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Colonialism In Latin America

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I’ve always asked to myself about the interest of Latin American people about socialism and communism. Although personally I admire socialism and the socialist heroes like Ernesto Che Guevara, Fidel Castro etc., this is not our topic. Nations of Latin America have founded socialist regimes in the 20th century by not only they were influenced from the ideology of Marx and Engels, but mostly with the aim of redistributing the wealth among the Latin American people. From the era of Simon Bolivar, until today’s Latin America, Latin America has struggled for liberation from the West. But what was the cause of this inequality? What were the actions that made the idea of liberation popular in Latin America? In this essay I will try to analyse the …show more content…

In 1500, the continent had the population of 50 million people. The same year, the US area had only 5 million (Robert C. Allen, 2011). The arrival of Iberian people, has changed the dynamics of the entire continent. South America was more suitable for agricultural production. To give an example, Mexico and Peru were a natural habitat for maize and beans, squash, potatoes, quinoa, tobacco etc., the goods that Europe has never heard of before. There is a significantly wide myth that the cause of the inequality is the colonialism. It can be true from some points of view however there are some strong pieces of evidence proving …show more content…

For example, North America is closer to Europe, which is the main market for colonial exports. Also the transport between North America itself was easier due to it’s rivers like Hudson, Mississippi, making easier the inner transport and exportation. However, we cannot tell the same for South America. The region does not have the same advantage as Northern America. The economic activity mostly took place in Mexico and Andes. These regions are hard to reach, making exportation costs higher and due to geographical location, making exportation to Europe harder. Brazil was making sugar exportations via Sao Tome with the collaboration of Portuguese. Later on, after the Dutch-Portuguese war Dutch occupied Pernambuco, one of the major sugar exportation centre’s. As Allen stated in his book “When they left, they took the knowledge of sugar production with them, and its cultivation was introduced into the Caribbean. Caribbean producers were closer to Europe and could undercut their rivals in Brazil: the price of sugar in Amsterdam dropped from three- quarters of a guilder per pound in 1589 to one-quarter of a guilder in 1688. Brazilian plantations could not compete at that price, and the Brazilian sugar boom was over. The country’s economic history for the next three centuries was one staple boom after the other: gold (early 18th century), coffee (1840–1930), rubber

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