1. Chapter 5: The South American Realm

3. Regions of the Realm Caribbean North Brazil Andean West Southern Cone
Colombia
Venezuela
Guyana
Suriname
French Guiana
Brazil
Andean West
Peru
Ecuador
Bolivia
Southern Cone
Argentina
Chile
Uruguay
Paraguay

4. Physiography: Explorer’s Continent
Ferdinand Magellan (1519 – 1522)
Argentine Patagonia.
Circumnavigation of the globe through the Strait of Magellan.
Tierra del Fuego (“land of fire”; camp fires kept constant by the local population).
Alexander von Humboldt (1799 – 1804)
Discoveries in northern interior of the realm.
Significant in rise of the geographic discipline.
Unity of place:
The intricate physical and human connections in a place.
The “matching” of the coastline of South America and Africa.

5. Magellan’s Circumnavigation Voyage (1519-1522)

6. Early Isothermal Map of the World (based on Humboldt)

7. Physiography: Myriad Climates and Habitats
Variety of environments
Latitudinal span: longest realm north to south:
The example of Chile (150 km in width, 4,000 km in length).
Combine with substantial variation in relief.
Contains enormous range of climate and vegetation.
Natural diversity contributes to considerable cultural differences as well.

8. Amazonian Basin
Brazilian
Highlands
Andes
Pampas

9. States Ancient and Modern
Amerindians
Migrated into the realm from North and Middle America.
Founded societies in the many diverse environments.
Adaptations overtime created distinct regional cultures.
Some were established in high-altitude valleys of the Andes Mountains, called altiplanos.
The Inca
An altiplano society centered at Cuzco.
Made up of expert builders, farmers, herders, manufacturers, and scholars
Unified by network of roads and bridges.
Rigid class-structure and highly centralized.
Easily taken over by small army of Spanish invaders.

10. States Ancient and Modern: The Iberian Invaders
Iberian invasion
Pizzarro overthrew the Inca empire in 1533.
Process of land alienation and forced labor.
Lima
Coastal city.
Capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru.
Became one of the richest cities in the world.
Viceroyalties of La Plana and New Grenada.
Urbanization along the coast.

12. States Ancient and Modern: The Iberian Invaders
Spanish conquest of the Incas
Amerindian serfdom on haciendas formed by land alienation.
Spanish viceroyalties expanded across the western realm.
Portuguese eastern conquest
Treaty of Tordesillas split the New World.
Portugal took the eastern part of the Tordesillas line (Brazil).
Territory was expanded beyond to include the Amazon Basin.
Paulistas (settlers of Sao Paulo) needed Amerindian slave labor for their plantations.

13. Spanish and Portuguese Empires (1581-1640)
Source: adapted from Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd, The Age of Discovery, University of Texas at Austin.

14. States Ancient and Modern: The Iberian Invaders
Land alienation
Takeover of land by foreign interests.
Implementation of the encomienda:
A replicate of the European feudal system.
System that mandated the payment of tributes to the Crown.
Forced the indigenous groups into the cash economy.
Subsistence agriculture would not provide the means to pay the tax.
The Crown rewarded its conquistadores with huge land grants.
Most provide protection and the teachings of Christianity.
Formation of large haciendas (estates):
Encomienda system ensured the presence of a large labor force that essentially was a slave labor force.
Workers derived little benefit from their labors beyond the ability to pay the encomienda.

15. Land Tenure Systems Plantation Hacienda Northern European origins
Export oriented monocrops
Imported capital and skills
Seasonal labor
Efficiency is key
Single cash crop
Profit motive
Market vulnerability
Spanish institution
Not efficient but social prestige
Workers lived on the land
Domestic market
Diversified crops
Year round jobs
Small plot of land
Self-sufficient
Explain the characteristics and differences of the hacienda and plantation systems.

16. States Ancient and Modern: Independence and Isolation
Product of distance and physiographic barriers.
Limited contact between viceroyalties.
Iberian conquerors had no interest in developing the New World, only to extract riches.
Independence
Those Europeans that made the New World their home eventually rebelled.
In the Spanish colonies, took advantage of the isolation of some territories from central control.
Three Viceroyalties split into nine independent states:
Argentina (1816) and Chile (1818).
Rest of South America (1824; Simon Bolivar).

17. The Cultural Mosaic: The Population Map—Then and Now
Pre-Colombian population
Amerindian societies inhabited highlands (Andes), lowlands, riverbanks, and harsh environments.
Contemporary population
Amerindians eradicated by European warfare and disease.
Majority of European settlers stayed near the coasts.
Andes settlements legacy of Incas.

18. Discussion questions: Considering what you have read, identify where red population clusters would appear in a reconstructed map of pre-Columbian population distribution.
What might be some of the reasons for the location of post-European population distributions in the contemporary map?
Speculate as to what a future population map of South America may look like in say 100 years.
Explain the distribution of the South American population from a pre-colonial and post colonial perspective.

19. The Cultural Mosaic: Amerindian Reawakening
Amerindian majorities gaining political strength
Changing religious practices
90% of the population Roman Catholic.
Secularization of South Americans.
Amerindians loss of popular support for Catholic Church.
Liberation theology
Blend of Christianity and socialist thinking.
Read Christian teachings as a quest to liberate impoverished masses.

20. The Cultural Mosaic: African Descendants
Portuguese South America
Similar strategy to the one followed in the Caribbean.
Development of sugar plantation economy.
Imported workforce of African slaves.
Brazil’s slave legacy
South America’s largest black population.
About half of the population of 205 million.
Found in Brazil’s northeast:
Half the African workforce brought to the Americas.
Mainly along the tropical coast of Brazil.
Climate and proximity to Africa.

21. The Cultural Mosaic: Ethnic Landscapes
Differential ethnic layers
Amerindians, Europeans, Africans and Asians (Japanese in Peru and Brazil).
Changing ethnic patterns
Internal migrations.
Ethic mixing: some peoples have single ethnic origin while others have mixed ancestry.
Plural societies: peoples from various cultural backgrounds cluster but usually do not mix.

23. The Cultural Mosaic: Ethnic Landscapes
Resembles Middle America’s Rimland
Locations, soils, & tropical climates favor plantation crops, especially sugar.
Initially relied on African slave labor
Tropical-plantation

24. The Cultural Mosaic: Ethnic Landscapes
The most “Latin” part of South America
Includes the Pampas - temperate grasslands
Economically most advanced
Transportation networks and quality of life are excellent.
European-commercial

25. The Cultural Mosaic: Ethnic Landscapes
Correlates with the former Inca Empire
Dominantly indigenous populations
Feudal socioeconomic structure persists
Includes some of South America’s poorest areas
Subsistence agriculture must contend with difficult environmental challenges.
Amerind-subsistence

26. The Cultural Mosaic: Ethnic Landscapes
Surrounds the Amerindian-subsistence region
A zone of mixture- culturally & agriculturally
Transitional -- economic connotations
Mestizo-transitional

27. The Cultural Mosaic: Ethnic Landscapes
Characteristics are difficult to classify.
Sparsely populated
Isolation and lack of change- notable features
Development of Amazonia may prompt significant changes.
Undifferentiated

28. Economic Geography: Agricultural Land Use and Deforestation
Land-use contrasts
Large-scale commercial (for-profit), exists alongside small-scale subsistence agriculture (for household use).
Commercial agriculture is a legacy of European land distribution systems.
Subsistence agriculture is historically associated with indigenous, African, and Asian land-use patterns.

29. Economic Geography: Agricultural Land Use and Deforestation
Close relationship between physiography and agricultural systems.
Rapid changes in land use
Introduction and expansion of new crops.
Intensifying agro-industrial operations.
Deforestation
First, roads.
Then, settlements and farms.
Decline in soil fertility.
Move and repeat.

31. Economic Geography: The Geography of Cocaine
A global drug
All cocaine in the United States comes from South America (mainly Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia).
Cocaine employs thousands of workers and brings in billions of dollars.
Three Stages of Production
1. Extraction of coca paste from the plant.
2. Refining the coca paste into cocaine hydrochloride.
3. Distribution to the marketplace.
Distribution
Miami used to be central to the distribution.
Recently, distribution has shifted and is now rerouted through Mexico, aided by NAFTA.
Contributed to the rapid organized crime spree in Mexico.

33. Economic Geography: Industrial Development
Rapid growth of manufacturing
Uneven development as concentration in and around major urban centers.
Some struggle to modernize and improve standard of living.
Development of the high tech sector, such as aircraft manufacturing (Ambraer).
Brazil as one of the world’s emerging markets
Part of the BRICs: along with Russia, India, and China.
Due to its massive growth and rapid economic diversification.
A growing consumer base, but the middle class is rather weak.

34. Economic Geography: Economic Integration
Overcoming the isolation of internal relations
Cooperation spurred by mutually beneficial trade.
Cross-border infrastructure projects and investments.
Several avenues of economic supranationalism
Mercosur: realm’s dominant free-trade organization.
Andean Community: customs union of Andean states.
Union of South American Nations: envisioned as similar to the EU; however, mired in disagreements.
Free Trade Area of the Americas: hemisphere-wide, but opposed by groups resisting Northern dominance.
Influence of a nationalistic and socialist past remains: Venezuela.

35. Economic Geography: The Commodity Boom
Economic growth from global demand for raw materials
Aka commodities.
Involve a wide array of goods including agricultural goods, forest products and minerals.
Risks of commodity dependence
Volatile commodity prices.
Distorts national economy.
Prone to mismanagement and environmental degradation.
Some raw materials finite.

36. World Coffee Production and Trade, 2003
Source: FAO.
65% of supply from three countries (Brazil, Columbia and Vietnam)

37. Retail Price of Coffee, 1980-2016
1) Demand constant and steadily increasing (2.5% PY).
2) Supply concentration (weather risk).
3) Hoarding when prices start to increase.
Source: International Coffee Organization,
Note: ICO Composite is the price calculated based on the market share of exports of each group of coffee.
The calculation of the ICO composite indicator price is weighted as follows:
Colombian Milds: 15%
Other Milds: 30%
Brazilian Naturals: 20%
Robustas: 35%

38. Urbanization: Rural-Urban Migration
Rural-to-urban migration
Out of the countryside and into cities.
Both pull and push factors.
Pushed factors
Slow rural land reforms.
Little prospect of advancement.
Pull factors
Urban opportunities and upward social mobility. Social services and lure of city life.
Realities
Migrants forced into slums.
Unemployment persistently high.

39. Urbanization: Rural-Urban Migration
Urbanization and economic survival
Decision to move to an urban area:
Part of a complex survival strategy.
Families minimize risk by placing members in different labor markets.
Largest labor market maximizing the chances of employment and survival.
Cities are the largest labor markets.
Favelas (squatter settlements) of Rio de Janeiro:
Cannot be understood without reference to the latifundia land system in rural Brazil.
Characterized by large landholdings owned by a limited elite.
Peasants as contract labor with no ownership.
Explain what are shantytowns and the processes that have led to their creation and evolution.

40. Urbanization: Regional Patterns
Cartogram
Size of country’s area and of city’s symbol proportioned to its population size.
Urban transformation
Most urbanized: Southern Cone.
Least urbanized: Andes.
Major metropolises
Megacities of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires all exceed 10 million people.

42. Anchored by the CBD.
Commercial spine and elite residential sector extensions of the CBD.
Concentric zones: income and housing quality decrease with distance from the CBD:
Zone of maturity (old historical town).
Zone of in situ accretion: A mix of middle and low income housing, generally thought of as a transitional area (moving either up or down).
Zone of peripheral squatter settlements.
Informal sector: workers and transactions beyond government regulation.
Barrios and favelas.
Zone of disamenity.

43. Problems of Inequality and Violence
Future Prospects
The Need for Stability
Political turmoil and economic stagnation.
Increasing democracy, connections, and globalization.
Problems of Inequality and Violence
Enormous inequality and disparity.
Internal divisions and resurgence of Amerindian identity.
Harmful effects on civil society and social cohesion.
Need for economic opportunities for the poor, inclusive development, and better government.

44. The Shadow of the United States China Calling
Future Prospects
The Shadow of the United States
Anti-Americanism based on past U.S. behavior.
Dependency theory: poverty of some countries in terms of unequal relations with other, rich countries.
China Calling
Need for raw materials and markets for Chinese exports.
Strictly economic objectives without historical baggage.
Does South America today need or gain from political and/or economic relationships with the United States or China?