Uruguay, and the
short-grass steppes of Patagonia. Fishing and shell fishing were important supplementary economic activities
along most of South America's shoreline , a nd along the
south coast of Chile and Tierra de! Fuego, these activities constituted the dominant method of food supply.
Charles Darwin, rounding Cape Horn on the research
vessel H.M.S. Beagle in the mid-1800s, commented
upon the impoverished appearance of these shellfish
gatherers.
Two major civilizations existed in South America at
the time of the Europeans' arrival: the fnca Empire of
the central trans-Andes and the Chibcha civilization of
contemporary Andean Colombia. Evidence of plant domestication dates to as early as 6000 years B.P. along
the arid Peruvian coast, and by 3600 years B.P. e laborate
irrigation works had been constructed, pottery making
had become prevalent, and a temple had been built
near Lima. Incipient coastal civilizations eventually gave
rise to the Mochica Cu lture, which flourished from A.D.
200 until about A.O. 1000. Situated on the coastal plain
of contempora1y Peru, the Mochica fragmented into
three coastal kingdoms of Chimu , Chancay, a nd Chincha, which flourished until about A.O. 1470. All three
kingdoms were supported by elaborate irrigation agriculture, and the most famo us city was Chan Chan, near
present-day Trujillo.
Cities developed in the Andean highlands contemporaneously with the rise of a coastal plain civilization,
and contact between the two areas was widespread in
s pite of the fum1idable topographic barriers. Several
sites, including Kotosh in the north, Tiahuanaco in the
south, and the Cuzco Valley between the two, became
important centers of civilization. Political power within
the region was eventua ll y consolidated by the Incas of
the Cuzco Valley during their empire-building push between 1438 and 1525. Under the family-ru n Inca Empire, an elaborate road network was established to facilitate transport of people and foodstuffs throughout
the elongated territory that now reached from southern
FIGURE I 1,7
Loci and Routes o f D iffusion of Colonial Settlements In South America
Colombia to centra l Chile. Unlike the extensive trade
network of the enterprising Mesoamericans, the marketing infrastructure of the Incan Empire was the result
of totalitarian policies. The Inca e lite used forced labor
in both agriculture and public works projects and instituted a socialistic food distribu tion system that ensured
sufficient food supplies. Quechua, the Inca language,
was also fo rced upon the conquered subjects, and its
present distribution closely approximates the maximum
t:xtem of the empire. The Incas established a second
capital at Quito in the early 1500s, and perhaps empire
building would have continued had not the Spaniard
Pizarro arrived in the region soon thereafter in 1531. At
its peak, the lncan Empire contained up to 12 million
inhabitants, or about half the size of the population of
Mesoamerica.
A second , much smaller Andean civilization was that
of the Chibchas of highland Colombia who numbered
only 500,000 inhabitants. Although not architecturally as
sophisticated as the central Andean cultures, the Chibchas formed a rudimentary political state, traded extensively with surrounding Indians of lower elevations, and
crafted elaborate gold figurines. The fa mous myth of El
Dorado (the Gilded One), which later led many expeditions to ill-fated endings in the tropical lowlands,
stems from the Zipa (chief) of the Chibchas who annually sprinkled gold dust on his body and went for a
swim in the cold Lake Guatavita north of Bogota. Although the Spanish were well acquainted with this story
before the ir arriva l in the Colombian highlands, it had
become so exaggerated that they did not recognize the
source of the myth when they finally conquered the
Chibcha in 1536.
10-
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
Tordesillas Line (1494)
I
.,,.
10"'
'Salvador de Bahia
AfLANT,/C
COLONIAL IMPACTS
After Columbus's eventful discovery of October 12,
1492, territorial rights to world exploration and trade
were divided between Spain and Portugal by papal decree. The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas established a line
of demarcation 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, or approximately 471/2° west longitude, at what
was thought to be a mid-ocean meridian (Figure 11. 7).
However, a large portion of South America protruded
eastward of the line, and while accide ntally sailing too
far wes tward on a rounding of the Cape of Good Hope
in 1500, the Portuguese discovered that they too had
received a slice of the new world .
The Spanish launched their explo rations in search of
mineral wealth from their New World base in Santo
OCEAN
•
Loci of Portuguese settlements
•
Loci of Spanish settlements
The Spanish Main
.....250
0• . .2~50~
500
750
Routes of diffusion of colonial settlement
Southern limit of European colonial settlement
1.000 miles
~500
~~
750~~1.oo
! :o~
': .~~me:,~.,~.=
..,.
IIO
711"
1111
•10
.
.
A I (Madison· University of Wisconsin Press.
·
L · America An
·
v L mbardi Latin American History:
A Teachmg t as
SOURCES: Adapted from Catherine L Lombard, and John . ho of Lati~ America,"" in Brian W Blouet and Olwyn M Blouet. eds.. at,n
R b t C West ""Aboriginal and Colonial Geograp y
ourvey
er (.New York·· John Wiley & Sons, 1982). pp. 34--86.
1983); and S
Introductory
,- ................
----
F
39Z
PART TWO
THE DEVELOPED WORLD
Domingo, following the failure of lheir firsl attempted
seulement on the north coasl of His paniola. An abundance of pearls along the north coast of South America
(the Spanish Main) led to the establishment of small outposts from eastern Venezuela to Panama. Following Balboa's discovery of the Pacific Ocean (the Soulh Sea) in
151 3, the en trepo t city of Panama was soon established. From this link to the Caribbean, the Spanis h proceeded down the west coast and discovered the Incan
Empire. Following Pizarro's conquest of the Incas in
1531, Lima was established as the colonial capital of the
viceroyalty of Peru. From this coastal base, lhe Spanish
occupied Cuzco and other mineral-rich highland cente rs
of Indian civilization, as well as more outlying le rritories
within the lncan Empire. By the 1540s, the Spanish had
discovered the immense silve r deposits of Bolivia,
known as Upper Pe ru because of the high e levations.
olable among the mineral deposils was the (still producing) silver mine o f Potosi, near which several senlemenls were eslablished.
Explorations were launched bOLh no1thward and
southward from Pe ru, and seltleme nt loci were eslablished al Quito and antiago. From these nodes, further
o utward explo ralions and expansion look place, including down the Amazon River and across the southern
Andes into Argentina. Buenos Aires had been established in the early 1530s by settlers arriving direclly from
Spain, but hostile Indians forced an inland re location to
Asuncion, via the Parana/ Paraguay rivers . This Paraguayan locus of seule ment subsequenlly served as the
hearth of oulward seule ment expansion, including a
lale r reoccupation of the site of Buenos Aires. The Chibcha civilization of Colombia was penetrated by the
Spanish moving inland from the outposts a long the
Spanish Main, and Bogota was establis hed near the
highland site of the Chibchan capilal. Further exploratio ns were launched from this base, mostly southward
and northeastward, but also eastward in search of El
Dorado. Spanis h settlements were primarily concentrated in areas containing mine ral wealth and a readily
available supply of Indian labor to extract that wealth.
Administrative centers were established eithe r within
those seulement loci or at coastal entrep6ts. The
mineral-poor Uruguayan grasslands were unimportant
to the Spanish, at least until the Portuguese began expanding southward in the late 1700s. Likewise, the
no rthern Amazonian lowlands, including the Guianas,
had little to offer, and the Spanish subsequently avoided
that part of the continent.
Like the Spanish, the Portuguese were interested in
acquiring wealth, and the recently established trade
w ith India and the Orient offered the easiest means to
accomplish those aims. Early coastal explorations in the
newly discovered te rritory yielded little evidence of
minera l wealth, and the colony of Brazil (named after
the dye-yie lding brazilwood thal constituted an early export) grew slowly. In 1580, an estimated 150,000 Spaniards had settled in the New World-approximately half
of lhem in South America- yet only about 30,000 Portuguese inhabited Brazil. Settlement in Brazil was concentrated in two major zones: the older zone of Sao
Paulo/Rio de Janeiro in the south and Salvador de
Bahia/ Recife in the north. Of these two, the northern
became more important because of the establishment of
a plantation economy. The plantation, an extensive
feudal la nd tenure system dedicated to intensive produclion of an expo1t crop, was firs t developed by the
Po rtuguese in their African island colonies of Madeira
and Sao Tome and Principe. The tropical climate and
fe rtile coastal plain of northeastern Brazil were well
suited for the growing of sugarcane and tobacco, and a
pla ntation landsca pe quickly developed. Although the
search fo r mineral wealth and slave labor led to an inland penetration of Brazil well westward of the Tordesillas Line, including up lhe Amazon River and toward
the Mato Grosso from Sao Paulo, most Portuguese settleme nt remained concentrated along a narrow coastal
ribbon. Other Europeans, including Dulch, French, and
British, adapted the plantation system to other portions
of coastal South Ame rica, such as the Guianas and
no rthern Brazil , that had been ignored by Iberian colo nists. The panish , too, had experimented with sugarcane farming in the Cana1y Islands, and they introduced the plantation syslem to Hispaniola. By the early
1600s, the plantation economy had spread throughout
the Caribbean and to the orth American mainland.
Foremost among the population changes that took
place in South America during the colonial era was a
rapid decline in the native population, chiefly attributed
to enslavc::menc for work in the mines and on the plantations, introduction of diseases such as smallpox, measles, and typhus to which the Indians had no resistance,
disruption of native economies, and psychological despair. The population declines were greatest in the areas
of highest and densest population. In Peru, for example,
an indigenous population estimated to be 12 million in
1530 rapidly declined to 1.5 million by 1570 and 600,000
by 1620. By this latter date, the population stabilized
CHAPTER 1 1
d a pattern of gradual increase began. Due to the
an I absence of accurate records for the less Eurov1rtua
.
I
I" ti
peanized segments of South America, we . 1ave_ it e
knowledge of either the aborigina l population size or
tl extent of the postcontact decimation. Orella na, the
s~:nish explorer who first descended the Amazon
.
noted almost contiguous village. settlement along
R1ver,
I ·
the banks of the entire course of the river, a popu at1on
density that still has not been regained to~ay. Slaveraiding parties from coastal Brazil rapidly decimated the
native Tupis, and the search for plantation labor drove
the Paulistas (inhabitants of Sao Paulo) e:er further
into the interior. Most of the territorial expansion of Brazil-to approximately its modern boundaries-resulted
from the search for slaves and gold by these bandeirantes (flag bearers).
The demand for labor could nol be met by the enslavement of Indians alone, however, and t~e P~rtuguese began importing Negro slaves from the1_r Afncan
territorial possessions, chiefly Portuguese Guinea and
Angola. The demand fo r African labor in the N~w World
increased rapidly, especially where the plantation economy was dominant. Estimates of the numbers of slaves
imported from Africa to all of the Americas :ange from
10 to 15 million. Four to five million Afncans were
brought to South America, mostly to Brazil but also_ to
t11e Guianas and the Spanish Main where the plantation
economy had taken hold . The predominance of bla~ks
is still quite evidenl in those areas today. The Span'.sh
also used African slaves to augment the declining Indian
labor supply in lheir gold and silver mines, but excepl
for small enclaves in western Colombia and Ecuador,
most evidence of Africans has disappeared through the
generations because of intem1arriage with Indians and
Europeans in these areas.
.
The mixing of the races is another 1mportanl result of
the colonial impact on South Ame rica. ot only were
African and Mediterranean European racial s~rains
added to the aboriginal ethnic stock, bul much intermarriage took place as well. Dozen~ of terms ?av~ come
into local usage describing the vanous combma~1ons of
racial mixtures, most importantly mestizo (Indian and
European), mulatto (African and European), ~nd
zambo (African and Indian). The mestizo population
has become the dominant one in most of western ~outh
America, whereas blacks and mulattos are numencally
important along the coastal lowl:nds of eastern a~?
northern South America. In 1825, )0 percent of Brazil s
population was black and 18 percent mulatto.
SOUTH AMERICA
393
Whereas the Spanish settlement patterns did not significantly change throughout the entire colonial period,
in Brazil the discovery of mineral wealth in 1693 tnggered what has become known as the world's first ~old
rush. Centered in a region that became known as Mmas
Gerais, the gold rush attracted some 800,000 Portugue~e
immigrants during the eighteenth century. Not only did
the balance of political power shift back to the south
from Salvador but the discovery of mineral wealth led
to the first sig~ificant settlement inland of the Brazili~n
escarpment. Rio de Janeiro, the closest port to the mterior mines, became the capital of Brazil in the 1750s.
MODERN POPULATION
The modern period in South America has seen several
developments: another influx of European immigran~,
dramatic population growth, and various forms_ of '.111gration. The latter includes both rural-urban m1g~t1on
and movement to the frontier regions of the continent.
Immigration
Non-Hispanic European immigration did not beco1:ne
widespread until the nineteenth century. Und~r Sp_arnsh
colonial rule only Spaniards were allowed to 1mm1grate
into Spain's, American colonies. Following independence from Spain in the early 1800s, many of th~ newly
independent nations felt a need to improve lhe1r_economies and to populate their sparsely settled ternto'.1es.
Immigrants from northern Euro_pe were espeetally
sought after because of their perce1v~d strong work ethics. Brazil, too, opened its doors to unm1g~nts as ear\
as 1800, but the persistence of slavery until the end o
the colonial period in the late 1880s precluded much
demand for new sources of labor during most of the
century. ln the Guianas, abolition of slavery w~s f~llowed by the importation of indentured plantation _laborers, especially from lhe British and Dute~ colonies
of India and the Easl Indies, respectively. Their desce~. ifi cant percen rage of tht: ethmc
. a sign
dants comprise
composition of Guyana and Su'.iname today. The, few
immigrants to French Guiana arrived by for~e, as Fr~nce
established several penal colonies- including the infamous Devil's Island-there.
·ca was
Temperate, or southern, South Amen.
. the destination of the majority of European im11:1~rant_s b~rween 1870 and 1930. ln Argentina, 6.5 m1~hon m:irmgrants, 80 percent of them Italian and Spantsh, arnved
394
PART TWO
THE DEVELOPED WORLD
as the rich pampa grasslands were transfonned from
Population Growth and
grazing lands into croplands. Most immigrants were
Migration Patterns
non-landowning agricultural laborers, and they quickly
Oocked to the cities, thus stimulating the rapid growth
The total population o f South America is approximately
of cities, including Buenos Aires. Today, a majority of
296 million 0990), of which slightly over half is in BraArgentines are descended fro m these largely southern
zil. Since 1950, about 135 million people have been
European immigrants, and even their pronunciations of
added to the continent's populatio n. This high rate of
Spanish words reflect Italian inflections. Uruguay reincrease is largely explained by the demographic tranceived an ethnicall y similar influx of immigrants. AJsition model, which forecasts a large decline in the
rho ug~ ~maile r in number than in Argentina-pe rhaps
death rate prior to any significant declines in the birth
one milhon total-the immigrant population was more
rate. Not including the effects of (international) immisignificant because of the re latively low population prior
gration and emigration, which have been relatively unto mass immigration. Brazil received five million immiimportant since 1950, this signifies that birth rates have
grants, mostly from Po rtugal, Italy, and Spain, but also
been substantially higher than death rates, and a population explosion has been the result.
from Germany, Russia, and Turkey. Here immigration
mostly fo llowed the opening of coffee and other agriAlthough present tre nds indicate a gradual drop in the
cultural lands so uth and west of Sao Paulo, including
birth rates, attributed large ly to increasing practices of
the forested lands of Rio Grande do Sul where a small
birth control, the pressures of population growth have
but locally important colony of Germans became establed to extensive internal migrations of people. First and
lished. European colo nies, especially of Germans, beforemost, the re have been exte nsive urba n migrations.
came important in Paraguay following its de feat in the
Many of South America's large cities are growing at rates
infamous War of the Triple Alliance in 1870. Afte r a fi veof 7 or 8 pe rcent per year, we ll above the national avyear battle against the combined forces of Brazil, Uruerages. Many traditional areas of settlement in the Anguay, a nd Argentina, Paraguay experienced a 90 percent
dean valleys and along the coasts are at or near their
decline in its ma le population. European immigration
~arrying capacities, at least under present technologwas numerically less important in other South American
ical levels. In these regions, population growth is usucountries, a lthough small German colonies were estabally offset by out-migration, most often to the cities
lished in southern Chile and north central Venezuela .
where the migrants seek jobs. Ma ny urban problems,
Oil-rich Venezuela continues to attract immigrants essuch as the difficulty in providing basic services, result
pecially from Italy and the Canary Islands.
from this rapid population inOux, and squatter settlements are integral components of most la rge cities today. Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Rio de Janeiro are
Population Density and Distribution
among the most populated urban areas in the world
Statistics o n populatio n densities for South America inwith more than 10 millio n persons. Lima, Santiago, and
dicate that the continent is re latively s parse ly settled , yet
Bogota arc also quite large with populations of more
than 4 million each.
these statistics mask the uneven distribution of the population (see the Statistical Profile). Ave raged over the
Other types of population migration include internaentire continent, the population density is slightly over
tional migration, interregional migration, and frontier
half of the comparable figure for the United States and
migration. Most international migration is restricted to
about one-third that of Mexico. On national levels, popthe continent (i ntraregional, if the whole continent is
ul,nion densities are highest in Ecuador (over double
conside red to be one region) and usually entails the
the continental average) and lowest in French Guiana
movement of citizens of a re latively poorer country to
and the Falkland Islands. When one examines the disa richer ne igh bor. Consequently, there are substantial
tribution of the population, which is concentrated in the
numbers (in the hundreds of thousands) of Colombians
intermontane Andean va lleys, along the coast, and in
in Venezuela, and Bolivians and Paraguayans in Argenthe cities, much higher values of localized population
tina. Because of distance factors, immigration to the
density e merge (Figure 11.8). The contemporary distriUnited States is less important than for Mexico and Cenbution of South Americans re flects patterns established
tral America, although large Colombian populations
in the precolonial , colo nia l, and modern eras.
may be fo und in Miami and ew York City.
CHAPTER I I
395
SOUTH AMERICA
FIGURE 11.8
Distribution and Density of Population In South America
70
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
0
C'
10"
10·
/FIG
OCEAN
ATLANtlC
OCEAN
POPULATION
00"
per sq. kilometer
Over100
per sq. mile
Over 250
125-250
60-124
•o
50-100
25-49
10-24
25-59
2-24
1-9
Under1
Under 2
250
0
250
1f.l
500
750
500
11000 miles
750 1.000 lolometers
00'"
to
20
F
and at the fringes of the
main zones of settlement in a
country comprises a frontier
zone. In the United States, the earliest
frontier was situated westward of the
main settlement nodes along the Eastern Seaboard. As pioneering settlers
colonized the often lawless frontier,
and converted the woodlands and
prairies to agriculture fields, the frontier
zone was displaced westward. The historian Frederick Jackson Turner believed that the frontier not only offered
ever-present opportunities for an expanding American population but that
is also shaped American culture in general. With the possible exception of
Alaska, which advertises itself as 'The
Last Frontier" on its license plates, the
frontier in the United States has long
been closed.
FRONTIER
COLONIZATION
had moved into the upper Amazon
along the lower eastern slopes of the
Andes (the montaria). Much of this
movement took place prior to the
opening of the road, and the direct
stimulus for this spontaneous colonization was the increasing population
In South America, the frontier is very
pressure within the Andean basin setmuch alive although settlement zones
tlement cores. The respective governare rapidly encroaching on the empty
ments quickly recognized the value of
expanses of land nearby. A "coldfrontier colonization, both in terms of
weather" frontier similar to Alaska exists occupying the national peripheral rein southern Chile and southern Argengions as well as relieving overcrowdtina, and hardy colonists are continuing in the traditional settlement areas.
ing to migrate into the regron. In
From Venezuela to Bolivia, quite a few
Chile, the construction of a road to the penetration roads were built across the
southernmost extremes of the country
Andes to allow settlers to move in and
is offering new settlement opportunito provide transportation routes for agties. Often frontier areas are only temricultural products to be transported to
porarily occupied, perhaps until a valumarket. As the eastern slope frontier
able natural resource can be sufficolonization zones grew and even coaciently exploited to make a substantial
lesced, they became linked by crude
profit. In that case, the frontier may still highways. In I 957, former President
function as an empty territory beyond
Fernando Belaunde of Peru, an archithe margins of permanent settlement.
tect by training, proposed linking all of
Only the process of permanent colonithe frontier colonization zones by a
zation will change the status of the
grandiose 3600-mile (5700-kilometer}
frontier.
long Carreterra Marginal de la
The best example of a frontier in
Selva, or Marginal Forest Highway
South America is the Amazon Basin. By
(Figure I}. Such a road, he felt, would
the early twentieth century, pioneer
not only open up new lands to settlers
colonists from the Andean countries
but would provide better transport cor-
FIGURE I
ridors for marketing produce. From
Venezuela to Bolivia, approximately
two million settlers were expected
to occupy this new frontier, and an
overall population of nine million
inhabitants was projected. Although
the project as envisioned by Belaunde
was never built and colonists in the
montafia number only in the hundreds of thousands, continued spontaneous colonization has led to increased linearity of settlement along
the eastern Andean slopes. As the
settlement zones become tied together by roads, one day the Carreterra Marginal will rndeed become a
reality.
The ~ower Amazon Basin is a frontier
for Brazil. Although the Amazon lowlands periodically had been exploited
for specific high-demand resources
such as gold, slaves, and rubber, true
frontier colonization has until recently
been rather minrmal. Politically, the
Brazilian government has long perceived the Amazon as a vast untapped
resource to be developed and populated. This opt1mist1c view toward the
interior was reinforced by the relocation of the capital from Rio de Janeiro
to Brasilia in I 960 and the extension
of roads northward to Belem and
westward through the Mato Grosso
to Porto Velho. Significant settlement
took place along these roads by both
small-scale agriculturalists and corporate cattle ranchers (including the King
Ranch of Texas). Development and settlement in the Amazon were also encouraged by the growth-pole concept,
in which industrial or commercial
development is initiated and transmitted to an area around it providing the basis for populating
hitherto sparsely inhabited regions. The Amazon region was de-
Frontier Colonlzatlon In the Greater Amazon Basin
{
10·
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
0
PACI C
OC AN
111
Roads
Limits of Amazonian Planning Region
0
D
••
Development areas selected under
the Brazilian National Development Plan
Settlement zones
l!O
250
Planned colonization zones
500
2
750
1,000 miles
5iiii;iiiiii
1s0~ 1~.000
~ ~~1ome
==,.=ra~
•0 . .2~50~500
Industrial growth poles
uth American Development: A Geographical Introduction (Cambndge. G. _B.:
SOURCES Adapted from Rosemary D. F Bromley and Ray Bromley,_ So d Ch I s M Nissly East from the Andes (Gainesville: University of Florida
ar e
·
·
Cambridge University Press. 1982). (repr. 1985)·, an d Raymond E· Crist an
Press, 1973)
clared a duty-free zone, and cities such
as Manaus experienced minor booms
in commercial and manufacturing activity. Also, billionaire Daniel Ludwig
was able to acquire a Connecticutsized piece of property along the Jarl
River where. following an investment
of S500 million, he converted thousands of acres to rice and Gmelina
arborea trees, a fast-growing Australian
pulpwood speoes. The gmelina trees
were to supply his pulpwood processing plant, which was towed from Japan. Although Ludwig gave up in
1982 . the growth pole of Jari is now
under Brazilian ownership, and 30,000
settlers live in the region.
In 1970, after a major drought in
the populated Northeast, the BraziHan
government embarked on an ambitious Amazonian development program, which was to include extensive
road construction. infrastructure building for colonization zones. and industrial growth-pole development similar
to Ludwig's Jari. The first step in this
program was the construction of the
east-west Trans-Amazon Highway,
which was to connect the droughtstricken Northeast with the Peruvian
border (Figure I) . Along this highway.
as well as along the highway to Porto
Velho. colonization zones were established and road-fronting land parcels
of 2 50 acres ( J 00 hectares) were
made available to colonists. In addition, larger tracts of land-totaling 6. 7
million acres (2.7 million hectares)were set aside for private and corporate cattle ranches. It was estimated
that one million colonists would be settled by 1980. most from the impover-
cHAPTSR 11
as well Globally. rainforests absorb carnists to farm land productively for one
,shed Northeast.
bon d1ox1de and produce half of the
or two seasons. then sell 1t to a cattle
Although much spontaneous
rancher as the soil fertility declines. The world's oxygen supply Removal of the
colonization has taken place along the
forests may w ell enhance the greenonly "success stories" 1n the Brazilian
newly opened highways and several
house effect and lead to global
Amazon have been the vast cattle
of the industrial projects are under
ranches. establtshed 1n large part to ex- warming. thus stimulating the melting
construction. the growth forecast by
of polar icecaps and raising sea levels.
the 8razilran government has not been port beef for the North American fast·
There are signs that rampant defood industry and provide much-realrzed Many problems have plagued
struction of the Amazon is slowing Ofneeded foreign revenues for Brazil
the development process. 1nclud1ng
Beef production has increased in Brazil, ficial Brazilian policy 1n I 989 shifted tothe lack of bridges. washed-out roads.
but at the expense of widespread envi- ward greater concern for tropical
lack of agricultural assistance. soil
rainforest resources. and a new demoronmental destruction.
erosion. and depletion of nutrients By
The environmental implications of in- cratic government-in place since
I 980. only 8000 families had been
I 990-has made envtronmental proefficient frontier colonization ,n both
settled ,n the colonization zones. and
tection a key aspect of its Amazonian
Brazil and the Andean countries are
only 40 percent were from the North-development program. Forest fires are
tremendous. The tropical forests are
east. In the m,d-1980s. out-migration
now regularly monitored by satellites.
disappearing at alarming rates (some
was actually exceeding 1n--m1grat1on
and violators of ant1-burn1ng laws are
worldwide estimates range as high as
One of the maJor problems ,n the
increasingly being prosecuted.
40,000 square miles 1100.000 square
Amazon Basin ,s soil 1nfert1l1ty AlYes. there is a frontier ,n South
kilometers! per year). and scientists are
though lush. species-rich rainforest ,s
America
But the humid tropics comconcerned about local as well as
extensive throughout the region. the
prise
a
fragile
frontier. quite different
global impacts. Locally. the lush rainnutrients are rapidly recycled from the
from
the
historic
m1dlat1tude frontter of
forests are turning into nonproductive
humus. or organic debris on the forest
the
United
States
With proper technolfloor. through the shallow root systems red deserts. and the amount of rainfall
versions of aboogy.
such
as
modified
1s decreasing because of reduced evaof the trees Clearing the land for agriof
slash
and burn
riginal
methods
potransptrat1on from fewer trees. As
culture allows nutrients ,n the topsoil
frontier
farming
and
mult1cropp1ng.
forests are cut. we lose potentially valuto become rapidly leached deep into
colonization
can
be
a
viable
process. It
able species. some of which may have
the soil by rainfall so that the root sysnot
be
seen
as
the
maJor
should
pharmaceutical value (as does the bark
tems of commercial crops cannot tap
method of solving the problems of
of the cinchona tree in the treatment
them With continued leaching. this
population growth and economic stagof malaria. for example). Also. not only
process of laterizatton can lead to the
nation that may characterize the settleis habitat for flora and fauna rapidly
formatton of a mineral-rich. yet
ment cores of the respective countries.
disappearing. but the habitat of abonutrient-poor. cementlike hardpan surriginal culture groups is disappearing
face One pattern has been for colo-
Interregional migrations consist of migrations from
relatively impoverished regions to areas w here o pportunities are greater. Semiarid and highly populated
Northeast Brazil is frequently affected by droughts, and
the region has become a major zone of out-migration.
Regions that attract migrants often result from the establishment of economic development centers, o r growth
poles, in previously undeveloped regions. Examples o f
growth-pole establishment include the inland relocation
o f a national capital such as Orasilia, which has now
grown to almost two million inhabitants, and the estab-
lishment of an industrial center such as Ciudad Guayana
in southeastern Venezuela. In an effo rt to lower p opulation pressures in the greater Buenos Aires area, Argentina h as proposed moving its national capital south
to Viedma, on the fringes o f remote Patagonia.
Ano ther type of migration is frontier migration, which
refers primarily to pioneering agricultural colonization .
In South America, this consists mainly of migration into
the humid tropical lowlands, although Chileans and Argentines are also settling their cold southern frontiers.
The last vast expanse o f land in the continent is the
SOUTH AMERICA
Amazon Basin, and pioneer settlement !n ~razil a~~. the
Andean countries b gradually encroaching in~o th1s. last
frontier," often at the expense o f the native inhabitants
who are forced out or forcibly acculturated.
399
the great variety o f cultures, including African, Amerindian, Hindi, Bengali, Indonesian, and Chinese. This diversity reaches its epitome in Suriname, w here the official Dutch is less w idely spoken than talkie-talkie (or
taki-taki), a lingua franca derived from at least six or
seven separate languages.
CULTURE
Many aspects of South American cu lture includin_g language and religio n reflect the impact of the _col~rnal pe'od although aboriginal languages p ersist in some
n '
.
areas and elements o f native religions have been incorporated into Roman Catholicism. Similarly , the political
history of the regio n has been shaped to a large degree
by its colonial experience.
Language
With over one thousand aboriginal languages, South
America exhibits great linguistic diversity. These languages collapse into 118 linguistic stocks fa_lli~g into
three major language groupings. All of the existing and
extinct native languages ultimately can be traced to one
protolanguage dating back at least 11,000 years . Therefore, it might be suggested that all outh Ame~1can_I~dians were descended from the sam e ethno-hngu1st1c
stock , and the great linguistic diversity is attributed.to a
high degree of isolation of the va riou s individual tribes.
Several Indian languages became quite widespread,
including Quechua, which was forced upon the subj_e.cts
of the !ncan Empire, but also several o f the Braz1han
highland and interior lowland languages, _such as Tu~i ,
Guarani, Carib, and Arawak. Where Indians compnse
significant proportions of the total population, native
languages are still widely spoken. ota?I~ exa°?~les are
Quechua in Peru and Ecuador, Aymara in Bohv1a, and
Guarani in Paraguay.
The colonial imprint on the South American continent
has obscured the great diversity of aboriginal languages
under an overlay of a few major European languages
that have come to predominate. Po rtuguese is the o fficial language o f Brazil, and because of Brazil's large
population, it is also the most widely spoken language
on the continent. In the Andean nations and Uruguay,
Spanish is the o fficial language. Quechua shares o fficia~
status with Spanish in Peru, however, as does ~uarant
with Spanish in Paraguay. English is the o ffic1~l language in the Falkland Islands and Guyana, Du~ch in Suriname and French in French Guiana. On a micro-scale,
lingui~tic diversity is greatest in the Guianas because of
Religion
Most of outh America is nominally Roman Catholic , the
religion brought over by the Iberian colonialists. The
aboriginal peoples were profoundly religious: most of
the lowland groups were classified as being animist ( imp arting spiritual significance to animate or even inanimate objects) , although among the Andean civilizations
religion was highly organized and contained a panth~on
o f gods and a priesthood. With the forced introduction
of Catholicism, many saints were substituted for indigenous gods, and the elaborate rituals of the new religion
were blended with those of the past. In the plantation
and slave economy o f coastal Brazil, elements of animist
African religions were incorporated into local versions
o f Catholicism.
In the non-Latin countries of outh America, the earliest introduced Protestant religions (such as Anglican in
the British colonies) have been augmented by numerous other religions. Indentured plantation laborers
brought Hinduism and Islam , and these have become
dominant in Guya na and Suriname. Missionizing cffortS,
mainly by Protestant sects including Baptists, Monnons,
eventh Day Adventists, and Jehovah's Witnesses, a.re
ubiquitous throughout South America, and . potential
converts are usually those living at the margins of society (Indians and the socially and economically disadvantaged). ome religious groups. including the Menno nites, moved to South America not to make converts
but to create a homeland for themselves, usually on the
fro ntier. They have become quite dominant in Paraguay's Chaco region.
Political Characteristics
During the colonial period, settlement took place in several core areas deemed economically important by the
colonial powers. These core areas were located in highlands proximate to sources of mineral wealth and/ or a
native labor pool or along coasts and/ or rivers where
plantation agriculture or cntrep6t cities could be established. Politically, the Spanish colonies were closely
400
PART TWO
THE DIIVl!LOPED WORLD
administered from Spain, and colonial administrative
capitals were established to control vast hinterlands
known as viceroyalties. The three viceroyalties of South
America were New Granada (comprising rough ly
modern-day Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador), Peru
(Peru, parts of Bolivia, and Chile), a nd Rio de la Plata
(Bolivia, Argentina, Paragua y, Uruguay, and the Falkland Islands). The last two viceroyalties were further
subdivided into 23 intendencias and provincias. Venezuela was politically a capta incy-general administered
from Santo Domingo.
Independence came in the 1810s to 1820s as the
Spanish colonies, under the leaders hip of liberation
fighters such as Simon Bolivar and Jose de Sa n Ma rtin,
endured a long and bitter struggle to remove the yoke
of colonialism. Brief attempts at postcolo nial po litical
alliances failed, but incipie nt forms of the nine present
Spanis h-speaking republics emerged-each centered on
a node of settlement. Because the political geography
of the new republics could be described easily by the
core-periphery model, in which a re la tively populated
settle ment core is surrounded by sparsely settled "peripheral" lands, territorial claims to these empty a reas
have led to numerous boundary disputes and redrawing
of political boundaries. Bo livia is a good example of a
victim of South American geopolitics, having lost its Pacific coastline to Pe ru and Chile in the War of the Pacific
0879-1884), its northernmost Amazonian lowlands to
Brazil in 1867 and 1903, and portions of its Chaco to
Paraguay in 1935 during the Chaco War 0928-1935).
Boundary disputes a re still quite prevalent in South
Ame rica today, especia lly in areas suspected o f be ing
unde rlain by valuable mineral resources.
The viceroyalty of Brazil was politically divided into
about 12 ca ptaincies-general and subordinate captaincies, which had evolved from o riginal large coastal land
grants (donatarios). As the armies of apoleon swept
through Europe in the early 1800s, the seat of the Portuguese monarchy was moved from Lisbon to Rio de
Janeiro, and in 18 15 Brazil was granted equal po litical
status with the mother country within the kingdom of
Portugal. After Prince Regent Dom J oao returned to
Lisbo n in 1821 , his son Dom Pedro I stayed behind. The
following year he established the independent monarchy of Brazil a nd had himself pronounced emperor.
The Empire of Brazil , ruled o nly by Dom Pedro I and
Dom Pedro II, lasted until 1889 at which time a republic
was proclaimed. Unlike in the Spanish colonies, very
little political fragmentation took place, and a geopol-
itically strong and expansionistic Brazil has managed
to e nlarge its te rritory since independence one cen tury ago.
Although Brazil and the Spanish-speaking South
American countries were proclaimed republics, their
political histories have varied considerably. Political instability, stimulated by fi ghting between factions of oligarchical power brokers or between various socioeconomic classes, has characterized all of the countries
to va rying degrees, and military rule has prevailed
throughout much of the postindependence period. Military dictators hips have ranged from conservative-even
repressive-defende rs of the oligarchical status quo (as
in Paraguay, where martial law was in effect from 1954
until 1989 when Gene ral Stroessner was ousted in a
coup d 'etat) to progressive, socialistic governments
(Peru during the early 1970s). Although Chile and Uruguay have had the lo ngest histories of democracy in the
twentieth century, both experienced military coups
d 'etat during 1973. Since the 1950s, only Colombia and
Venezue la have consistently maintained civilian democratic governme nts. Although the future political status
of the individual countries is difficult to forecast, the
1980s saw a trend to return government control to civilia n-and democratic-hands; Peru 0980), Bolivia
0982), Brazil 0985), Uruguay 0985), and Chile (1989)
have followed that route. Ecuador, a shaky democracy
for a numbe r of years, announced in 1988 that it would
follow a more socialistic path of democracy and reduce
its ties to the United States and Western Europe. Among
the Latin natio ns of South America, only Paraguay retains a conservative military dictatorship, although elections are scheduled for 1992.
The colonial he ritage of the Guianas and Falkland Islands is much more recent, and sparsely populated
French Guiana and the Falklands remain European colonies. French Guiana is officially an overseas departement of France, and Britain reasserted its sovereignty
over the barren Falklands following the Falklands War
of 1982. The Falklands, known as the Islas Malvinas to
Argentines, have long been claimed by Argentina, and
the 1982 invasion was an ill-fated attempt to assert sove reignty. Currently, 4000 British troops protect the 2000
inhabitants of these islands. Guyana received independence from Britain in 1966, and the development of local
political factions along ethnic lines led to much political
turmoil. Officially known as the Cooperative Republic
of Guyana, the former British Guiana has followed a
socialistic political path, and economic ties with the So-
CHAPTER 11
. strong. sunna
· me was granted inde. t Union remain
v;ndence by the Netherlands in 1975, and ~emocrac~
~riefly reigned until a 1980 milita~ c_o~p d etat. Sunname has headed down a similar soc1ahsttc path as Guybut political frictions remain strong, and by 1985
ana,
fully one-third of the entire popu Iat1.o n h a d em1·grated
to Holland.
.
.
Political unity among the Latin Amenca n nauons_exists primarily through the Organization of ~ encan
(OAS) which was formally inaugurated tn 1948.
S
tares
,
bl" h .
political
Nineteenth-century efforts at esta ts mg
unification, dating to the Panama Congress called by
Simon Bolivar in 1826, were largely unsuccessful. PanAmericanism, an idea promoted by t~e U~ited States
a century ago to establish a special re lat1onsh1p be~een
North America and Latin America, led to an r_n ternattonal
Union of American Republics being formed tn 1890. The
OAS developed out of this organization _as an effort to
promote greater unity within Latin Ame nca, rather t~an
unity vis-a-vis the United States, although the United
States remains a member. Although the membe_rs agreed
to the expulsion of Cuba in 1962, the_re re~1ams m~1ch
resentment against U.S. intervention tn Latin A.menca,
including the 1962 Bay of Pigs invasi?~ of Cuba, the
1965 military occupation of the Do minican Republic,
and the invasion of Panama in 1989. The OAS has h~d
limited success in settling mino r dis putes among Lattn
American countries as well as in establishing intraregional economic associations.
401
SOUTH AMIRICA
Although efforts in the 1960s by the Cuban-~acked
guerrilla fighter Che Guevara to foment a Marxist r~volution among the peasantry failed, left-wing guernlla
movements are active in many South American countries. Groups such as the M-19 in Colombia and the S~ndero Luminoso (Shining Path) in Peru espouse Marxist/
Leninist or Maoist philosophies and use violence to control vast portions of national territories. Outside arbitration has had little success in bringing peace to t_he
guerrilla-held mral territories, _and the national ar~t:s
are largely ineffective in assercm_g co~trol_- T~e poltttcal
role of drug cartels in these regions is sttll little understood, but evidence of "protection money" paid to guerrillas has surfaced.
HUMAN LANDSCAPE
Like the other features of South America, the human
landscape exhibits a variety of patterns. Some have persisted from the precolonial period, others are a legacy
of colonialism, and still others are a product of the
modern era.
Agriculture
With the exceptions of southernmost South Ame rica and
several expanses of Brazilian savanna, agricultural_ econ-
omies prevailed throughout the continent at the time of
European contact. The lowlands east of the Andes supported primarily shifting cultivation, or slash and burn
agriculture, and the Andean basins and valleys supported a variety of agricultural systems. These rang~d
from slash and burn subsiste nce to pennanent subsistence farming and to elaborate market agricultu:e. The
most elaborate agricultural technologies, including terracing of mountainsides, irrigation , and "sunken gardens" (to tap low water tables) developed in the Incan
Empire. Although the intensive system of surplus f~od
production of Peru was quickly aba~doned following
th<: decimation of the native population, many of the
subsistence farming patterns survive to the present day.
The distribution of present agricultural land uses reflects the influences of aboriginal, colonial, a~d modern
agricultural practices (Figure 11.9). Th~ hum_id_ foreste?
tropical lowlands still support primarily shifting c~lttlocally known as roza (ro~a in Brazil). Dunng
.
vauon,
·t1 memthe respective dry season, a farrner-usua 11y wt 1
bers of his family or friends-selects a one or two acre
plot of land, girdles or cuts several of the trees, and
40Z
PART THREE
THE DEVELOPING WORLD
CHAPTER 11
FIGURE 11.9
Agricultural Land Uses in South America
ao
Caribb
dO
ATi
NTIC
:EAN
10"
20
PACIFIC
OCEAN
ATf.A
0
burns the entire field. The ashes provide natural fertilizer, and at the onset of the rainy season, a locally specialized complex of crops is planted. The famous M esoamerican trilogy of maize-beans-squash has been
adopted along portions of the Andean montana, but the
crops of the Amazon lowlands are primarily root crops
such as cassava and sweet potatoes. Because the fertility
of the soil lies in the thin, easily leached upper humus
layer, the agricultural plot is only productive for o ne or
two seasons. As a new agricultural plot is selected e lsewhere in the tropical forest, the old fie ld is abandoned,
and perhaps after 20 years or so it again reaches a stage
of vegetative maturity a nd is ripe for renewed slashing
and burning. Many of the humid tropical Andean slopes
contain bener soils, and the fallow time for shifting cultivation may be only 5 years or so.
The inhospitable Paraguayan Chaco and the colder
and drier portions of the Andes, including much of the
dry Pacific coastal plain, are not suitable for agriculture.
Within the intermontane basins and valleys whe re fe rtile
alluvial and volcanic soils have accumulated , a rudimental sedentary agriculture is practiced . This may be
considered a fon11 of subsistence agriculture, although
slight surpluses of market crops maybe produced to
provide a small amount of income for basic necessities.
The staple food crops vary by region and elevatio n:
maize is most important in the northern Andes at inte rmediate elevations (up to pe rhaps 8000 feet; 2440 me-
SOUTH AMERICA
ters), and potatoes dominate in the southern Andes and
in the highland basins of Peru and Bolivia (8000-12,000
feet; 2440-3660 meters). Wheat has become an important highland grain, especially in the northern Andes,
and specialized grains such as quinoa (which can be
grown up to 14,000 feet; 4270 meters) are found in the
central Andes.
Commercial agriculture incl~des plantation agriculture, mechanized grain farming, and specialized crop
farming. Plantation agriculture includes the traditional
plantation crops such as sugarcane, canon, and tobacco,
as well as newer ones such as coffee (southe rn Brazil,
Colombia), bananas (Ecuador, Colombia), and rice (the
Guianas). Traditional sugar-growing regions along the
east and north coasts of South America remain important for plantation agriculture, and new zones have been
added in interior locations (e.g., sugarcane in Argentina
and Colombia) and along the Pacific coast (e.g., bananas in Ecuador, sugarcane and cotton in the irrigated
valleys of Peru). Mechanized grain farming is commercially most important in the pampas of Argentina and
Uruguay, where crops such as wheat, sorghum, and alfalfa dominate. Soybeans are also becoming widespread, both in Argentina and in Brazil. Specialized crop
farming includes truck famling around urban areas, fruit
and vegetable growing, vineyards (especially for the
Chilean and Argentine wine industries), and Mediterranean agriculture (dry grain farming, especially wheat).
c
Floodplain agriculture and relict
terraces in Valle de Tanna,
Peru. Usually, floodplains are
quite fertile and , whenever
possible, are used for
agricultural purposes.
:AN
100
Shifting cultivation
Rudimental sedentary agriculture
Livestock ranching
Commercial grain
Livestock, crop farming
Plantation agriculture
Specialized horticulture
0
~O
250
~ ~ ~ ;;;;;;;;;'§
500
~ ~ . , :7~50~ ~
1,000 m,tes
250 500 750 1,000 ktlometers
110
403
Mediterranean agriculture
Nonagricultural
w
... .__ ----
404
PART THR••
[jJ
TH• DEVELOPING WORLD
he concept of spatial connectivity may be applied to the
flow of illicit drugs throughout the world. Increased demand for
narcotics has been accompanied by an
increased supply of narcotics. and
since the major centers of demand
and supply are usually widely separated. patterns of intercontinental drug
flows have become established. The
dominant world pattern in 1990 is one
in which consumption of drugs is
greatest in developed nations and
drug cultivation and production is
greatest in developing nations. A
prime example of this pattern is coas a means to escape the realities of
caine. of which South America is the
their harsh existence. The tradition of
exclusive source.
coqueo, or coca chewing. has perCocaine is derived from the coca
sisted to the present day, especially
plant (not to be confused with Cacao.
among poor male laborers. and only
from which cocoa and chocolate are
1n Peru and Bolivia is the growing of
made). which grows in the humid
coca legal.
tropics. Two species of coca are cultiThe production of cocaine hydrovated in South America: Erythroxylum
chloride /HCLJ from coca leaves is a lacoca. which grows 1n the valleys of
bonous two-step process discovered in
the eastern Andean slopes up to
the 1850s. The first step entails the reI 0.000 feet 13000 meters) in elevation.
duction-at a ratio of 250: 1-of coca
and Erythroxylum novogranatense.
leaves into a coca paste by adding sowhich is a hardier species more prevadium carbonate and kerosene. agitatlent in lower and often drier environing. and even stomping. In the second
ments. When coca leaves are chewed
step. the paste is refined into cocaine
in conjunction with an alkaline subvia the addition of various chemicals;
stance (such as legia in Bolivia). the
skilled chemists employ several varianarcotic is released. thus providing the
tions in the production of the final
user with a mildly euphoric effect. Traproduct.
ditionally. coca chewing was a culture
Initially promoted as a miracle drug
trait of the highland Indians of Peru
in the late nineteenth century (even
and Bolivia, and under the Incas only
Coca-Cola began as a cocaine-based
the elite classes were allowed to par"brain tonic" in 1886). cocaine was
take in the custom. After the Spanish
classified as an illegal drug in the
crushed the lncan Empire and enUnited States in the early I 900s followslaved the Indians to work in the
ing numerous deaths from overdoses.
mines. coca chewing became quite
Its usage was confined largely to a
widespread among the Indians. in part
small sector within the entertainment
THE COCAINE
CONNECTION
CHAPTER 11
FIGURE Z
industry until it became popular in the
I 960s. By the I 980s. cocaine had become the "recreational drug" of the
decade for all social strata in the
United States. and estimates of regular
users range from 6 to 20 million. At
prices of S I 00 to $200 per gram of
cocaine (diluted to only about I 2 percent purity). upwards of $35 billion are
spent on the illicit drug annually within
the United States alone.
The increased demand for cocaine
since the 1960s has not only significantly boosted production in the traditional coca-growing regions. but has
also spawned many changes in the
geographic distribution of coca cultivation. cocaine refining. and international marketing Until the 1970s. virtually all cocaine production took place
in Colombia-at refineries located in
major cities such as Medel/In, Cali, and
Bogota and in remote locations such
as in the eastern llanos (Figure 2).
Coca paste was imported into Colombia from the primary and traditional
growing areas- Peru's Upper Huallaga
Valley and Boliv1a·s Yungas and Chapare districts-that still today produce
80 percent of the world's coca on perhaps 250.000 acres ( I 00.000 hectares)
of land. Colombians. who became adept drug traffickers on the basis of the
lucrative-and slightly older-marijuana trade. came to dominate much
of the coca paste production process.
especially in Peru. From the traditional
primary and secondary source areas.
where coca cultivation and coca-paste
stomping provide lucrative employment opportunities. the paste was
transported-usually by air-to the Colombian refineries. from which cocaine
would be shipped to North America
405
SOUTH AMERICA
Geographical Aspects of Coca and Cocaine
Oanbbear
Sea
To North America and Europe
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
To Europe
0
t
10
PACI
. Brasfli a
OC AN
Primary
Sao Paulo,
20
Secondary
0
Rio de Janeiro
Tertiary
p
-
-
:icr
250
0
0
250
500
Known cocaine-processing
laboratories (locactions
approximate)
Generalized flow
of coca paste
Generalized flow
of cocaine
500
750
ATLANTIC
1.000 miles
OCEAN
750 1.000 kilometers
30
.
A Geography o f Cocaine ,.. Focus 35( 1)·22-29, 1985.
SOURCE: Adapted from Tim Hudson, "South American High:
,
F
406
PART THREE
THE DIIVELOPING WORLD
and Europe by various carriers often
a substitution of E. novogranatense for
The balance of supply and demand.
via intermediate points in Central
the traditional E. coca. Second cocoupled with the illicit nature of the
America. Mexico. and the Caribbean.
caine refineries are being cons~ructed
cocaine industry, has led to changing
Because the potential profits From
in the new and traditional zones of
patterns o f spatial connectivity bethe cocaine trade are so high /totaling
coca cultivation as well as in locations
tween the regions of cultivation and
at feast $4 billion in direct income).
optima/ for distribution to the major
production and the regions of conseveral new trends had become apparmarket areas. Although Colombia still
sumption. Econom ically. cocaine is
ent by the late f 980s. First. the growdom'.nates the North American market.
very important to the source areas- in
ing of coca has spread to new areas.
cocaine from Peru. Bolivia, Ecuador
Bolivia. half of the government's forespecially in southern Colombia near
an~ the Brazilian Amazon is capturi~g
exchan ge earnings are from cocaeign
the cocaine refineries and also along
an increasing market share. Recently,
products and over 500,000 peobased
the Amazon River and its tributaries in
cocaine refineries have been discovple
are
employed in the industry-and
adjacent Brazil. The highland-toered in Paraguay and northern Chile
,n
response
to both sustained demand
/ow/and shift of coca. attributed both
the market areas being the urban ce~and
eradication
efforts. the geography
to increased global demand for coters of Rio de Janeiro. Sao Paulo. Bueof
the
cocaine
industry
remains evercaine and to eradication efforts in tranos Aires. and Santiago in addition to
changing.
ditional coca-growing zones. has led to Europe.
A_ltho ugh the production of s pecialized crops is partly
directed at local markets, exports to North Ame rica and
~urope are quite significant, especiall y since the growseason is. during the northern hemispheric w inter
w , e n food prices are highest in those ma rkets Ch'I
·
·
1ean
and Ar
gentme apples, grapes, pears, and plums a re
~; mmonl~ fo und in North American supermarkets durg the w1nt~r mo nths. Other examples o f specialized
crops (sometimes e:en plantation grown) arc marijuana
and c~ca, from which cocaine is refined. The Andean
countries,
from Colombia to 801·IVla,
. h ave ga med
.
.
s ubstant1a_l foreign exchange earnings from the export of
these illegal narcotic crops.
Liv~stock ranching is widespread throughout South
.. pe n10sula
.
Ame
I nca, from Colombia's hot • dry Gua11ra
to
t 1e cold, w indswept s te ppes and tundras of Patagonia
a_nd the Falkland Islands. Whe re crop agriculture is feasible, the ra ising of beef and/or dairy canle is often a
seconda
. m
. d uscry m
. partic.
. ry use of the land · The d a1ry
ular is concentrated near major urban areas s uch as in
sou_chern Brazil, southern Chile, and the
de la Plata
region. In drier parts of the continent, including the
wet-and-dry llano_s and campos, livestock ranching is
often the only ma1or economic use of the la nd, and annual cattl~ drives across vast roadless landscapes are still
co':1mon 10 man~ interior locations. As frontier colonization advances mto the humid, tropical lowlands, the
mf
Ri;
raising of beef cattle is becoming a major activity and
extens!ve cattle pastures have replaced dense tr~pical
fo rest m much of the Amazon.
Industry
:he explo itation of mineral resources in South Ame rica
'. s. ol~er tha n the earliest established Spanish mines· civt1_
1zat1o ns such as the Chibcha and Inca had held , prec10us_ m~tals in high esteem. With the arrival of the
Spant~h 10 the sixteenth century, explo itation of gold
a nd s'. lver ~ccelerated, and mining landscapes evolved
especially m Pe ru and Bolivia. By the e nd of the seve nte~nth cen~ry, precious minerals were discovered in
Brazil. The Mmas ~erais gold rush, allegedly the first
modern gold.':1sh , tnggered extensive searches througho ut ~he ~raz1ltan highlands, and several ve ins of highqu~hty diamonds were discovered in the ancient crystallme rocks.
Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, deposits of
~the r valuable. eco~omic mine ral ores were discovered
10 South Amenca , including copper, bauxite coal iron
' fi
ore, and manganese. Like petroleum wh1'ch'
· d ·
,
was rst
.
Is
exp IOtte. 10 Venezuela in the 1890s, these m10era
were _mmed primarily for export in raw form to North
~ enc~ ~nd_ Europe. Until the mid-twentieth centu
mdustnahzat1on in South America remame
. d quite
. ru d?'•
1-
CHAPTER 11
mentary in spite of locally abundant raw mate rials. During the colonial era, the mine ral resources were seen as
the raw material for home-based industries. This pattern
continued after independence, as fo re ign-owned companies were usually behind the major mining operations. It was in the interests of those companies to establish manufacturing facilities in the ir home countries
near the major markets for the products.
Industrializatio n is normally considere d the key to
economic growth, as industries p rovide jobs a nd di versify the economy. North America, Europe, a nd Japan
have achieved high standards of living, as measured
by annual gross national product (G P) per capita.
Because the industrial revolution began in Europe
and quickly spread to North America, those regions
have had advantages in maintaining the ir early leads in
industrialization. For developing countries, including
those of South America, making the transition from
be ing suppliers of raw materials fo r ind ustrialized natio ns to be ing inclustrialized nations the mselves requires
considerable government investment in terms of capital
outlay as well as infrastructure including highways,
pipe lines, e lectricity, and labor supply. Industrializatio n
also requires a minimum threshold of p roduction to be
economically feasible, and countries with low po pulatio ns a nd purchasing power do not provide a sufficient
consumer base. One method of overcoming this proble m is the formation of common market linkages w ith
neig hboring countries, but even arrangements such as
this favor more populous countries. Although processes
of industrialization are com plex and not well unde rstood , one simplistic means enta ils a simplified threestage model of industrial development.
Tn the first stage of industrializatio n, low-technology
industries are established. These include crude r eduction-in-bulk type industries, such as the reduction of
coppe r ore or tin ore to a bulk product with a higher
concentration of minerals to ore, a nd also manufacturing industries aimed at local markets (such as textiles or
soft drinks). Although the first example sho uld not be
considered true industrialization, but rathe r a convenie nce fo r avoiding exorbitant shipping costs, the second
re presents incipient industrialization. As local consumer
classes became established in South Ame rica, especially
in those countries populated by recent European immigrants and characterized by rapid urbani zatio n, the
production of consumer goods increased even more.
The second stage of industrialization consists of imp o rt s ubstitutio,i, by which items that we re previously
SOUTH AMERICA
407
imported now are produced domestically. To e nter this
stage, government assistance is nonnally required , pe rhaps in the form of directly subsidizing a product, establishing protective taxation policie , or offering tax incentives for fore ign companies to establish industries.
Brazil may be considered the fore runner in South America in this regard, as an iron-and-steel industry was deve loped by the 1930s and 11 fo reign motor vehicle assembly plants-using mostly domestically manufactured
parts-were built by the 1950s. In spite of having a
much smaller total consume r base, Argentina q uickly
followed Brazil's lead , and the remaining South American countries have also undergone import-substitution
industrialization to some degree. Tn countries such as
Pe ru and Colombia, howeve r, where production of steel
must be government subsidized to com pete with imported steel, the economically be neficial effects of ind ustrialization have not yet been realized.
The third stage of industrialization, or general industrializ ation, entails the expansion of all types of
industries, including domestic and export-oriented cons umer goods and eve n highly specialized products such
as machinery parts. Brazil, with its domestic compute r
industry, is well into this stage, and Argentina is not far
behind. In Brazil, major government support for industrial development has made this possible, and in view
of the recently establis hed industrial growth poles in
Amazonia (see the box on Frontier Colonization), the
industrializing tre nd is sure to continue. The government has embarked on an ambitious power-generation
project, and in addition to the world's largest hydroelectric plant at Itaipu on the Parana River, more plants
are slated for several of the Amazon River tributaries.
During the oil crisis of the 1970s, Brazil, a major oil
p roducer yet a net o il importe r, embarked on a program
to distill ethano l from suga rcane, which could in turn
be substituted for impo1ted o il.
With the exception of industrial growth poles in frontie r locations, most industrialization in South Ame rica
has clustered in and around major urban areas (Figure
11.10). Although this tre nd makes economic sense, it
also paints a national picture of apparent urban wealth
and rural pove rty that gove rnments quickly like to dispel. And in view of the large numbers of rura l inhabitants fleeing the countryside and moving to urban areas
in search of jobs, many governments, notably Brazil a nd
Venezue la, are establishing growth-pole cities closer to
the raw materials than to the urban markets to fos ter
industrial develo pment in those peripheral zones.
408
PART THREE THE DEVELOPING WORLD
CHAPTER 11
SOUTH AMERICA
FIGURE I I. IO
TABLE II.I
Industrial Core Areas of South America
Contribu tion of Manufacturing to GNP In South America, I 985
'O
f
10"
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
COUNTRY
VALUE ADDED TO GDP
BY MANUFACTURING
(MILLIONS OF U.S.$)
MANUFACTURING
AS A PERCENTAGE
OF GDP
Brazil
Argentina
Venezuela
Peru
Chile
Colombia
Uruguay
Ecuador
Bolivia
Paraguay
$58,089
17 ,954
6,157
3,426
no data
5 ,565
no data
2,369
817
5 13
28%
31
23
20
no data
18
no data
19
13
16
SOURCE: World Bank. World Development Report 1988 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988).
SOUTHEAST
BRAZIL
PAC/,-/C
Sao Paulo
Rio de Janeiro
Belo Horizonte
OCEA/\J
CENTRAL
CHILE
Santiago
Valparaiso
RIO OE
LA PLATA
,c
Buenos Aires
Montevideo
Rosario
'AN
4
o• ~=--soo
~,--=::::1:S.000 miles
0
500
1,000 kilometers
1IO
. Although Brazil and Argentina have made great strides
manufacturing and industria lization, the remainder of
the South A_mcri.can countries still have far to go (Table
11. 1). Despite high .levels of urbanizatio n, econo micall y
many of the countries are still mostly agriculturally orie nte~, and overall income levels are still quite low. Economic t~a~e associations were established in the hope
of allev1atmg the low levels of industria lizatio n in the
countries with lower consumer bases, but so far this aim
has n? t been accomplished. A large proportion of South
Amen ca's p opu lat1on
·
·is engaged in
· economic activities
10
•
80
70
Major core areas
lO
that ~ ay be categorized as an "informal" economic sector, m~lL~ding sidewa lk vending, lottery-ticket selling,
cab ~nvmg, and various forms of legal and illegal
hustling.
Urbanization
Unlike most developing nations in Asia and Africa the
South American countries are highly urbanized. Latin
An1erica as a. whole is 69 percent urban, considerably
more than Asia (29 pe rcent) and Africa (31 percent) and
only slightly less than Europe (75 percent) and No1t h
Ame rica (74 percent). Within Latin America, tropical
South America is 71 percent urban and tempe rate South
Ame rica is 85 percent urban.
This re latively high urban percentage of population
may be attributed to the immigrants, both the Ibe rian
immigrants of the colonial e ra and the European immigrants of the post colonial period. Although several
urban centers exi.sted in aboriginal South America, most
were restricted to the Central Andean region, and only
a sma ll proportion of the overa ll Ind ian population actua lly lived in cities. The arrival of Iberian colonists
reoriented the pattern of settlement toward urban foci.
Cities were established as administrative centers, mining
cente rs, and port and entrep6t towns, and most Iberians
lived in the cities. These cities also had a distinctive urban mo rp hology, a legacy of the Roman city, in which
the city was laid out on a grid orientatio n (the streets
running north-south and ease-west) around a noda l
plaza. The plaza represented the central focus of the
city, and on its sides were usually located the major
governme nt buildings, military barracks, the Catholic
chu rch, and perhaps the residence of the top administrato r. Unlike in North America, where agricultu ra l pio neers comprised much of the immigra nt stock, the
Iberian immigrants-especially the Spanish-were urban dwelle rs who came to exploit the natural resources
or to admi nister. Even those colonists who were granted
large pieces of rural real estate tended to maintain the ir
permanent domiciles in urban areas. Censuses taken
d uring the colonial period indicate very few nonurban
Spanish settlers. In the Spanish colonies, the rum! pop-
Farmers offer a varlety of produce for sale at a periodic
market in the central plaza in the village of Chincheros near
Cuzco. Peru.
, .....
~- ----
410
PART THREE
THE DEVELOPING WORLD
CHAPTER 11
TABLE 11.2
The Mllllona lre Cities of South America
fGreater Urban PopulatlonsJ
POPULATION
1 Sao Paulo
2 Rio de Janeiro
3. Buenos Aires
4 Lima
5 Santiago
6 Bogota
7 Belo Horizonte
8 Caracas
9 Recife
10. POrto Alegre
11 . Salvador de Bahia
12. Fortaleza
13. Medellfn
14 Curitiba
15 Brasilia
16 Guayaquil
17 Montevideo
18 Cali
19. Maracaibo
20 Belem
21 . Valencia
22 Quito
23. C6rdoba
24 La Paz
25 Rosario
NOTE est.
16,832,000 (1989 est.)
11 , 141,000 (1989 est.)
10,750,000 (1985)
6,054,000 (1988)
4,858,000 (1989 est)
4,550,000 (1985)
3,446,000 (1989 est.)
3,373,000 (1989 est.)
2,945.000 (1989 est.)
2,924,000 (1989 est.)
2,362,000 (1989 est.)
2.169,000 (1989 est)
2,095,000 (1987)
1,926,287 (1989 est.)
1,803,000 (1989 est)
1,573,000 (1987)
1,550,000 ( 1987)
1,400,000 (1985)
1,365.000 (1989 est.)
1,296,209 (1989 est.)
1,227,000 (1989 est.)
1, 138,000 (1987)
1,055,000 (1987)
1,050,000 (1988 est)
1,045,000 (1985)
estimated If no est given, figures are from actual censuses.
SOURCES Data complied from Edward B Espenshade Jr. and Joel L
Morrison, Goode 's World Atlas (Chicago Rand McNally, 1990). Europa
Publications. The Europa World Year Book 1990 (London Europa
Publications ltd .. 1990). John Paxton. ed .. The Statesman's Yearbook (New
York. St Martin's Press. 1990). United Nations. 1988 Demographic
Yearbook (New York: United Nations. 1990)
ulations were mostly Indians, but in Brazil and the
Guianas the majority of " rural " inhabitants were black
slaves confined to the plantations. Following emancipation, a large rural exodus led to a corresponding increase in the populations of the coastal cities from Rio
de Janeiro to the north coast of the continent.
Another major burst of urbanization took place during
the period of European immigration, primarily between
1880 and 1930. Millions of laborers, mostly from Mediterranean countries, arrived in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina to work in the expanding agricultural sectors.
They were not granted land, however, and most of
those who did not return to their homelands drifted to
cities such as Sao Paulo, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, and
Rosario.
A lthough the largest urban agglomerations are in the
southern part of the continent, large cities are found in
all countries except Paraguay and the Guianas (Table
11 .2). Half of the 20 largest cities are located in I3razil,
most of them along the coast. Many of the rest are primate cities, which tend to domi nate their respective
countries economically and politically. Venezuela, Peru,
Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay arc prime examples of
countries dominated by primate cities. All of the large
urban centers are growing quite fast, several at rates of
7 to 8 percent per year, and the large influx of poo r
rural residents in search of jobs in the cities is causing
severe strains on municipal services. All of South America's major cities contain extensive squatter settlemenL'>
where conditions of housing, nutrition, and health are
quite poor. To ease the burden of urban overcrowding,
new growth in industry and even government is being
encouraged in more remote locations. In addition to the
remote industrial growth poles already discussed, the
moving of Brazil's capital to Brasilia in 1960 is a prime
example of redirecting population growth to a relatively
sparsel y settled area. Argentina is planning a similar relocation of its capital from Buenos Aires to Viedma at
the northern bo undaries of Patagonia in the future.
REGIONS O F SOUTH AMERICA
The divisio n of South America into subregions o f relatively homogeneous cultural and physical traits provides
a useful means for understanding the geogr'c1phic variability of the continent. Tradition,11 efforts at regionalizing South America usually place the major political
units into four or five regional groupings and thereby
mask the extensive physical and cultural variables
found within even small areas. Peru, for example, contains landscapes of Amazonian rainforest, an eastern Andea n agricultural frontier, barren glacier-capped Andes,
densely populated intermontane basins, and dry and
desolate coastal desert interru pted by irrigated floodplains. Rather than placing Peru in a broader region of
"Andean America," for example, it would be more accurate to identify several distinctive regions that cut
across the po litical borders of Peru . Accordingly, using
a combination of physical (climatic, vegetative, and physiographic) and cultural (econo mic, ethnic, linguistic,
and technological) characteristics, South America can be
divided into two dozen subregions (Figure 11.11).
Perhaps the most prominent subregion is the Andean
cordillera, w hich may be subdivided into northern, cen-
411
SOUTH AMERICA
, d outhern sectors. The intermoncane valleys_and
tra 1, an s
. d f h A des contained
b . s of the northern two-thir so t e n
t~m, . aboriginal centers of populatio n, and these
;~;a:;~~r also attracted the Spaniards. _
Becaus: ti~~
Northern Andes were flanked by ins~ct-ndden_ _umi,_
. , I lowlands. the Spaniards establtshed their settle
tropica
f
C 1·
Caracas
·
. numerou.s Ande·m
ments m
' basins rom a i to
This orthern Andean seulement core rem_ains the most
opulated region in northern South Amenca . The Ce,~P
d ,
tral Andes, corresponding approx .'.ma t セ@ ,1y to the .maximum extent of the Inca Empire, ltkew1se compns~ a
. locus of '-ipanish colonial settlement, especi~lly
maior
· ·
.
, · Yet high
following the establishment of mmi~g _centeis.
densities of Indian populations within the numero~is
valleys and basins, including the Altiplano, are_refle~ted
in a distinctive Indian cultural landscape in this region,
which extends from southern Colombia to no rt~ern Ar.
The Southern Andes, by contrast, remain prach · ,I
gent ma.
tically unpopuhited because of their adverse p ys1ca
geograph y. Extn:me• dryness
, in the north • the narrow.
ness and high devations of the cordillera, extensive glaciation (especiall} toward t he sou th) ' and an absence
. of
inhabitable basins and valleys have all rendered thts region relatively unsuited for human habitati?n.
The continent's dry west coast compnses another
subregion, one v.ith a Jo ng record of a?original and colo nial settlement Although sparse in rainfall and natural
vegetation, the Desert Coast of Peru and norther~ Chile
was considered an improvement over the dtseaseridden tropical lowlands of northern South America. In
Peru much colonial senlement- including the pnmate
city of Lima-focused on the aboriginally irrigated v~lley floodplains. Today, all of these valleys-mostly_tn
Peru-are irrigated, and these "oases" produce a hig~1
propo rtion of the national agricultural output. ~ he Chilean part of the Desert Coast is drier and cont~1.ns very
little coastal plain, yet several important port etttes (notably Antofagasta) are located here, in part to export
copper from the Andean hinterlands.
Chile's settlement core area, extending north and
south from Santiago, may be considered Mecliterra11ea11
Chile because of its climate and its cultural landsc.ape
that has come to resemble the Iberian homeland. _rhe
Central valley of Chile, sometimes compared to_Caltfornia's Central Valley, is characterized by dry gram farming, livestock grazing, and vineyard~ (which _pro~~ce
the highest quality wines of the c~ntment). This region
is home to the vast majority of Chileans.
The temperate and heavily forested Soutbem -~'bile,
including the large island of Chiloe, was the t~ad1ttonal
homeland of the fiercely independent _A~ucanian _(Ma_puche) Indian ' who still comprise a significant _minonty
of the population. This region was still a frontter as _recently as the late nineteenth century when several tm-
A shantytown (Morro da
ravela) in Rio de Janeiro,
Bra zil. Mosl major cilie~ in the
developing world have
shantytowns inhabited by
person~ who have migrated to.
urban centers seeking economic
opponuniry, but for a host of
reasons have been unable to
find meaningful employment
and are resigned to a cycle of
poveny.
412
PART THREE THE DEVELOPING WORLD
CHAPTER I I
FIGURE I I . I I
Subregions of South America
A 'LANTIC
OCl:AN
Amazonia
10
PACIFIC
OCEAN
100
-40
~llr~2~505.iiiiii.500
~~~
75~0=
0
250
10-
500
~ 1.000 miles
750 1,000 kilometers
migrant groups, especially Germans, settled there. A
very scenic region, similar to southern British Columbia,
Southern Chile is the site of several lake resorts that
attract domestic and international tourists.
Poleward of the region Chileans re fer to as Southern
Chile is the sparsely inhabited modern frontier zone of
the Southern Archipelago. Consisting of heavily forested
and fog-shrouded islands and Andean ridges separated
by fjords, the archipelago wraps southeastward around
the tip of the continent. Although lumber resources are
extensive, the agricultural potential is limited, and the
wet weather and lack of transportation rende r this region not very desirable for human habitation. The only
notable city is the port of Punta Arenas, which lies on
the southern margins of this region astride the Strait of
Magellan.
East of the Andes, the two loci of early Spanish settlement were Paraguay and the rim of the Rio de la Plata
estuary. Although Paraguay has witnessed nume rous
boundary alterations throughout the course of its turbulent history, the portion east of the Paraguay Riveralong with the small adjacent province of Misiones in
Argentina--comprises the subregion of Misiones. This
was the heartland of the Guarani Indians, many of
whom were resettled in the nume rous Jesuit missions
that formerly were active. The mostly mestizo inhabitants share this agriculturally fertile regio n with Guaranispeaking Indians and a small minority of European
immigrants, mostly Germans. The land west of the
Paraguay River is the agriculturally poor Gran Chaco
subregion, a largely thorny, scrubby land subject to prolonged desiccation in the dry season and flooding in the
rainy season. Extending into adjacent Bolivia and Argentina, this subregion is re lative ly devoid of human settlement, with the exception of several Mennonite colonies.
The Rio de la Plata subregion, extending up the Parana River to Rosario and including the cities of Buenos
Aires and Montevideo, contains the majority of the inhabitants of Argentina and Uruguay. Control of the
mouth of the river was important during the colonial
period, but the great growth in this area resulted from
massive immigration during the pe riod of the opening
of the agriculturally rich Pampas. Argentinians distinguish between a "Spanish pampa" and a "gringo
pampa" on the basis of chronology of settleme nt and
origins of the settlers. Most of the recent immigra nts
from Spain and Italy, however, regarded as "gringos"
by the longer established Argentines of Spanish heritage, worked in the pampas but became urban dwellers.
ot only do the major cities of Rio de la Plata exhibit
SOUTH AMERICA
413
an ambience reminiscent of Mediterranean Europe, but
a cultural tradition of seaside resorts also blossomed.
The northern and southern limits of this subregion are
marked by Punta de l Este and Mar del Plata, res pectively, although scattered smaller resorts occur even further along the coasts of Uruguay and Argentina.
The twin subregions of Rio de la Plata/Pampas, essentially representing an urban core and an agricultural
hinterland, are encircled by three other subregions with
limitations for human settlement. To the north lies an
amorphous subregion we might call Gauchos in hono r
of the South American "cowboys" (gauchos). Largely
a grasslands environment similar to the Pampas but with
slightly inferior soils, this subregion-encompassing
much of northern Argentina, most of Uruguay, and
southernmost Brazil--came to be dominated by a
ranching economy that persists to this day. The rural
gaucho culture, which prevailed in Argentina and Uruguay until the waves of mass immigration, is very romanticized in music and literature of the respective
countries. Commercial grain agriculture is replacing the
traditional ranching economy in parts of this area, especially in Entre Rios province between the Para na and
Uruguay rivers (which is locally known as the Argentine
Mesopotamia). To the west of Pampas and Gauchos lie
discontinuous arid basins which extend along the inner
flanks of the Southern Andes. The earliest settlers in this
region crossed the Andes from Chile and established
cities such as Mendoza and Tucuman in the numerous
Desert Oases. Most of the oases occupy low basins
within the eastern Andean piedmont, although the
southern reaches-extending all the way from the Andes to the Atlantic Ocean-are characterized by ribbonlike oases within the fl oodplains of several large rivers.
Today, the dozens of urba n and agricultural oases are
important cente rs of sugar, frnit, grain, vegetable, and
wine production. Sometimes referred to as the "other
Argentina," the Desert Oases resent domination by Buenos Aires within the national politico-economic framework. South of the Rio Colorado was the home of the
fierce Tehuelche Indians (patagones, or big feet), and
the steppe lands of Patagonia were not settled until the
Indians were forcibly removed in the 1850s. This colder,
windswept, and oasisless (adjectives that also aptly describe the offshore Falkland Islands) southern extension
of the Andean piedmont became important mostly fo r
grazing livestock, especially sheep. Sparsely populated
except for a few coastal ports and a recreational enclave
at Bariloche at the base of the Andes, this region is still
perceived as a frontier in Argentina.
414
PART THREE
THE DEVELOPING WORLD
The semiarid Andean foothills
in northwest Argentina. Much
of the western portion of
Argentina lies on the leeward
side of the Andes Mountains;
consequently, it receives much
less precipitation than southern
Chile, which is located on the
windward side of the Andes
and receives more than 60
inches (150 centimeters) of
precipitation annuall y.
The earliest impact o n the ew World la nd cape by
the Portuguese was along the Braz ilian Coast whe re
tl_1e plantation economy first developed and the,first Afncan slaves were impo rted . Altho ugh a labo r-intensive
plantatio n economy no lo nger prevails, blacks comprise
セ@ la rge proportion of the total population, and African
mflu~nces remain stro ng in music and religion. The core
of t~1s subregion extends from about Recife southward
to RJO de Janeiro, a lthough Dutch and French influence
was weal a long the no rth-facing coast during the earl y
c?lo 111al ~ra, and architectural vestiges of that era surv'.ve to this day. During the present century, this subregion has been extended to Belem , at the mouth of the
Amazon River, and much tropical forest has been replac~d b~ agriculture. This area, perhaps epitomized by
Carnival m Rio de Janeiro o r alvador de Bahfa is often
the Brazil e nvisio ned by many outs iders.
'
Inland of the Brazilia n Coast lie several distinctive
subr:gio ns. Formerl y these comprised the legendary
serf~~· an. an~orphous frontier region romanticized by
Brazilians 111 literature and history. The sertao most often
refers to the Dry Northeast, a semiarid , yet highly populated area _th~t is periodicall y subject to prolo nged
droughts. This is the most impoverished region in Brazil
o ne from which o ut-m igration and resettlement in ne;
frontiers such as the Amazon are e ncouraged by the
government.
Betwee n ~he Northeast and Sao Paulo lies the highland subregion ~f Mi~as Cerais, site of the 1697 gold
boom and the nch hmterland of Rio de Jane iro. This
region, which includes an area slightly greater than the
state_ of Minas Gerais, is characterized by its mines, includmg gold, diamo nds, manganese, and iron o re. Although the o riginal capital of Ouro Preto is now but a
scenic colo nial to urist attraction, the newer capital of
Be lo Ho rizonte-since 1897-has become the seventh
largest city in South America.
South Brazil, fro m Sao Pau lo westwa rd to the Rio Parana and southward to the land of the Gauchos, contains
most_of Brazil'~ temperate lands. The urba n metropolis
of Sao Paulo 1s the major industria l center of o uch
America, but the region as a whole is defined on the
basis of rich agricultural soils (largely volcanic soils on
lava flow plateaus) and a high proportion of inhabitants
descended from European immigrants. The northern
part o f the regio n comprises essentially the state of Sao
Paulo, which is the prime coffee-growing area in the
country. Toward the southern reaches of the regio n the
former!~ heavily forested landscape supports a l~rge
lumber tndustry as well as a dairy industry. Many pockets of Ge rman immigrants, and preserved German culture, are found in Santa Catarina state.
Alo ng the no rth coast of South America, the Caribbean Rim/and is an extension of the same subregion
CHAPTIIR 11
that prevails throughout the Antilles and the eastern
shores of Ce ntral America. In many ways q uite similar
to the Brazilian Coast, the regio n is marked by a plantation economy and great ethnic and ling uistic diversity,
and a high proportion of the population is descended
from African slaves. Most of the population is concentrated in a narrow coastal plain belt. The Guianas, especially Guyana and Suriname, epitomize this subregion, which extends along the coast, in discontinuo us
fashion, westward to Centra l An1e rica. Although the
north coasts of Colombia and Venezuela we re historically less plantation o riented, coastal and Andean foothill plantations of bananas, sugar, coffee, and other
products transformed the landscape-especially of
coastal Colombia-<luring the present centu ry. The Paci.fie Lowlands subregion o f Colo mbia and Ecuador may
be considered a west coast extensio n of the Caribbean
Rimland. Although the extreme ly rainy west coast of Colombia is sparsely inhabited by Indians and blacks who
placer mine for gold in the many streams, southernmost
western Colombia and coastal Ecuador have witnessed
the development of a banana plantation landscape in
the twentieth century.
The remaining humid tropical lowlands of the continent, situated inland of the regions previously discussed, are frontier zones. Those areas subject to a prono unced seasonality of rainfall and natura lly supporting
415
SOUTH AMERICA
a savanna grassland have developed into major cattleranching areas where cro p agriculture is a secondary
economic activity at best. The Llanos of Colombia and
Venezuela comprise o ne such area, which accounts for
much of the beef production of those countries. Another
small cattle-ranching area is the Roraima Savannas
within the southern Guiana Hig hlands. A seasonally dry,
upland tropical grassland environment, this sparsely settled area supports a small but important beef industry
in northern Brazil and adjacent Guyana . Venezuela,
with its extensive llanos, has not yet seen a need to
develop its beef productio n potential in this regio n. A
southern arc of savannas and savanna woodlands characterizes the Matos and Campos subregion of eastern
Bolivia and what is conside red the "interior" of Brazil.
Typifying th is regio n is Mato Grosso state in Brazil, one
of the major beef productio n regio ns in the country.
Although this area is an active frontier zone in Brazil
bordering o n the national capital of Brasilia, its potential
for extensive permanent agricultural settlement is limited by less-than-optimal soils. Nevertheless, the gove rnment of Brazil is actively promoting infrastructural
development and encouraging colo nization in this area .
The last of the interior subregions are the humid, forested tropics epitomized by the Amazon Basin lowland.
Amazonia consists of a vast network of tributaries and
associated floodplains separated by interfluves (a reas
A savanna la ndscape in the
Roraima territory in northern
Brazil. Savanna-type climates
have a dry season in the winter
months, and typically the
landscape is one of grasses
interspersed with trees.
~.....,-
----
F
416
PART THREE
T HE DEVELOPING WORLD
CtlAP'TmR 11
SPATIAL CONNECTIVITY
ECONOMIC LINKAGES
Rice farming i~ the Rio Mayo Valley of northeastern Peru. Rice, together with
vegetables, fruits, and wheat, is grown in Peru. Cotton and sugar are important
export products.
~e~wecn th~ .streams) of poor soils yet luxu riant vegetat.10.n. Trac!1t1onally, settleme nt was alo ng rivers, and
s hifting agncu lture and fishing were-and fo r the most
pa~ st'.ll are-the major economic activities. Except fo r
periodic boom-a nd-bust cycles of natural resou rce exploitation, huma n interest in this regio n was insignificant until the late 1960s. A rubber boom in the late
1800s a.n d early 1900s brought a temporary wave o f
prospenty to the region, and Amazonian cities such as
~ a~aus ~nd Iquitos briefly flourished. Today, only Brazil is actively trying to develop the Amazon in terms of
road building,. na~ural resource exploitation , and agricultural colo ni za tion, bur the environme ntal impacts
and problems have been great. Fringing Amazonia
along the foothills of the Andes is a narrow ribbo n of
naturally high luxuriant rainforest known as the Montana . This area represents the zone of active fro ntier
colonization for the Andean countries fro m Colomb ia to
Bo livia. Although environmental and infrastructural
proble ms are many, the soils are somewhat more conducive to agriculture than those of the lower Ama zon
(bylea/ If .present trends conti nue, one day the entire
Montana will be settled and linked by roads. A final
humid tropical forest subregion is Guiana, which extends from eastern Venezuela almost to the mouth of
the A1~azon ~iver in Brazil. Physiographically within
~he Guiana Highlands, vegetatively most of this region
is cl~nse tropical fo rest and consequently not very attract1~e fo r human settlement. The occurrence of gold
and diamo nds has attracted a variety of adventurers and
bauxite and iron ore mining are locally important ;t the
northern .fringes of this area. For the most part, howeve.r, Guiana remains among the least inhabited s ubregions.
Throughout the colonial period, the economic and trade
linkages of Brazil and the Spanish-speaking te rritories
of South America were almost exclusively w ith the respective mother countries. And although evidence
shows a fair amount of trade with pirates and e nterprising capitalists from northern European countries, these
economic linkages were highly illicit a nd officially nonexistent.
Beginning in the nineteenth century. South America's
economies became more closely tied to the more developed countries-notably the United States and Britain, but also Germany and France. These economic linkages were characterized largely by the export of raw
materials and the import of manufactured products. The
dependence of South America on the developed nations
fo r both markets fo r its primary products and sources
of manufactured consumer goods eventually led to local
efforts at industrialization and economic integration.
Regiona l economic integration in Latin America in the
postcolonial era has largely been dominated by the
United States. The South American liberator Simon Bolivar eloquently proposed the forma tio n of a Latin American confederation at the Panama Congress of 1826, but
his plans d id not materialize. Seeing itself as the "big
brother" in the western hemisphere, the United States
in the latter part of the century encouraged PanAme ricanism, which culminated in the 1890 formation
of the International Union of American Republics Clater
known as the Pan American Union), which came to be
based in Washington D.C. Recognized as being essentially an instrument of U.S. policy toward Latin America,
this inter-American organization was rechartered as the
Organization of American States (OAS) in 1948. Only
Cuba has been formally barred from the organization,
following its official conversion to communism in 1960.
It has been argued that movements for Latin American
unity have developed in response to domination by the
United States. Trade and economic development were
spurred on by the 1948 establishment of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA),
which adopted a policy of industrialization. Also, during
the 1950s, intraregional trade dropped significantly
while imports from the rest of the world increased. In
response, a Latin American common market known as
417
SOUTH AMERICA
the Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA)
was created in 1960; its signatory members included all
10 South American re publics as well as Mexico. As the
more industrialized and economically more developed
members of LAFTA-Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico-quickly began to dominate regional trade, an Andean
subgroup comprised of Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru signed the Andean Pact in 1969. Venezuela joined in 1973. More ambitious than just a common market arrangement, this regional allia nce
promoted common foreign investment policies and
planned industrialization, a lthough with only limited
success. Meanwhile, the United States tried once again
to boost its role in the region through President Kennedy's 1961 Alliance for Progre s program, which was
stimulated by a desire to promote democracy and prevent Cuba-style conversions to communism. Although
much aid and foreign investment resulted from this program, the domination of the United States in economic
and political policies was much resented. In 1980,
LAFTA was disbanded in favo r of the similar, but supposedly more powerful Latin American Integration Association (I.AJA). Among the changes in the new organization was a shift in e mphasis from economic
growth to defense of trade, i.e., protecti ve barriers.
Guyana and Suriname, trad itionally tied to the Caribbean region, belong to the Caribbean Common Market
(CARJCOM). Guyana is a full-fledged member, while
Suriname maintains observer status.
TRADE
International trade in South America reflects both external (extraregional) and internal (intraregional) economic linkages (Table 11.3). By value, external markets
are much more important than internal markets, in spite
of the recent efforts at regional economic integration . As
a generalization, primary commodities still comprise
the bulk of extraregio nal exports, and manufactured
goods make up most intraregional exports. In overall
terms, the leading industrializing countries are slowly
increasing their shares of exports of manufactured
goods (Table 11.4). The only major increase in the export of primary commodities involves the export of o il
(the leading export by value); Peru has joined OPEC
members Ecuador and Venezuela as net exporters. Additional primary exports from South America include
coffee, copper, sugar, beef, iron ore , bauxite, cotton,
and bananas. In regard to the top 15 primary commodities, South America's share of the world market
F
418
PART THREE
THIE DEVELOPING WORLD
CHAPTER 11
TABLE 11.3
TABLE 11.5
South American Imp rt
o sand Exports fMHllons of U.S.$)
Structure of South American Merchandise Imports fin Percent), I 965 and I 986
TOTAL INTERNATIONAL TRADE, 1987
Imports
Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
Guyana
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela
French Guiana
Exports
$ 5,819
1965
+$ 541
569
26,225
5,102
4,642
1,989
207'
275••
2,577
53·
1,189
8.402
54
200
+ 9,926
+ 1,079
+ 735
63
48
234
309
325
59
451
340
+
+
• 1985 data
•• 1986 data.
FOOD AND OTHER
PRIMARY COMMODITIES
FUELS
Balance
$ 6,360
769
16,299
4,023
3,907
2,052
255·
509..
2.886
338*
1, 130
7,951
394
419
SOUTH AMERICA
Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
Paraguay
Peru
Uruguay
Venezuela
10%
1
21
6
1
9
14
3
17
1986
9%
1
27
9
6
2
18
21
0
MANUFACTURED GOODS
AND MACHINERY
1965
1986
1965
1986
27%
22
29
30
18
14
16
22
23
17
17%
12
22
15
14
8
16
16
11
18
63%
72%
78
51
77
81
90
76
84
67
81
77
50
65
80
77
70
75
60
83
NOTE: Totals may not equal 1Cl0 percent due to rounding.
SOURCE: World Bank, World Development Report 1988 (New York: Oxford University Press) 1988.
.
SOURCE: International trade data are from United N .
York. United Nations. 1989.
ations. lnterna/lonal Trade Staltsllcs Yearbook 1987 (New
amounted ~o about 16 percent in 1983, a figure that has
been steadily declining.
Several South American countries have been able t
l~wer their imports of food and othe r primary commod~
it1es by boosting agricultural production (Table 11 .5).
Effort~ at reducing imports of manufactured goods and
machinery have been less successful. Furthe rmo re, the
PL'.sh t~wa rd industrialization, coupled with world o il
pnce ht ke~ since the early 1970s, has greatly increased
the countries' shares of fuel imports. Only the major o il
exporte~s have ~e nefi ted from increases in world petroleum pnces, which rose until 1982, then resumed their
up_ward climb after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. In
s pite of the oil crises, ann ua l trade balance figures ap-
TABLE 11.4
Structure of South American Merchandise Exports fin Percent), I 965 and I 986 - - - FUELS, MINERALS,
AND METALS
Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
Paraguay
Peru
Uruguay
Venezuela
OTHER PRIMARY
COMMODITIES
MANUFACTURED
GOODS*
1965
1986
1965
1986
1965
1%
92
9
89
18
2
0
45
0
97
1986
4%
90
19
66
12
54
0
60
0
90
93%
3
83
7
75
96
92
54
95
73%
8
41
25
70
43
81
18
58
1
6%
4
22%
2
41
9
18
3
19
23
42
9
• Not including textiles and clothing.
NOTE Totals may not equal 100 percent due to rounding.
SOURCE World Bank, World Development Report 1988 (New York: Oxford University Press. 1988 ).
9
5
6
2
8
1
5
2
pear favorable (Table 11.3). However, these figures
mask the extensive borrowing incurred during the 1970s
in the push toward industrialization. National debts and
interest payments on money borrowed in the past have
fina ncially strapped some of the most economically
promising South American countries. During the 1980s,
even the oil exporters experienced economic hardships
resulting from the drop in the world market price for
oil after 1982. Ecuador has recently announced a suspension of foreign debt payments, and Venezuela
has experienced rioting over belt-tightening austerity
measures.
Examination of South America's trade linkages to the
rest of the world reveals a continuation of the traditional
strong ties to the developed nations of orth America
and Europe (Table 11.6). The United States remains the
primary source of imports as well as the chief destination for exports. The United Kingdom , forme r West Germany, and the Netherlands comprise the main European
trading partners, although Japan's share of the market
has been steadily increasing. In addition, several Middle
Eastern and African countries have become dominant
fuel exporters co several oil-dependent South American
countries. The relatively low importance (by value) of
intraregional trade is seen by the paucity of regional
trading partners. Exceptions include Trinidad and Tobago, which is a major trading partner of the Guianas
(a reflection of the CARICOM connection), and several
member nations of LAIA and the Andean Pact that trade
extensively with their immediate neighbors.
TRANSPORTATION
Except for the Incan Empire, precolonial transportation
patterns were rather rudimentary. In the lowlands, travel
was primarily by canoe through the labryinth of streams
and rivers. In higher and drier lands, simple trails functioned as the conduits for regional connectivity. Within
the Incan Empire, two major north-south arteries connected the far reaches of the empire. These roads, one
highland and one coastal, were allegedly more elaborate than the roads of Rome. Joined at various points by
east-west trans-Andean roads, an extensive Jncan highway network was centered on Cuzco, the Incan capital.
During the colonial period, the Spanish expanded
upon the Incan highway, extending a camino real
(royal highway) from Lima to Caracas. Mountainflanking roads also ran north-south along the Andean
chains in Colombia, and in temperate Argentina, a colonial highway connected the Andean colonies with the
port of Buenos Aires. Although these roads were known
as cart roads (the Spanish had introduced both the
wheel and the mule), a high proportion of trade between the colonies was by ship. In Brazil, road networks also gradually evolved in the hinterlands of the
major coastal ports. Roads penetrating the interior of the
continent were virtually nonexistent, especially in the
humid tropical lowlands and the barren steppe lands of
Patagonia.
Railroads were the first significant form of mass transportation to penetrate interior portions of the continent.
F
CHAPTER I I
i'
:a
i
:a,,
..
t
A
0
A.
IC
Ill
,s
c
..•
t
1
'I!
!..
...
t
..
..•
c
Ill
! ..c•
Ill
;;
セ@
•
c
•..
.!!
セ@
....
セ@
セ@
•
..
.c
:a
0
"'..0
.
I
0
w
\:,
セ@
zw
セ@
w
!=.
N
Although most of South America had achieved independence by the time the Railway Era began in 1850,
the construction of rail networks by European and
orth America n interests brought o n a new form of "colonial ism." Most rail lines in South America were built
primarily to facilitate the export of raw materials (foodstuffs and mineral resources) to the rapidly industrializing nations of Europe and North America. In terms of
spacial connectivity, the railroads were not very successful, as many were built exclusively to exploit a singular resource in the hinterland, such as copper and
silver in Chile and Peru. Only in the flat and temperate
areas of Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and southeastern
Brazil did extensive rail networks evolve. Here too, the
main stimulus for rail development was the opening of
agricultural lands such as the Argentine pampas and the
coffee lands of the Parana plateau in Brazil. Today, rail
transportation has greatly declined in importance, especially in comparison to highways .
Highway development became an important concern
of the South American nations as early as the 1920s.
Expansionist countries like Brazil realized the value of
providing a highway infrastructure fo r a rapidly growing
po pulation. Unlike the railroads, the highway networks
were better planned and incranational spacial interconnectivity was vastly improved. The Pa11-Amer icati
Hig hway, the major north-south linkage in the Americas, has been essentially complete since the 1940s. Actually consisting of multiple routes in its southern
reaches, the Pan-American Highway follows the Andean
backbone through Colombia and Ecuador before dropping into the Peruvian coastal plain. The highway continues along the desert coast into Chile, although a
branch cuts back into the Andes in southern Peru towa rd La Paz; from there one branch cues eastward
across Bolivia and Brazil toward Sao Paulo, and another
branch cuts southeastward across Argentina co Buenos
Aires. Although the proportion of paved highways is still
relatively small, most are graded , all-weather roads. Oilrich Venezuela boasts the highest percentage of paved
roads--41 percent of its national total. The number of
passenger cars on South American highways increased
from 4 co 13 million between 1968 and 1980, a trend
that will undoubtedly continue and stimulate both highway improvements and new road construction.
The greatest gaps in the highway network have been
in the humid, tropical lowlands such as the vase Amazon
Basin. In recent decades, however, road penetration
into th is territory has been accelerated co promote fron-
SOUTH AMERICA
421
tier colonization. A north-south highway built through
the Amazon lowlands in 1976 allows one co drive from
Caracas co Manaus on an all-weather road, cake a ferry
across the Amazon River, and continue on co Rio de
Janeiro on paved highway. The east-west Trans-Amazon
Highway, though unpaved and lacking bridges, will one
day allow automobile traffic between Lima, Peru, and
Recife, Brazil.
Air transportation has a long history in South America,
a face partly explained by the difficulty of overland
transportation. The Brazilian Santos Dumont was a pioneer aviator before World War I, and commercial services date to soon thereafter. Avianca Airlines of Colombia lays claim co being the oldest commercial airline in
the western hemisphere, having begun service in 1919.
Prior co World War II, German, French, Italian, and
American interests helped many of the individual countries establish national airlines, which came under domestic control by the end of the war. Air service has
greatly improved spatial connectivity with remote national hinterlands, neighboring countries, and orth
America and Europe. Within the continent, the role of
air transport has increased even more for freight than
for passengers because of the difficulty of providing
overland transportation in adverse terrain.
Overall, the development of integrated transportation
networks is crucial to economic development, and
South America has come far in providing infrastructure
for rail, road, and air transport. Nevertheless, the transport system is still far from perfect, especially in overland linkages, and it remains to be seen co what degree
new frontier highway infrastructure will stimulate development and spatial connectivity.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Although advances in telecommunications have greatly
increased spatial connectivity both within countries and
between countries in South America, the levels of participation in the media of mass communications still
need improvement (Table 11.7). One measure of newspaper readership is the number of daily newspapers
published, and Brazil and Argentina rank quite high using this method of measurement. The less Europeanized
Andean and interior countries have the least accessibility to telecommunications, and rates of telephone and
television ownership reflect this. Radios are ubiquitous
throughout the continent, yet certain countries (Suriname, Guyana, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Ecuado r) show
4ZZ
PART THREE THE DEVELOPING WORLD
CHAPTER t t
SOUTH AMeRICA
4.Z3
TABLE 11.7
TABLE 11.8
Selected Telecommunications Data for South America
-
RADIO RECEIVERS
COUNTRY
(THOUSANDS IN USE/
Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
Falkland Islands
French Guiana
Guyana
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela
I
?
1983
1984
3
4
1985
1986
20,0003
n.a.
75,0006
4,0003
5,0005
2,9005
n.a.
n.a.
3075
6455
5,0005
2455
1,8004
7,5504
5
6
1987
1988
7
TV RECEIVERS
(THOUSANDS IN USEJ
6,5003
n.a.
34,0006
1,7503
3,250 1
8005
n.a.
n.a.
155
925
1.7505
355
5204
2,5004
1989
TELEPHONES
(THOUSANDS IN USE)
2,5802
205 1
9,08~
629 1
2,5472
33g3
0.65
267
335
934
n.a.
31 5
3374
1,1663
NUMBER OF
DAILY NEWSPAPERS
1882
102
32~
403
31 2
222
n.a.
11
11
51
TOURISM
The tourism industry is still not exte nsively de veloped
in South America, and opportunities fo r greater interconnectivity as well as economic development exist.
I listorica ll y, few scenic or archaeological attractio ns
were developed for tourists, and travel agencies and a irlines primaril y promoted the ma jor cities o f South Ame rica as tourist destina tions. Now, however, both to attract
mo re internatio nal to urists and also to keep their own
citizens from spe nding their vacations abroad , several
governments are developing a more complete tourism
infrastructure. Statistics from 1985 (Table 11.8) indicate
that revenues generated from tourism are importa nt to
the respective national economies.
Vario us types of tourist attractions exist in South
Ame rica, and some of the opportunities for development are only now slowly being exploited . The north
coast of South America is also the southern shore of the
Caribbean Sea ("Ame rica 's Mediterranean"), and a
beach resort/cruiseship port to urist landscape has developed in parts of Colombia and Venezue la. Distance
to the United States, the major tourist marke t area, is not
Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia•
Ecuador
Paraguay
Peru·
Uruguay
Venezuela
TOURIST ARRIVALS
TOURIST RECEIPTS fU.S.$/
1,503,099
127,027
1,735,982
418,050
715,277
238,105
262,689
278,783
702,100
239,030
$ 673,000,000
36,000,000
1,739,000,000
112,000,000
209,000,000
118,000,000
80,000,000
258,000,000
129,000,000
367,000,000
307
21
147
25 7
SOURCESEuropa
John Publications
Paxton. ed. Ltd.,
The Statesman
's Yearbook (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990): Europa Publications. The Europa World Yearbook 1990
(London
1990).
relati vely low levels of radio owne rship. As a generaliza tion, countries with strong historical o r present ties to
Europe have higher participation rates in te lecommunications than the o ther countries.
Tourist Arrivals and Tour sm Revenues In South America, 1985
Loo great for continued "winter playground" touris m
de velopment.
A more recent trend in South American touris m has
been the de velopme nt of specialized tourism and ecotourism. These focus upon archaeological attractio ns,
Indian and colonial cities, exotic natural settings (especially selvas), seasonal events such as Carnival in Rjo
or Salvador, seasonal sports activities such as s kiing, o r
re mote lands such as Antarctica . Package tours, ofte n
oriented around specific themes (birdwatching, penguin
watching, Incan archaeology), are becoming more po p ular and are introducing tourists to portions of South
Ame rica previously relative ly untouched.
Do mestic tourism is important in the more afflue nt
countries of So uth America, nmably Argentina, Brazil,
Chile, Uruguay, and Vene zue la. Beach resorts seaso nally catering to national to urists line the shores of the
countries. Some of these beach resorts also attract citizens of neighboring countries (such as Argentines vacatio ning in Vina de! Mar, Chile), and the level of intraregional tourism is significant. Domestic tourism has
also been promoted by the establishment of duty-free
zones, whe re cons umer ite ms such as televisions, videocassette recorders, and automobiles can be purchased
relative ly tax-free. Although duty tech nically must be
paid upon return to one's domicile, Colo mbians flock
to offshore San Andres Island, Venezuelans to Margarita
Island, a nd Brazilians to Amazonia in search of bargains.
1984 data.
.
•SOURCE·
James W. Wilkie and Enrique
Ochoa, e d s., Statistical Abstract of Latin America, Vol. 27 (Los Angeles:
UCLA Laiin American Center Publications. 1989).
As the savings often exceed the price of trave l, this form
of tourism may well increase.
PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS
POPULATION GROWTH
. .on o f education
in rural
Although advances .m prov1s1
. h'
led
lo a
s and promotion of family planni ng ave.
area
. h
. South Amenca, overgeneral decline in the bi.rt rate mh still ma ke it difficull
all high rates of populatio n ~~oq :te sta nda rds of living.
for governments to e n ure a
te of natural
·ca the average ra
I A
In tropical Soul 1 men , . that the population will
increase is 2.1 percem (meaning . such as Paraguay
10
double i~ 33 y~ars), and e~~:~ltr~~~ubling time of 25
the rate is as high as 2.8 p
h !though fa lling in
) Tl se high rates of growt ' a
years . 1e .
.
f.
or Middle Ame rica, often
comparison with Asia, A nca, .
e nts to romake it difficult fo r the respective gover~m The ! rst
d' I care and education.
h . lack of employme nl
vide adequate me ica
aspect of high population gr~wl t セ セ@ me ntion the threat
opportunities in rura l areas no
the r natural ca.
lf food s hortages during droughts or o .
o
h' h in turn stimulates m1grat1on to a
tastrophes), w ic
b
s False hopes of rising
cl
crowded ur an area .
. h urban "paradises" reduce peorea y over . . 10
standards of ltvmg t セ@
h tytowns and perhaps
pie to living in unsanitary s an
r g to make e nds meet.
begging or _stea tn
d large families paradoxicall y
Rural attitudes towar
. .
d this comtencl to pe rsist fo r seve ral generations, an
ouncls the problems that governments face. Instead of
p
. . children as financial liabilities (more mouths
~oe~~:~:~d more clolhes to buy), rural migranlsh~~ urban shantytowns often maintain that the more c I rcn
'
h
,
that one or mo re
a fa mily has, the greater t e c1:,mce b If this unli kely
·11 the n supwill eventually land a well-paymhg. lJdO .
scenario becomes rea l'1ty ' these c i ren Iw1 •d siblings.
ort the arents and less fo11unate unemp oye .
p
p . f rural attitudes toward fa mily size help
. rates ,an d h'ig h unemployment levels
These
types
highobirth
maintain
h A e ·ca's urban centers.
in S~ut
m n.
rates also preclude gove rn-
m:.:!hfr:;o.:~:=g~;:;cantv!%7i'セ セ セ セ Z Z G [ セ ッセ セ@
production and st1mulatmg o
b nks in the 1970s
b
· g from Western a ·
rican nations deeply in debt,
Extensive orrowm .
.
t the counhas put several South Ame
d be lt-tightening measures designed to pu
't
an
. g d rops in the pe r cap1 a
tries back on course are cau~mn violent demonstrations.
living standards, no~to men~~tion growth would alleCurtailme nt of high pop
. ' envi ronmental
of South America s
viate at least some
I
·ew of the promising
mic problems. n v1
. .
d
an econo
. .
last 10 to 15 years, 1t is
trends established w1tl~1~ : e ro~th rates will drop to
quite likely that. ~o puflat~o セ@ American or European
levels charactenstic o
Ort
nations.
ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
.
I de radation in South America
.
. the days of preAlthough e nviro nmenta . g
I b k to soil erosion m
may be ..
tracec . ac the greatest. cl es tru ction in areal
lncan c1v111.zat1ons,
Fl
424
CHAPTER 11
PART THR•• THE DSVELOPING WORLD
terms is occurring in the present day. Human movement
into the tropical rainforest environment- in search o f
mineral wealth, lumber, fanning opportunities, hydroelectric development, or military security-has been accompanied by rates of forest clearing unequaled in human history. Although the respective countries have
undoubtedly gained certain economic advantages, the
environmental damage in terms of soil laterization, species extinction, oxygen depletion, hydrologic alteratio n,
and cultural survival has not yet been adequately measured. The promised frontier is witnessing substantial
degradation, even in regard to its most essential activity-subsistence agriculture. Governments are providing
access into this "forbidden jungle," but migrants unaccustomed to such environments are not taught proper
agricultural and soil conservation practices. The degradation of the tropical forest environment is destroying
not only the natural ecology, but also its potential for
properly managed human exploitation. In recent years,
the respective governments have shown a greater
awareness of the problems, and one may be cautiously
optimistic that better management practices will be
instituted.
The movement into the frontiers, especially the Amazon lowlands, for purposes of growth-pole establishment and economic development should be carefully
monitored by the respective governments to ensure a
minimum of environmental destruction. Economic development in such marginal lands should be viewed as
a long-term, not a short-term, endeavor. Short-term exploitation of natural resources is not compatible w ith
long-term economic development, and although many
problems characterize development efforts in the humid
tropical environment, proper planning and management
can minimize these problems and maximize future economic development.
Decline in agricultural fertility due to poor conservation practices or overgrazing is also a problem in other
parts of South America, particularly densely settl ed
ones. These regions are often quite vulnerable to enhanced degradation by natural catastrophes such as
droughts or floods. The Brazilian Northeast has been
subjected to several prolonged droughts that have led
to desertification of the soil, starvation, and outmigration by the inhabitants. Continuing efforts by national and international scientists to provide technical
assistance and education to rural agriculturists arc making gains in conserving South America's agricultural
lands.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
South America has made great strides in economic d evelopment over the past several decades. Among these
are the development of manufacturing and industrial facilities, which have accounted for a reduction of the
proportion of raw material exports to the developed nations of orth America relative to manufactured con sumer items. In spite of efforts at economic integration,
many nations still maintain closer economic tic:: · to major European or American powers than to their own
neighbors. The promotion of stronger intraregional spatial connectivity, facilitated by improvements in avenues
of overland tr.insportation, should reduce the percentage of raw material exports even further and strengthen
a continental consumer goods industry. Regional imbalances in economic productivity are currently respo nsible for inequitable distribution of revenues, and incentives must be offered to stimulate both manufacturing
infrastructure and market demand.
POLITICAL STABILITY
Except for the Guianas, the countries of South America
have been independent republics since the nineteenth
century. This long period of independence has not yet
created an atmosphere of political stability, however, in
part because of a continuing struggle to achieve the perfect balance of free enterprise and social welfare. The
legacy of the colonial era can still be seen as local o ligarchies whose members are of European descent have
concentrated wealth and political power, often at the
expense of poor, uneducated Indian and me tizo
masses. In the past, political stability was maintained by
autocratic military dictatorships, but democracy coupled
w ith social reforms appears to be the popularly desired
political path. ocialism and communism have occasionally enjoyed brief periods of success (as in Chile
between 1970 and 1973), but popular backlash has
caused these regimes to quickly lose favor. Ca tro's
1960s attempts to export the "Cuban Revolution" to
South America via his Argentine lieutenant Che Guevara
were also unsuccessful. Colombia and Venezuela have
had democratic governments for three decades, and
most remaining South American nations are now following their examples. Guyana and Suriname, both recently
emerging from under colonial rule and characterized by
outdated plantation economies, have experienced much
political instability and extensive flirtations with Marx-
.
Many residents of those countries have fled to En1slm. d Canada ·ind the etherlands as socialism has
g an •
' '
I d French
come to dominate. The relatively un.popu ate
.
Guiana and FalklJnd Islands will continue to remain European colonies, the latter especial.l y _in the wake of_d~e
1982 Falklands War between Britain and. Arge~~ma.
(The loss of that war, started by the then-ruling military
junta partly to defuse civic di~content at h~m_e, led to
the toppling of the military regime and the reinstatement
of democracy in Argentina.)
The continued inequities in the social structure are
perhaps the greatest threat to political stability in S~ut~
·
Where Indians and peasant-level mestizos
.
Amenca.
compri e the bulk of the population, there are great inequalities in wealth and education between the upper
and lower classes. Economic benefits have not reached
the masses in countries such as Colombia, Ecua?or,
Peru and Bolivia, and now various guerrilla facu~ns
flyin~ the banners of a multitude of ideologie~ are claiming to be taking up their cause. These gL'.ernlla gr~up.s,
espousing the philosophies of Marx, Lenin, and Mao 1~
addition to those of local populist heroes, control vast
territories within their respective countries. Some ha~e
strong ties to the illicit narcotics industry as well. Poli~~
ical violence in ,treas where these groups are strong is
not only endangering the lives of i~~ocent ~e.ople bu~
is threatening the economic and pohucal stab1h~ of the
region. Improvements in intracountry ~patial hnkag~~·
especially highways, would better integrate these
guerrilla-held territories with the rest of the country ~nd
bring them under national control. But even more importantly, r'aising the standards of living of the poor~st
classes might remove incentives to support ~uemlla
groups that threaten to totally offse~ t~e social, economic, and political gains and aspirations of outh
American nations.
425
SOUTH AMERICA
Selected Readings
8louet, 8. W., and O. M. Blouet, eds. Latin America: An in troductory Survey. 'cw York: John Wiley & Sons, 1982.
11,e Cambridge Encyclopedia of Latin America and the Caribbean
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Collier, S. 11. 13lakcmore, and T. E. Skidmore, eds.
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean, 2
volumes. antiago, Chile: United ations 1989.
Europa Publications, The Europa \'(lorld Year Book 1990, 2
volumes. London: Europa Publications Ltd., 1990.
Goodwin, Paul 8., Jr., Latin America, 4th ed. Guilford, Conn.:
The Dushkin Publishing Group, Inc., 1990.
. Jndusllialization and Urba nization in Latin
America. 13ahimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1986.
Gwynne, R.
James, P. E., and C. W. Minkel, Latin America, 5th ed.
York: John Wiley & Sons. 1986.
ew
Lombardi, C. L., and J. V. Lombardi. Latin American Histor)':
A Teaching Atlas. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press,
1983.
Merrick, Thomas w., Population Pressures in Latin America,
Population 8111/etin 41, 3. July 1986.
Paxton, John, ed., The Statesman's Yearbook.
Martin's Press, 1990.
ew York: t.
Skidmore, T. E., and P. II. Smith. Modem Latin America.
York: Oxford University Pres.~. 1984.
ew
United arion~. 1988 Demographic Yearbook. (40th issue)
cw York: United Nations, 1990.
w. and Enrique Ochoa, eds., Satistical Abst.racl
of Latin America, Vol. 27. Lo!> Angeles: UCLA Latin American
Center Publications, 1989.
Wilkie, James
World Resources [nstitute , \'(lorld Resources 1990-1991.
York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
ew
I