South America Reading (Part 3)

Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín

Revolutionaries such as Simón Bolívar of Venezuela and José de San Martín of Argentina, helped most South American countries win independence.

Spanish Comes For Gold

Silver and gold were important resources in the Inca culture. The precious metals and the wealth of farmers of the Inca Empire attracted Spanish conquistadors to Peru.

Gold

Since 2007, the price of gold has doubled in value. For gold-producing countries such as Peru, the sixth-largest producer in the world, this has presented a potential for immense wealth and economic development.

Soil Regeneration

A millimeter of soil is generated in about 100 years. Therefore, soil erosion is a more rapid process than soil generation.

The Fall of the Incas and Spread of the Spanish

After defeating the Inca army and its rulers, they looted the empire's capital and network of cities. The Inca connected their vast empire with a network of roads that extended throughout the empire. This allowed the Spanish conquerors to move quickly through the region. Spanish conquistadors expanded into Colombia, Argentina, and Chile.

Problem of Establishing Effective Policies

Another issue for establishing effective policies is that regulations established by governments or international agreements could restrict countries' access to natural resources for export production. South American countries that lack the money to invest in alternative export resources are reluctant to establish environmental restrictions.

Railways and Airports

Argentina and Brazil have well-developed rail systems, which are important modes of transportation along with the inland waterways. All South American capital cities and major cities have domestic and international airports

Argentina and Uruguay Team Up to Fight Pollution

Argentina is a global role model for setting voluntary greenhouse gas emissions targets. In 2010 Argentina and Uruguay formed a joint effort to monitor pollution along the Uruguay River, which defines the Argentina-Uruguay border.

Europeans in South America

Argentina's population is 97 percent European, the majority of people are descendants of Spanish and Italian immigrants. Towns in the lakes region of southern Chile exhibit architecture, cuisine, and traditions influenced by its German population.

Early Civilizations

Before the Inca established their empire in the Andes, other early indigenous groups, such as the Moche, Mapuche, and Aymara developed societies that were based primarily on agriculture.

Brazil and Paraguay

Brazil is the world's largest exporter of coffee. Brazil and Paraguay also cultivate today's fastest-growing crop in the global economy: soybeans. Paraguay is the sixth-largest producer of soybeans in the world.

Celebration in Brazil

Carnival is celebrated in the week before the Roman Catholic observance of Lent. People from around the world come to Rio de Janeiro to participate in Carnival celebrations.

Cocoa Can Be A Drug

Coca's derivative can also be used to make the illegal drug cocaine. Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia have nonetheless legalized coca farming. They did so because, sold in its legal form, it is a large source of profit for these countries.

Colombia Free Trade Agreements

Colombia has taken advantage of its more stable economy by promoting free-trade agreements with other countries. Colombia implemented the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement with the United States in 2012. Colombia is negotiating free-trade agreements with other Latin American countries, such as Chile and Mexico, as well as with countries outside South America. Additionally, Colombia has 59 bilateral or regional trade agreements—more than any other country.

South American Brain Drain

Countries across the region are experiencing brain drain to North America and Europe as people search for a better life.

Exploiting the Forests

Countries are taking advantage of such resources to improve their economies and overall wealth. Issues such as deforestation, soil erosion, desertification, and pollution have been significant problems for all countries in South America.

Amazon Rain Forest

Deforestation is occurring at a rapid rate in the Amazon rain forest. This has reduced the diversity of plants and animals there. Brazil has the world's largest remaining expanses of tropical rain forest, but almost 20 percent of the Amazon rain forest has already been destroyed.

Animals Also Cause Desertification

Desertification also occurs in rangelands, which support a large population of grazing animals such as cattle and sheep. Grazing livestock consume plants almost to ground level. This weakens plants' ability to grow.

Changing Mindset to Truly Help Everyone

Despite measures taken to produce effective policies, there is a weak foundation of air and water quality management among South American countries. Efforts are focused more on primary metropolitan areas rather than smaller urban regions, which are now among the urban areas of South America with the most rapid growth rates.

Rise of Democracy

Dictatorships have given way to democratically elected governments across South America. Today, however, these countries are struggling with many issues. These include political corruption and violence, wide gaps between the rich and poor, unemployment, and protecting the rights of indigenous groups.

Population Density

Ecuador, the most densely populated country in South America, has an average of 132 people per square mile. Brazil has a population of nearly 200 million. Brazil has about 3.2 million square miles, its average population density is about 60 people per square mile.

Exporters of Oil and Natural Gas

Energy resources include petroleum and natural gas. Venezuela, Ecuador, and Argentina are leading exporters.

Industrialization and Development of South America

High rates of population growth is beginning to slow. Urban populations now include fewer children as well as women and men with increased levels of education.

Asian Immigrants in South America

In Guyana almost half of the population is South Asian descent. People of Chinese descent have immigrated to Peru. Many people of Japanese descent live in Brazil, Argentina, and Peru. In countries with South Asian populations people also speak Urdu, Javanese, and Caribbean Hindustani, a dialect of Hindi. As a result, people in South America are often bilingual.

Problems and Risks of Gold Mining

In Peru, for example, tens of thousands of people have set up camp in the Amazon rain forest in search of vast gold reserves. Alongside individual prospecting, large-scale mining by use of bulldozers and barges has also increased. Rapid deforestation has resulted from rapid migration, makeshift housing, and industrial-scale mining operations. Also, because miners use mercury and other toxic compounds to separate gold from ore, high levels of mercury and cyanide pollution in rivers have been reported.

Farmers Trying To Find Jobs

In São Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Bogotá, finding employment and suitable living conditions is difficult for migrants arriving in the city. Rural-to-urban migrants seek higher wages, better living conditions, and sometimes an escape from the violence of drug cartels or criminal groups.

Inspiration to Revolt

In the 1800s, independence movements arose in South America. Inspired by the French and American Revolutions, as well as by the struggles for independence in Mexico and the Caribbean.

Economic Activities

Land and water use in South America closely follow physical geography, forestry prevails in the Amazon Basin, ranching is widespread in the grasslands of the south, herding llamas and alpacas occurs in the high Andean regions, and fishing occurs in major lakes, rivers, and along coastlines. Agriculture remains highly important in South America. More than 20 percent of the subregion's workforce is employed in the primary sector that includes farming, ranching, and fishing. The legacy of the hacienda system still exists in South America. Larger commercial and smaller subsistence agriculture exist side by side.

Monoculture Causes Problems On the Land

Monoculture depletes the soil of its nutrients. It disrupts the natural cycle of growth and breakdown of plants, animals, and bacteria. Without these natural processes, soil cannot rebuild its nutrients. Vast monoculture soybean crops in Brazil, for example, are quickly depleting soil fertility.

Present-Day Indigenous Groups

Most indigenous groups, of which there are more than 350, live in the Andes region of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.

People Settlements

Most people live on or near the coasts and along major rivers of the continent. These coastal regions offer favorable climates, fertile land, and access to transportation. The rain forests, deserts, and mountainous areas of South America's interior have discouraged human settlement. Today about 80 percent of the subregion's population lives in urban areas.

Music

Music also has ancient ties. Panpipes are one of the most common pre-Columbian musical instruments from the Andean region. Musical traditions later mixed Native American, African, and European influences to create unique styles. The Brazilian samba, Chilean cumbia, and the Argentine tango exemplify the diversity of music developed from a mixture of cultural and geographical roots.

Natural Resources

Natural resources include timber, gold, silver, copper, iron ore, and tin. South America contains about one-fifth of the world's iron ore, which is used for steel making and machine building.

Effect of Lack of Disposing Human Waste and Sewage

One example is the Bolivian city of El Alto, which is located along the Pallina River that flows into Lake Titicaca. El Alto has seen rapid growth resulting in increased pollution from human waste and sewage. The polluted Pallina River had once been a source of clean water for the people who lived on its banks, but now the waters that flow into Lake Titicaca are contaminated.

Rain Forests

Rain forests harbor at least half of all animal and plant species on Earth.

Agriculture Products

South America's contribution to agricultural global trade includes grains, soybeans, coffee, cocoa, citrus, cattle, sugarcane, tobacco, and cotton.

Other Religion

Tens of millions of people practice syncretism, a combination of mixed religions, such as Macumba and Candomblé, which combine West African religions with Roman Catholicism. Other minority religions include Protestant Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto, Islam, Judaism, and Eastern Orthodox Christianity.

The Incas Civilization

The Inca later established a highly developed civilization in the area. At its height, the Inca Empire stretched from present-day Ecuador to central Chile.

The Incas Building

The Inca were skilled engineers. They built temples and fortresses and laid out a network of roads that crossed mountain passes and penetrated forests. Inca farmers cut terraces into the slopes of the Andes and built irrigation systems. Machu Picchu, Peru's most well-known archaeological site, is a grand display of Inca engineering that is remarkably preserved.

Other European Settlement

The Portuguese settled on the coast of Brazil, and the British, French, and Dutch later settled in parts of northern South America.

Womens Rights Grow

The elevation of women's rights has grown as countries have established more stable governments and economies in the past few decades. The result is an increasing proportion of women entering the workforce. Some countries now provide shelters for abused women and enforce stricter penalties for offenders.

Unhealthy Population

The health of a country's people is linked to poverty, lack of sanitation, infectious diseases, and malnutrition. These conditions persist in rural areas and especially in the slums on the outskirts of cities where millions of people live in overcrowded conditions.

The Atlantic Forest

The loss of biodiversity is also occurring in Brazil's lesser known Atlantic Forest, one of Earth's richest and most threatened habitats. The Atlantic Forest now covers less than 10 percent of its original area.

Road Systems

The major road systems in South America include the Pan-American Highway that stretches through Chile as it links many cities north to south, and the Trans-Andean Highway that links cities in Chile and Argentina east and west.

Religion

The majority of South Americans are Roman Catholic. Carnival is celebrated in the week before the Roman Catholic observance of Lent, a 40-day period of fasting and prayer before Easter.

Traditional Art

The massive buildings of the ancient Inca at Cuzco and Machu Picchu reveal a mastery of stone and engineering that are still studied today for their ingenuity. Traditional arts and crafts dating from before the arrival of the Europeans such as weaving, ceramics, and metal working have been passed from generation to generation.

Oxisols Problems

The oxisols, sometimes known as laterites, can degrade into a baked clay-like form when too much of the natural vegetation cover is removed. The removal of topsoil occurs as a result of intensive agriculture, especially on landscapes that have been cultivated for long periods of time.

Desertification

The primary cause of desertification is not drought, but rather mismanagement of land by human activities such as overgrazing of livestock and deforestation.

Factors Causing Pollution

The problems include urban sprawl, longer distances that residents travel within cities, increased use of cars, and inefficient public transport systems.

Countries with Strong Livestock Industries

This process of desertification in rangelands is a serious issue in places with a strong livestock industry: Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, and Paraguay.

Illegal Gold Mining

Though clashes between security forces and miners have created hostility and further chaos, countries affected by illegal mining have made efforts to regulate the vulnerable regions. Colombia is cracking down on illegal mining because anti-government guerrilla groups have been using profits from illegal mining to finance their efforts. Brazil has employed 8,700 military personnel to fight illegal gold mining along its northern borders.

Solution of Establishing Policies to Help the Environment

To promote the growth of sustainable economies, more developed countries must work closely with less developed countries in South America. Assistance in the area of enforcing and creating policies is of great importance.

Dictators Rule South America

With military backing, caudillos, or dictators, throughout South America seized power in the nineteenth century. Caudillos often gained power illegally and with much bloodshed among civilians. Dictatorships have given way to democratically elected governments across South America. Today, however, these countries are struggling with many issues. These include political corruption and violence, wide gaps between the rich and poor, unemployment, and protecting the rights of indigenous groups.

Passing Down Knowledge Through Stories (Incas)

With no Inca written language, knowledge was passed on to each generation through storytelling.

The Work Force Provides For Women

Work codes in Chile and Colombia provide benefits for pregnant employees, and women's earnings are increasing in comparison to men's wages.

Oxisol

a thick, weathered soil of the humid tropics that is largely depleted of fertility and nutrients

Uneven Development

condition in which some places do not benefit as much as others from social and economic advancement

Soil erosion

has diminished the ability of soils to produce food and vegetation. Intensive farming, construction, logging, fires, and overgrazing all increase the rate of soil erosion.

Paraguay Fighting for the Forests

in response to the high rate of deforestation, the country's government passed the Zero Deforestation Law in 2004. This law prohibits forested areas from being converted to landscapes for other uses in the eastern region of Paraguay. The law's enforcement has dramatically reduced Paraguay's deforestation rate.

The compadre relationship

in which parents and godparents share in the upbringing of a child, is valued in parts of Latin America. However, changes brought about by urban society have diminished its overall importance.

South America

is home to some of the largest reserves of forest and agricultural resources in the world.

The South American Continent

is the world's fourth-largest continent. The continent's 12 countries are home to nearly 400 million people. Like much of the rest of the developing world population growth is steady, and so is the migration of people into large, urban areas.

Quipu

knotted cords of various lengths and colors used by the Inca to keep financial and historical records.

Cover Crops

plants that cover topsoil after crops have been harvested, prevent potential soil erosion from wind and water. At large scales, plant cover can contribute to more regular rainfall patterns, reducing the occurrence of drought and further soil erosion.

Monoculture

the cultivation or growth of a single crop over a wide area for a consecutive number of years

Family

the family unit is likely to consist of a nuclear household father, mother, and dependent children rather than an extended family. Loyalty and responsibility toward the extended family, however, remain very strong.

Brain Drain

the loss of highly educated and skilled workers to other countries

The Trans-Amazonian Highway

was built by Brazil to access the Amazon rain forest for developing timber and mineral resources.

The Transoceanic Highway

was designed to link the Amazon River ports with Peru's ports on the Pacific to transport agricultural products to the global markets in Asia and Europe