Modern Latin America

Argument: For the past several weeks we have been trying to understand how the 19th Century has unfolded throughout Latin America. We now understand that the first 50 years of the post Independence period the new Latin American republics were engulf in a cycle of civil wars, nation-state building attempts, invasions, and political battles between the two main factions: Liberals and Conservatives.  The period also was affected by  two aspects, the first is material/economic and the second is ideological/cultural. During the next two weeks, we will spend more time, so far, discussing the ramifications and significance of neocolonialism on the lives of Latin Americans and their structure of their political institution. In these lecture, we will discuss neocolonialism writ large and explain how it ultimately produced changes in Latin American political and intellectual thought.

Between 1870 and 1930, Latin American countries changed tremendously. As neocolonialism produced a great export boom, governments radically restructured themselves to accommodate exploitation by foreign investors. Ironically, while neocolonialism initially stabilized Latin American countries it also produced situations which were increasingly untenable. By 1910, numerous revolutions erupted throughout Latin America, rebelling against the insidious influence of the United States. By the 1920s, a tide of nationalism rose in country after country. Finally, the neocolonial mold was shattered totally by the 1929 implosion of the New York stock exchange. As the international system of trade and finance came crashing down around everyone’s ears, and the world slid gradually into two stormy decades of Depression and war, Latin Americans would begin a challenging period of nation-building. But before we can tell that story, we must first look at the slow dismantling of neocolonialism.

Evidence:

Great Export Boom

a. As discussed on Friday, between 1870-1930, elite and middle class Latin Americans experienced a sustained economic growth never equaled before or since.

b. The quantity of railroad tracks in the region went from 2,000 to 59,000 miles between 1870 and 1900.

c. The direct beneficiaries of this export bonanza were the large landowners and the urban middle-class who performed secondary functions in the import/export economy.

d. The arrival of the railroad benefited the owners of large Mexican estates and drove a lot of peasants off the land, allowing the landlords to extend their holdings while forcing the peasants to become their employees.

e. The anatomy of the export boom.

f. This export boom produced neocolonial landscapes which dramatically changed Latin America.

g. Sugar production and mining were always massive, industrialized operations that divided societies ruthlessly into rich and poor.

h. Short and long of it was that Under Neocolonialism, rural education level dropped, live expectancy decreased, wages stagnated, and voting became a sham.

Authoritarian Rule: Oligarchies and Dictatorships

a. Under positivist political rule, the profits of the export boom flooded directly into government tax revenues.

b. Ultimately, stable authoritarian governments came to character the neocolonial period.

c. After 1880, authoritarian governments preserved republican forms but actually functioned as dictatorships or oligarchies.

d. The classic dictator in Latin America during this period was Porfirio Diaz.

e. Diaz founded the famous rurales (mounted national police) to secure an environment for investors.

f. But these sort of manipulation could not be sustained and the Mexican Revolution was the result.