- Beginning about 1870: European industrial revolution stimulates change in Latin American economies and politics.
o Latin American producers respond to growing demands and increase commodity output.
o New economic demands needed peace and continuity in government.
o Encouraged by increased stability, European capital flowed into Latin America and helped to create much needed facilities to expand and modernize production and trade.
o Gradual adoption of free trade policies helped to integrate Latin America into the world economy.
- The new economic system created new dependencies on Latin America, namely from Great Britain and the United States; hence Neocolonial.
o Neocolonial order had stability until 1914 despite local breakdowns and built in flaws.
o WWI ended the neocolonial era by disrupting world markets and impairing Latin America's ability to import the manufactured goods required by the continent.
- Between 1870 and 1914, the continent as a whole saw rapid growth; however, the growth was uneven in pace and degree.
o Some countries like Bolivia and Paraguay joined the advance much later than others.
- Marked Feature of Neocolonialism: Monoculture.
o One or a few primary products because the bases of prosperity for each country; under-diversification.
Argentina and Uruguay: Wheat and Meat.
Brazil: Coffee, sugar.
Chile: Copper, nitrates.
Honduras: Bananas.
Cuba: Sugar .
Made the system highly vulnerable to fluctuations in the world market and price of products.
Expansion of the Hacienda System.
- The neocolonial order evolved within the framework of the traditional system of land tenure and labor relations.
o The hacienda (latifundio) a system expanded to a much greater scale than in the Colonial era.
Hacienda: a large estate (plantation).
- Great landowners assaulted the surviving Indian populations as the European demands for products increases.
o This reflected an effort to eliminate Indian competition in the emerging economies.
Women, as a whole, must refute those claims that preservation of those customs today is a way of resisting the neocolonialism or imperialism and holding on to the traditional values. ... Nevertheless, as the women of Guinea have demonstrated, sometimes the women triumph. ...
