South America’s Political Geography, Research Paper Example

Abstract

This paper analyzes the political structure or geography of South America. In addition, the various impacts of the political Geography is also tackled. There are additional issues that may arise from the analysis that are in line with the current world political issues. Possible future trends are also given much consideration in the analysis. The necessary historical and chronological developments in the political history of the continent are also covered in details. It all begins by locating the South American Continent.

Introduction

South America is a continent located east of Pacific Ocean, and is bordered to the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean (Maps of World, 2010). The continent is made up of twelve different independent countries, each with distinctive leadership organization. Other than the twelve countries, there are three dependencies. These are –French Guiana (territories of France), Falkland (United Kingdom’s overseas territories) and the ABC islands which are the overseas territories of Netherlands. The South American continent therefore has a complex structure when it comes to political geography. Political Geography displays the overall leadership patterns and milestones of a specific area from a time in history.

The impact of political geography is felt on a number of aspects in the nature of operations within that specific area. In analyzing South America’s political geography, the impact on multilateral organizations and regional governance are more pronounced. Leadership and governance in South America is interesting to consider as a case study since most of the political aspects are covered in such an analysis.

South America’s Political Geography

This analyzes both the internal and external associations that exists between governments and citizens in the South America.

Historical Issues

The continent was colonized by the European bodies. The colonists defined the ancient political Geography of the continent. In the early colonization era, the continent had not matured fully in terms of political structures. In the year 1494, the Tordesillas treaty granted both Spain and Portugal the powers to colonize all the lands that existed outside Europe (Barton, 1997). In addition, it also established demarcation of lands. As a result of the demarcation rights granted, all lands to the west of the line were given to Spain whereas those that fell to the east were exclusively given to Portugal.

As a result of this demarcation, most of the South American lands were colonized by Spain while Portugal had a larger share of Brazil. Spanish and Portuguese languages dominated in the continent as a result of the influence of colonial powers. In addition, Catholic missionaries were also held responsible for the spread of these languages through the spread of education.

Intermarriages between the natives and European colonialist people resulted into the emergence of the mestizo class. The term is used to refer to people with a mixed European ancestry. In the present situation, the mestizo make up South America’s largest occupants. Most of the South America’s countries are made up of these people, and they have ever since been increasing in number.

The mestizos were the key figures in the South America’s revolutionary movements. They are considered the key initiators of the revolts that were aimed at making the different nations within the continent independent. There were several wars fought for independence between 1806 and 1826 (Rumney, 2013). The wars, amidst regional conflicts that took place in that period contributed towards creating distinctive boundaries that exist in the present day’s South American continent. They clearly created borders between countries making up the continent, which are still recognized in the present political geography of South America. Some of the key evolutionary leaders at that time included Simon Bolivar from Venezuela and Jose de San from Argentina. These two figures remain the most recognized in South America based on the revolutionary movements that happened in South America.

South America also underwent numerous political transitions during the periods of 1960s and the 1970s. These periods were marked by events of the Cold War, and the struggle, globally, between the democrats and the repressive nations. In 1959, the Cuban revolution emerged successful in bringing communism to Cuba. This caused fear in the United States and other western unions since they were not for communism. In an attempt to destroy communist powers, the US overthrew governments of nations as Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Contemporary Issues

In the present, South America’s political Geography mainly directs efforts towards minimization or even complete elimination of foreign influence. To support this statement, there have been many steps taken to nationalize and privatize industries within the continent. Most of the South American nations have nationalized resources such as electricity and oil production plants.

In terms of its political organization today, the continent is made up of thirteen independent countries. All the thirteen nations have written constitutions, and are all republics. Among the thirteen, twelve have adopted the presidential system of government, like that practiced in the United States and many other countries of the world. The Trinidad and Tobago still use the parliamentary system of government. Three of its countries- Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela use the federal system of government.

Most of these countries have universal adult suffrage, and in addition, voting literacy requirements have been sagged, or even eliminated in some of the parts. In the rural areas, poverty, geographic remoteness, and poor education provisions deter people from exercising their voting rights. The low standards of education that exist in the rural parts of some countries have greatly reduced the extent to which people participate in the democratic processes. However, in some of the countries, democratization has brought in new energy in the grassroots political activities.

Brazil is South America’s largest country. Like a majority of the countries, its president is elected in a four-year term. In the same ticket, the vice president is elected. The responsibilities of the president range from directing the Federal Administration, approving legislation, linking the country with other nations, presiding over celebrations, and declaring war and peace, among other many key responsibilities. According to the Brazilian provisions, all people, male and female have equal voting rights which they must exercise in a four years’ interval. The Federal Constitution grants the democratic system with a bill or rights in its article 5 which grants everyone the basic freedom provisions such as movement, voting, expression and others. This is inscribed in a written constitution.

Just like Brazil, nearly all the countries in South America currently practice the democratic system of government. Regional leadership takes place in line with individual countries’ political systems. There are more developments as a result of political stability that has been realized in nations making up the continent. The political geography has had significant impacts on certain dimensions within the South American continent.

Multi-lateral Institutions in South America

A majority of multilateral institutions which the Americas are part are more to the Latin America. Many of the South American republics are part of these multilateral organizations. In taking a closer look at Brazil, the roles of such multilateral establishments such as the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank are very significant. These roles can be compared to economically to those of the republic of Chile.

Chile has been miles ahead of the rest of the South American countries (Brazil included) with respect to social as well as economic developments. In the last decade, it has thus been addressed with non-lending multilateral banks. These two countries have set a pace providing a strong economic background in South America.

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

This bank is useful in funding most of the development projects in the Americas. Most of the South American and Latin America’s projects have received substantial financial aids from the Inter-American development bank. In the year 2008, the bank funded the Private Sector Mapping in the thirteen nations of South America, and the Caribbean (Dosch, & Jacob, 2010). It involved a study of over five hundred large and medium-sized companies and organizations. These were mainly firms that were interested in working with low income populations, which include the rural regions that are not in a position to participate in the democratic processes. These have been identified in the political geography section.

The Inter-American Development Bank is also contemplating funding a projects across five countries in South America with the intention of business expansion. The bank has been a major economic stronghold in the South American region, and by extension to the entire Americas. Economic development programs have received huge support in terms of funds from the IDB. Most of the countries that receive support from the IDB have common political structures, mostly federal and democratic. This has limited divergence of policies, especially economic, that have had significant effect on the member countries.

Spanish Agency for International Development (AECID) and Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DANIDA)

The link that exists between the two has been important in strengthening the economic status of the Danish people. The major activities that the AECID gets involved in is participating in renewable resources management. Some of the major initiatives that exist in line with the partnership programs include involves conversion of coffee waste into bioethanol (by AECID) and development of carbon market (by DANIDA). There have been substantial developments accredited to the initiatives participated in by DANIDA and AECID, to the benefit of the South American countries. Government ministries such as the DANIDA have played an active role in collaborating with these multilateral organizations to see into the development programs put in place in the continent.

CAF Development Bank of South and Latin America

CAF is a multilateral financial institution that was set up in 1970s to look into the development programs of eighteen countries making up Latin America. There are many South American countries that were included in this program. The bank promotes development programs through credit terms, offering of grants, and providing of private and public financial structuring to sectors in Latin and South America as a whole.

The bank has bases in Venezuela. It has an upper hand in promoting regional integration via timely and accurate provision of important financial services in South America and Latin America. The benefits that have been derived out of the services offered by the CAF development bank are outstanding. Political influence has not impacted negatively on the operations of the bank, since it mainly uses the economic policies set by the regional economists.

The roles played by the multilateral organizations in South America are more towards economic empowerment and development. There have been many of these institutions, especially in the form of banking institutions that play a key function in funding major projects in the respective countries. Governments’ collaboration through the various ministries has improved the development rates through the activities of these multilateral organizations.

Regional Governance in South America

Early in the 1980s and 1990s, there were numerous decentralization reforms in the South America (Grugel & Riggirozzi, 2009). Nearly every country passed laws to have independent regional governance. Regional democratic governance was set in many of South America’s nations. The pioneers of regional governance were Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, and Guatemala islands (Brazilian Consulate, 2013).

Decentralization in governance is not news in South America. Most of these systems were inherited from the Spanish colonial powers upon the attainment of independence by the member states. According to the political experts of the 1990s, the decentralization reforms would make the government services more accessible to the citizens.

Decentralization of governance either redistributed power within the state or redistributed power between the state and the citizens. There has been the emergence of subnational governments in the region. The main objective of this move was to create an electoral competition between the different regions in one nation. At times, the subnational governance becomes much stronger than the national governance.

Argentina has gone through a sustained process regarding the process regional governance and administrative decentralization. This has promoted the basis for normative and economic debates in the country. Governments have been structured in a way that responsibilities are allocated to various division within the country. Municipal levels of administration have been delegated to numerous functions that would otherwise be performed by the central governments.

Regional governance in South America differs from one region to another. It all began from the decentralization of authority that was done in most of the countries in the 1990s. There have been numerous economic as well as political developments that have been seen as a result of regional governance in the South American countries.

Conclusion

South America’s development programs can be viewed from a variety of dimensions. The favorable political Geography that exists in the continent is responsible for the many development programs that are being undertaken in the member states. The active role played by the multilateral institutions like the banking organizations in the Latin America have brought about significant net contribution to the entire continent. Incorporation of governments’ collaboration with the multilateral organizations facilitates equitable distribution of economic resources. The democratic and federal systems of government that have been adopted by most of the countries in South America have brought about stable political moods in the continent. Decentralization of authority, what makes up regional governance in specific member countries has had significant effects on the political situations of the continent. The roles played by the colonial powers have had significant impact relating to the governance styles in South America.

References

Barton, J. R. (1997). A political geography of Latin America. New York: Routledge.

Becard, D. R. (2013). Emerging Multilateralism between China and Latin America. San Francisco. International Studies Association. From http://files.isanet.org/ConferenceArchive/8e68163e7e564a3fbb0d75e7cc99b721.pdf

Bessa, F. D. H. & Click R. (2012). The new role of Multilateral Institutions in Brazil in the 2010’s- a comparative analysis with Chile. Brazil. George Washington University. From http://www.gwu.edu/~ibi/minerva/Spring2012/Bessa.pdf

Brazilian Consulate (2013). About Brazil. New York. BACC Travel. From http://www.bacctravel.com/info-brazil.html

Dosch, J., & Jacob, O. (2010). Asia and Latin America: Political, economic and multilateral relations. London: Routledge.

Grugel, J., & Riggirozzi, P. (2009). Governance after neoliberalism in Latin America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Maps of World (2010). South American Map. Maps of World. From http://www.mapsofworld.com/south-america/

Rumney, T. A. (2013). The geography of South America: A scholarly guide and bibliography.