The Latin American Economy - Steilacoom Latin American Economy ... foreign investments and the Great...
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The Latin American Economy During the 1920s and 1930s, foreign investments and the Great Depression led some Latin American nations to emphasize domestic industry to balance their economies.
Transcript of The Latin American Economy - Steilacoom Latin American Economy ... foreign investments and the Great...
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The Latin American Economy
During the 1920s and 1930s, foreign investments and the Great Depression led some Latin American nations to emphasize domestic industry to balance their economies.
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• Many Latin American nations focused on the export of one or two products.
– Argentina: beef and wheat
– Chile: nitrates and copper
– Brazil and Caribbean nations: sugar
– Central America: bananas
The Latin American Economy (cont.)
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• By the 1920s, the United States became the largest investor in Latin America, replacing Great Britain.
• American firms gained control of copper-mining industries in Chile and Peru and the oil industry in Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia.
• U.S. businesses sometimes supported harsh dictators, such as Juan Vicente Gómez, to protect their investments.
The Latin American Economy (cont.)
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• President Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the Good Neighbor Policy, rejecting the use of U.S. military force in Latin America on principle.
• As a result of the Great Depression, U.S. and European countries imported fewer goods from Latin American nations, devastating their economies.
The Latin American Economy (cont.)
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• Latin Americans could not afford to import manufactured goods from abroad, so governments began to encourage new manufacturing businesses.
• Individuals did not have the money to start new businesses, leading many countries to set up government-run companies.
The Latin American Economy (cont.)
Figure 5
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Authoritarian Rule
In most Latin American countries, a small group of church leaders, military leaders, and large landowners controlled politics.
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• In the 1930s the Depression and domestic instability led many governments in Latin America to become militaristic or authoritarian.
• Argentina
Authoritarian Rule (cont.)
– Argentina was controlled by an oligarchy of landowners who made large profits from cattle and wheat exports.
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– The middle-class Radical Party, under Hipólito Irigoyen, became concerned with the increasing power of the industrial workers.
– Irigoyen eventually became corrupt and was overthrown by military officers who wanted to stop industrialization and return to the old export economy.
Authoritarian Rule (cont.)
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– During World War II, military officers formed a new government called the Group of United Officers and elected Juan Perón as president.
Authoritarian Rule (cont.)
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• Brazil – Large landowners who became rich from coffee plantation revenues controlled the republican government in Brazil.
– In 1930 a military coup made Getúlio Vargas president of Brazil.
– In 1937 Vargas made himself a dictator and ruled as an authoritarian with some fascist like features.
Authoritarian Rule (cont.)
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– Vargas focused on new industries which made Brazil Latin America’s chief industrial power.
– The military forced Vargas to resign in 1945.
Authoritarian Rule (cont.)
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• Mexico
– The Mexican Revolution reduced the power of landowners and created a relatively stable political order.
– The Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, controlled the major groups within Mexican society and chose the party’s presidential candidate.
Authoritarian Rule (cont.)
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– In 1934 President Lázaro Cárdenas gained enormous support when he redistributed 44 million acres of land to landless Mexican peasants and took a strong stand with the United States over oil.
– Cardenas seized foreign-owned oil companies, infuriating the United States, which did not intervene because of the Good Neighbor Policy.
Authoritarian Rule (cont.)
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– The Mexican government paid the oil companies for their property and set up PEMEX, a national oil company, to run the oil industry.
Authoritarian Rule (cont.)
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Culture in Latin America
Latin American artists adapted the styles of European modern art to express themes relevant to their own culture.
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• New European art styles began to influence Latin American art when artists studying abroad brought back modern techniques.
• In major cities, wealthy elites became interested in the new styles, such as abstract art.
Culture in Latin America (cont.)
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• Many writers and artists, such as Diego Rivera, used their work to promote nationalism.
• Rivera wanted people to remember Mexico’s past, especially the Mexican Revolution.
Culture in Latin America (cont.)
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