Transcript South/Latin America

Latin America
Geography, History, and
Culture
The Physical Geography of South America
 Many Types of Landforms
 Andes Mountains
 Run 1500 Miles along Western Coast
 Rich soil for farming
 Very steep
 Rolling Highlands – East
 Amazon River Basin
 Home to the World’s largest rain forest = 1/3 of the
continent
 Pampas – South
 Large plain that stretches through Argentina and
Paraguay
Amazon River
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Amazon_river_basin.png
Rio de la Plata
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:River_Plate.jpg
Climate
• Tropical Wet
– Hot humid, rainy weather all year round
– Rainforest will be in this area
• Tropical Wet and Dry
– Hot, rainy, but not all year
– Parts of Mexico, Brazil, and most of the Caribbean
• Humid Subtropical
– Similar to Southern US
– Crops grow well here
• Patagonia
– Arid and cold
– Sheep raised here
Natural Resources
• South America
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Oil found, esp. Venezuela
Plants and fish
Forests cover about ½ of the continent
Rich soil – coffee and other crops
flourish
Natural Resources and the Economy
• Not all countries have a natural
resource
• Some countries don’t have the
money to develop their
resources
• Weather can cause problems as
it can affect the supply
• Prices of resources can go
down
• Plant disease can lower the
amount of crop raised
• Oil Dependence – can be risky
as prices change, natural
disasters can affect supply
European Exploration
• 1400’s – Spain and Portugal
searching for new trade routes to
Asia
• 1492 – Columbus thought he had
found India, instead he found the
Americas
• Spain and Portugal became rivals
over land in the Americas
• Treaty of Tordesillas
– Signed in 1494 through
urging of the pope
– Line of Demarcation of 50°
Longitude
• Spain got land West of Line
• Portugal got land East of
Line
• Why Brazil is Portugal’s
only colony in South
America
Spain in the New World
• Conquistadors and
Land
– Spain would give them
the right to hunt for
treasure in these new
lands
– They would give Spain
one – fifth of what they
found
– They could use ANY
means to get their
treasure
Oil Painting by Alfredo P. Alcala
Simón Bolívar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Simon_Bolivar.jpg
• One of the greatest Latin America
revolutionary leaders
• Originally joined fight for
Venezuelan independence – he
would become the leader
• By 1822 – had freed Gran
Columbia (Columbia, Venezuela,
Ecuador, and Panama) and
became President
Jose de San Martin
• Began helping with
Argentina’s
independence in 1817
• Took his troops through
the Andes in Chile and
completely surprised the
Spanish
• Declared Chile
independent and then
turned attention to Peru
• In July 1821, did
another surprise attack
(from the sea) and
captured Lima
• Met up with Bolivar to
discuss independence
for the rest of the
countries, but gave up
his command
• Bolivar continued and
by 1825 only Cuba and
Puerto Rico still ruled
by Spain
Jose de San Martin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Smartin.J
PG
Brazil and Independence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dompedro-II.jpg
• Early 1800’s, France invaded
Portugal and king fled to Brazil
• King returned to Portugal in 1821
and left his son, Dom Pedro, in
charge
• 1822 – Dom Pedro declared Brazil
independent
• Portugal recognized independence
3 years later
Economic Issues
• 1900’s – foreign countries
began investing in Latin
America
• Foreign Companies ended up
with a lot of economic power
– They would make money
– The people of Latin America
did not benefit from this
• To improve their economic
situation, they began building
their own factories
• 1970’s things were improving
• 1980’s – the price of oil needed to
run factories rose while the price
of products dropped
• They had to borrow money and
now were in debt
Economic Issues - 2
• Now, Latin America countries do limit how
much foreign countries can invest to avoid
losing control of their economy
• They also trade with one another to get items
that they need cheaper