latin america reading quiz

how amny people in devolping countries live in slums

1/3, just below 1 billion people and contuning to climb.

what percent of migrants are from latin america and US

15

how much of rio live in favellas

25%

how many people live in cities in south aemrica

80%, very ubranized region central america, carribean (70%).

Treaty of Tordesillas

A 1494 agreement between Portugal and Spain, declaring that there would be dividing of terriorty. the spanish would control territory to the east of the line while portugal would control territory to the west. spanish conquered inca and portfugal conquered much of eastern south america in present day brazil .

primate cities

A city which is greater than two times the next largest city in a nation (or contains over one-third of a nation's population). The primate city is usually very expressive of the national culture and often the capital city.

In your own words, explain what a favela is and how they came to be found in the cities in Brazil.

A favela is almost like a slum or ghetto town that is located within the different cities in Brazil. It is a community that was built without a public authority. This includes no building codes and no public services. The people who live in these parts of a city are called, ¨people of the hill.¨ They live very vastly different than the people who live in the, ¨people of the asphalt.¨ With houses being perfectly line with geographic construction in the asphalt, the houses are more stacked on top of each other in the communities of a favela. These are home to both drug gangs, as well as some of the most peaceful and creative parts of Brazil.These places grew out of the hills over time within slavery and migration. Brazil imported 11 times more slaves than the US with the city of Rio being home to more slaves than the entire South America. This slavery built these communities that are now known as favelas. These favelas have also been fueled by massive migrations. Many Brazilians come into the city looking for work, just as the push and pull factors that happened in Europe. With the workers not being able to afford housing, they have to build their own communities. This then led to the massive population of people living in these Favela cities in Brazil.

El Nino

A warm ocean current phase of El NIno-Southern oscillation (ENSO) that flows along the coast of Peru every seven to fourteen years, results in warmer average temperatures and increases the tropical cyclones in americas and rain across south america

Brain Drain

Brain drain is the emigration of workers who are educated or professional from one country or field to another. Essentially they are draining their home country, usually for better pay, economic opportunities, or living conditions. This may provide these families or workers benefits with the improvement of their standard living, health care, education, and investments. The impact on Latin America may be negative in these aspects, with these high skilled workers leaving their country. The country needs these workers to guide their economy. Without them, the growth of the home country would be declined, as the leaders would be leaving for different countries, instead of guiding their own.

Small Island Developing States:

In the Caribbean, there are many different small islands. These small islands usually have a disadvantage to their development, as well as the resources that are being held in these multiple islands. These countries are referred to as Small Island Developing States. Within these small countries, high technology, communication, energy, and transportation have all been difficult aspects in their economic systems. These countries may be small, but still provide for Latin America. These islands still have territories filled around with water resources, as well as contributing to global value. In the Caribbean, the Small Island Developing States have formed the Caribbean community (Caricom), which helps with the cooperation among its countries with the economy.

How does rural to urban migration impact Latin American cities?

Many rural to urban migration countries throughout Latin America. Many poor rural farmers are migrating to the cities with the advance of industrialization in search of work. Middle and South America has many cities consisting of the central business district. This is located in the center of the city alongside a central market. This then leads to many advanced developments with the people who have money vs the people who are poor. There are different zones within the residents and where they are living. This rural to urban migration has also outpaced housing construction. This then leads to low and middle income people being unable to find housing. The impact of Latin American cities has essentially been changed dramatically by this rural to urban migration. It has affected not only the city structure and development, but also the economic and social part of people throughout these different cities.

Offshore Banking:

The countries, particularly in the Caribbean have advanced their economies through offshore banking. These banks are located outside of the country with the offering of increased privacy with barely any taxation. The wealthy utilize these offshore banks, avoiding paying taxes on their income that would be taxable in their home country. These countries that have multiple offshore banking locations can result in a higher GDP, as well as strengthening tax laws and regulations. One main thing that has affected Latin America through offshore banking is the tax that results from it. Many countries have had to update and improve their tax system and laws to prevent tax evasion through offshore banking. Offshore banking does have benefits for the people who use it correctly, but can also create some disadvantages within the tax part of Latin America.

CBD (central business district)

The downtown heart of a central city, the CBD is marked by high land values, a concentration of business and commerce, and the clustering of the tallest buildings. center of city.

altitudinal zonation

The high relief of Central America has created distinct agricultural and livestock zones. as altitude incerases, temperature decreases giving the altitiudinal zone supporting different crops and animals. hot coastal area (tierra caliente) supports tropical crops like bananas and rice. tierra helada (llamas can graze on cool grasses).

Provide evidence to support the fact that there is income inequality in Latin America.

The top 10% of people in Latin America control around 71% of the region's wealth. If this keeps going, the top 1% will have gotten more wealth than the bottom 99%. In Mexico, half of the population lives in poverty, while the rich in Mexico have seen their wealth increase, even with the poverty rates remaining unchanged. In Brazil, the wealthiest 10% of the population owns almost 3 quarters of the country's wealth, just like the US. This inequality has been a product of geography, but also has impacted the landscape. Farmers in Middle and South America have struggled with the land distribution. Many of these countries have taken over colonial land holdings, rather than turning it back over to private farmers. This has worsened rural poverty, as well as contributing to rural to urban migration as farmers leave to find work somewhere else. Government responses to income inequality are different across all of Latin America and the Caribbean. Some of these countries turned to socialism or relying on the income from exports instead of investing little in developing their own infrastructure. Taxation systems have also been affected by income inequality, with the region's poor infrastructure development. The wealthiest people hold their money secretly in order to avoid taxation, preventing governments from being able to use tax revenue. This is just another example of inequality. This inequality can also be said to unequal access to education and political power. These two things, especially with poverty, are directly linked to the inequality in Latin America.

Remittances

When workers leave the region in search of work elsewhere, they often send home remittances. These remittances are transfers of money back to their home country. Many countries have a significant amount of remittances, with some of them being a portion of a country's GDP or the amount of money earned from its largest export. These countries continue to have a huge growth in remittances and the effect it has on the economy. In Latin America, these remittances have also accelerated growth rates and reduced the amount of people from falling below the poverty line. Overall these remittances can help a country's economy as well as help with the financial imports and improve the balance of the national income, as it has done to Latin American countries.

Explain what a megacity is and the distinct challenges megacities often face.

Within South America, the region is home to many different megacities. A megacity is essentially a metropolitan area. This is an area having a large population with a high amount of advances within the economic and social development. These megacities usually contain more than 10 million people. For example, Mexico city, being the capital and primary city of Mexico, has a population of 22 million people. Some other megacities are Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires. These megacities have many different challenges with their huge populations. With over 10 million people, there needs to be affordable housing, as well as employment. Within these large populations, they consist of a bunch of homeless people and slums. Within housing and employment, there needs to be good infrastructure within sanitation to transportation. transportation, health, policing, water, housing, trash

How and/or why can favelas be incredibly vibrant areas of creativity and innovation, but also be very dysfunctional areas?

Within these favelas, most of the community is made up on its own. The streets are made up, as well as the housing lineup. The utilities are also slim, with the people having no training in the public administration. This results in a community design with way more creativity than a traditional city. For example, the electricity is made into multiple lines that are spread all across the city, looking as if it is in one big knot. The favelas are essentially the poverty meeting its creativeness within the chaos of a community without a public official. With not having this public official running the community, there are essentially no rules or leaders helping the community run. This is all up to the people that are living in these favelas, making their areas have creativity and innovation, but also pure chaos with the many different characteristics that make up these favelas.

Liberation Theology

a movement within the Catholic church to understand Christianity from the perspective of the poor and oppressed, with a focus on fighting injustice

central america

a region of seven countries between Mexico and South America including Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. vulnerable to earthquakes and volcanoes and hurricanes

Altiplano

a series of high elevation plains

Maya civilization

began around 2000 BCE and stretched across present-day honduras, guatamela, belize, and yucatan peninsula. had a theocratic structure (king viewed as a divine ruler). devloped a system of a script, calandar, math, astronomy. city states with trading system. architecture, chichen itza. not sure what happened to them. (may have had a to big of a civilization, disease, damage, infighting, environment)

mainland

blending of both indigenous and spanish cultures. there is an ethnic blending as well. Mestizo is someone mixed of euroepan and amerindian (indigenous) american. a number of middle and south american countries have a mestizo population. mainlands were more commmonly home to haciendas (spanish estates where a variety of crops were grown both for local and international markets) workers lived on the land (bad economic with only growing one crop). the size of the hacienda increased social standing of the landowner giving their own plots of land to cultivate.

what is worlds leading offshore banking location

cayman islands.

land alienation

colonization of middle america led to land alienation, where land is taken from one group and claimed by antoher. wealthy european settlers usually took over the indigenous groups land and built hacidas. led to poverty.

aztec empire

devloped later in history during 15 century. centered around the city of tenochtitlan (100,000-200,000 people) now mexico city. architecture, art, trading systems. spanish took over aztecs.

what else has people used to generate income

drugs, cocaine and marijuana. coca (cocaine) grown and harvested in andes mountain region. drug trade led to rise of cartels, drug trafficking organizations, widespread violence in the region. cartels fight eachother for territory. killed more than 100,000 people. US is biggest market for illegal drugs. 60 billion dollars in illegal drugs annually, fudning drug violence and trade in middle and south america. environmental concerns also (75 percent of nicaraguas forests have been cut down). amazon rainforest. AMAZON REGION HAS REMAINED LARGWLY IN THE GLOBAL PERIPheRY.

informal sector

earn money by participating in the informal sector where goods and services are bought and sold without being taxed or monitored by the gov. disamenitity sectors arise along highways, rail lines, or other unoccupied land.

megacity

has over 10 million people. (mexico city, sao paulo, rio de janeiro, brazil and buenos aires, argentina. slums.

caribean aprchipelago

island chain, divided into greater antilles and lesser antilles. greater antiles: cuba, jamaica, hispaniola, cayman islands. lesser antilles: leeward and windward islands, leeward antilles, bahamas.

north america and south america are divided at what

isthmus of panama (narrow strip of land that connects two large landmasses)

Amazon basin

key geographic feature of the continent. amazon river is south americas longest river and largest river in the world in terms of discharge. discharges 209,000 cubic meters every second. its drainage basin covers an area of over 7 million square kilometers

lake nicaragua

large freshwater lake is home to species of fish and provides both economic and recreational benefits to the poeple of nicaragua. plans were approved to build a canal through nicargua to connect the caribbean sea to lake nicaragua and the pacific ocean through many worry about the ecollogical impacts of such a large scale project.

how can middle america be divided into

mainland and rimland. rimland was more accessible for suropean colonists than the mainland. first places explorers landed when they reached the americas. christopher columbus reached the rimland. Mainland is the actual countries. rimalnd is the caribean countries.

do all countries of the world have a primate city

no

squatter settlements

outermost ring in latin america city is the zone of peripheral squatter settlements. reseidents do not own or pay rent, instead occupt otherwise unusued land known as squatting.

Laws of the Indies

regulated social economic and political life in territories taht were controlled by spain. prescribed a very specific set of urban planning guildlines (building towns and roads).

brazils largest favela

rio de janerio, home to 70,000 poeple.

rimlands sprawling plantations

salves were focused on growign crops, mostly sugar for export. most in the region practiced subsistence farming, where farmers grow enough food to feed themselves and their families. plantation farms are farms only growing a single crop. rimalnd is still home to a number of plantations. with the bleding of european and african cultures being a prominent part of the landscape.

indigenous groups

settled in middle america who orginially migrated from north america. some went to the isthmus of panama to south america. founded the mesoamcerican cultural hearth (earliest civiliztions in the world). Maya and Aztec had a strong impact on the cultural landscape.

south american colonial landsacpe

south america, france, netherlands, and united kingdom established colonies. did planatations and slave labor. colonization changed the urban landscape of the americas as well as the rurual devlopemnt patters. development refers to economic, social, and instituation advancements and levels of development vary widely across the region. South america, land was taken from indigenous groups and changed into their own. Built new structures. 19th century, most of the colonies f middle and south america gained indepdnece. larger colonial indepndece seperated into smaller independent states. states of central america formed a federal republic leading into civil war. most of mainland of middle and south america in independent, except for french guinana (french territory and home to eurpean space agency). US, France, unite dkindogn, neteralnds all have territoeis in carribean.

dependency theory

states that resources flow from the periphery to the core with globalization and inequaity are linked in the current world system. some see it as critquing the specifics of the theory, others see it as a useful way to understand relationshpi between core and periphery.

south americas andes mountains

stretch from venezuela down to chile and argentina, formed from the subduction fo the nazca and antartica plates below the south american plate. highest mountains outside of Asia.

connection between caribean sea and the pacifc ocean

through panama canal. started in 1881 by french, but failed. 22,000 workers were killed. Us helped panama achieve indepdence from columbia and panama granted US rights to build and control the canal. project was completed and panama regained control of the cnanal in 1999. accommodated around 1,000 ships per year. 15,000 ships pass through each year. takes 8-10 hours for a ship to pass through.

inca founded the city state kingdom of cusco

true

south american colonial landscape

variety of ancient cultures were found in south america prior to colonization. indigenous groups settled in a variety of environments, some in coastal plans and other in amazon basin.