Lecture Notes of America

1.29 Lecture ● Geographic imaginary: perception of a space or place based on images, texts, discourses, and experiences 2.3 Lecture ● The “making of Latin America” ○ Physical boundaries ■ Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) ● Drew the territories and took land from Mexico ■ Panama Canal Zone (1989) ○ Demographic change ■ Demographic collapse: ~95% of indigneous Americans died after the arrival of Europeans ■ Violence, disease, and slavery amounted to possibly the worst demographic collapse in human history ○ Development patterns ■ Government setups ■ plantations/ranching styles 2.5 Lecture ● Map quiz features: ○ Amazon Basin ○ Andes ○ Panama canal ○ Yucatan ○ Lake Titicaca ○ Patagonia ○ In the Carribean only: Cuba, Hati, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico 2.10 Lecture ● Mario Varagas Llosa, “What does it mean to feel you are Latin American?” (s.1) ○ The luck of geography impacting economic situations ● Lasting economic ramifications of colonialism: ○ Boundaries, separations, conflicts ○ Colonial powers did not want colonies in LAC to be economically independent. Europe depended on LAC’s dependency. Wealth and resources flowed to Europe ○ This pattern continued with export-led economic models post independence ○ “Fundamental aspects of the colonial economy remained in place … neocolonialism” ○ Patterns of highly uneven development from the colonial period also persist today ● Colonialism and imperialism as Globalization ○ Economic and political ties between countries ● Antecedents to current patterns of uneven development and under development ● Cycles of Economic Change in LAC: periods of economic crisis, followed by a new mode of economic regulation ○ Modern/Liberal Period 2.12 Notes ● Neoliberalism Era in LAC ○ A mode of regulation in the current era of capitalism ■ Nixon and Thatcher are the US an UK fans of neoliberalism ● Especially promoted during 1980s ○ An ideological and political line of thought ○ Debt crisis in the 1980s during regional debt crisis and because the solution to underdevelopment in LAC and imposed by government through ■ Structural Adjustment (SAPS) were policies that were required by the IMF and World Bank (etc.) that were pushed on nations to recieve loans ○ Characteristics: ■ The notion that the market will regulate itself ■ Rollback in state intervention in the economy → the idea that the state shouldn’t interfere in the economy unless private property is under risk ■ Removing laws and policies such as environmental protections ■ Private corporations are given the responsibility to mandate themselves ■ SAPS in LAC had the goals of: ● Pushing neoliberal policy agenda ● To increase influence of market forces relative to state intervention to promote free trade ● To resume debt repayment by spending less and exporting more ○ Common characteristics of Structural Adjustment: ■ Decrease/Cut spending by the government: no spending on healthcare, education, food, environment, etc. ■ Removal of state-guaranteed price wages ■ No environmental protections for nature and people ■ Push export orientated growth ■ Currency devaluation ■ Deregulation of imports ■ Tax reform benefitting exports ■ Removal of trade barriers ■ Privatization of state-run activities ■ Opening of the economy to foreign investment and production ○ Social costs/consequences of SAPS: ■ Increase economic inequality ■ Reduction in state programs that harms those in poverty ■ Rising unemployment ■ rising prices ■ Reduced consumption ■ Education deprioritized ■ Environmental injustice ● Modern Era (pink tides, washed out from red communism) CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF LAC ● Most popular natural resources: copper, silver, gold, aluminum, iron, tin, oil and natural gases, diamonds, (fertile soils derived from the volcanic activity) ● Mountains lead to different altitudes which affect the temperature and the gradient of the pressure and the ecosystems/ the biome ● Latitude with the precipitation zones ● Ecosystem zones/biomes ● Most common biomes in LAC: ○ Tropical forest ■ Densely populated with trees and a canopy ■ Poor soil ■ Lots of rainfall from ITCZ ○ tropical savanna ■ Generally north and south of the rainforest, but also pockets in the rainforest ■ Substantial amounts of rain and high temperatures ■ Dry seasons exist ■ Biodiversity lower to the ground than the rainforest ○ temperate grassland/steppe ■ Similar to the savannah with hot summers and moderate winters ■ More rich soil → leads to farming and livestock ■ Subtropical savannah ○ Desert ■ Found in Mexico and parts of Chile ■ Driest desert in the world is just under the Andes because the blockage of rainfall from the mountains ■ Vegetation: xerophytic plant types, lock in moisture ■ Atacama desert: high altitude ○ Mediterranean ■ Patagonia, shared between Chile and Argentina ■ Very wet and windy ■ Wet winters mild dry summers ■ More diverse in vegetation, in trees, shrubs, and grasses ■ Ranges in elevation ○ Deciduous forest ■ Cool and humid condition ■ Vegetation transfers into a temperate rainforest ■ Deciduous vegetation ● Do lose their leaves during winter ○ Montane gradients ■ How vastly the ecosystems can change based on your elevations 2.19 Lecture ● Rostow’s Model of Economic Development ○ 1.) Traditional societies ○ 2.) traditional stage - precondition for take off ○ 3.) take off ○ 4.) drive to maturity ○ 5.) high mass consumption ● Environmental possibilism (p.120) ○ Belief that the environment sets limits on human action and possibilities, but humans have the capability to choose between a range of possible responses to physical conditions vs. ■ Environmental determinism (p.120) ● Belief that human activities are governed by the environment rather than social conditions ● China Effect/China cycle (p.139) ○ The impact and influence of China’s demand for LAC natural resources ● “Two competing political economies” (p.124) ○ Resource nationalism, relying on state ownership and/or control or resources; neoliberalism and economic liberalism, relying on the market to determine the extraction of resources ● Extractivism ○ Process of intensified reliance on natural resources that are not processed especially for export ● Neo-Extractivism ○ What post-neoliberal governments are accused of engaging in; extractivism ‘dressed up’ to support social and economic improvements in society, with the same negative impacts on people and the environment specially near sites of extraction ● Resource Conflicts ○ Accelerated extraction of minerals in LAC in last 3-4 decades (extractivism) has increased environmental and social harms in LAC This has been significant in the formation, deepening, and radicalization of identities ○ We see emergence of “new environmental social movements” emerging out of neolliberal reforms and in response to the extractices “super cycle) ● Environmental violence: ○ The violence between people over natural resources; environmental politics, policies, and actions that are violent against people ● Case Study: oil extraction and Waorani livelihoods in Yasuni National Park, Ecuador 2.24 Lecture: ● Columbian Exchange ○ Transfer of people, plants, crops, diseases, technology, animals, etc. between the Americas and the “Old World” as a result of European Colonialism ● Agriculture “dumping” ○ Selling or donating surplus foods to other countries, below market price, which undermines local price structures for food ■ Local farmers cannot compete ■ Creates cycle of dependency on foreign foods ■ Can depress international market price ● NAFTA (1994) ○ Trade agreement between Canada, US, Mexico ■ Free trade and non tariffs between borders ● Focused on cars, textiles, and agriculture ■ NAFTA has harmed small farmers and the corn economy in Mexico ○ Nine year cost to Mexican producers was $12.8 billion ○ US corn exports +413% at 19% below production costs ○ In the 9 year period, 2.3 million farmers left the industry ● Agricultural subsidies ○ Strategy by states to maintain profitability of ag. Sector and keep food prices affordable through direct and indirect subsidies to ag. Producers ■ Mexico lacks these subsidies 2.28 Lecture: ● Banana Republic: ○ Literally, a Latin American country dominated politically and economically by foreign banana companies ■ Generally a term used to describe countries dependent on export-oriented economic models, dependent on selling just one or a few resources, and dependent on goreign investments ● Land Grab: ○ Global phenomenon of large-scale land acquisitions, through purchase or lease, by corporations, individuals, governments, etc. These land deals have spread widely in the last 8-12 years, in 2020 the World Bank estimated that 45 million hectares had been taken through land grabs ■ Contentious for: ● Consolidation agricultural land in hands of global elite/corporations, thereby exacerbating land inequality and bringing up questions about global and local food sectury ● Shady land speculation tactics and land conflicts ● Fair Trade Movement: ○ A social movement advocating for the production of trade of goods that provides better and more fair prices to producers and supports trading relationships that are more equitable 3.2 Lecture: ● Drug ○ Any substance that in small amounts produces significant changes in the boyd, mind, or both (book definition) ● Why are drugs important to LAC Studies ○ In addition to their economic and political importance, drugs have important cultural, political, and spiritual meaning to indigenous societies in the region ■ Vast majority of hallucinogenic drugs are found in LAC ○ Drug use, production, and commerce were key to building colonial economies and societies (i.e. sugar and alcohol) this changed Latin America and the world through the Columbian exchange ○ Legal drugs produced in LAC today are some of the most important global commodities and vitals to all economies ○ Today, illegal drugs are a huge part of the common geographic imaginary of LAC ○ The “drug war” and its effects on drug trafficking harm people, nature economies, and foster corruption ● “Drugs win the drug war” ● Geopolitics ○ The state’s power to control space or territory and shape the foreign policy of individual states and international political relations ○ This is despite the fact that the drug war has failed, we do not have a drug free world, drug use has spread to more places than ever before, and the drug war comes with its own set of harms and human rights abuses ■ US and UN in particular have used the drug war toward geopolitical aims ■ “Partial victories” and “unintended consequences” ■ Militarization, aerial spraying, mass incarceration, bodily harms ○ Thus, it is contradictory: in the name of saving people from har,. The drug war has caused more problems than good ● Nixon declares the “war on drugs” in 1971 ● Reagan revamps drug war in the 1980s; focusing on eradicating drugs “at their source” in Latin America ○ Supply-side drug control stop them at their “source” ● Myth: eliminating drugs at their source stops the spread/use ● Balloon Effect ○ Proliferation of areas of drug cultivation and of drug smuggling routes throughout the hemisphere ● Cockroach effect ○ Dispersion and fragmentation of organized criminal groups or networks within countries, by taking down the lead of the group: it only makes more groups ● DTO - Drug Trafficking Organization 3.4 Lecture: ● Myth 2: eradicating drugs at their source will make drugs too expensive for people to continue using ○ Supply for drugs is an elastic ■ They will continue to be grown regardless ○ Demand is in-elastic ■ People who use will find/steal/buy it regardless ● Myth 3: Most drug use is ‘problematic’ (leading to addiction, etc.) once someone tries an illegal drug they’re addicted ○ Simply not true based on observational data ○ Drug use doesn’t always lead to addiction ● Myth 4: Illegal drugs are more dangerous than legal ones ○ Proved wrong by prescription Opioids/the epidemic in the United States ● Myth 5: Stopping immigrants at the border would greatly reduce drug trafficking to the United States ○ Most drugs are smuggled overland into the US through regular vehicles that disguise the drugs as usual commodities (become easier with NAFTA) ● Geopolitics: How has the drug war failed? ○ Advocates believe it needs more logistic changes, like more money or military power ○ Many advocates and LAC countries are saying “enough is enough” and that the consequences are not worthwhile anymore ● Case 1: Bolivia’s alternative approach ○ Drug war geopolitics in Bolivia (1980s-2006) ■ Structural adjustment ■ Lates 80s/early 90s coca production estimated as equal to legal export economy ■ From the Mid 80s → 2004 drug control from the US ○ Ava Morales become president and endorsing coca ■ Elected on anti-US drug war, pro-poor, post-neoliberalism and social movements platform ■ Social control implemented ● Heritage was recognized, to allow traditional coca grows to grow a certain amount legally ○ “Coca yes, cocaine no” ● In 2009, kicked out the Drug Enforcement Agency ● 2013, Bolivia rejoins 1961 single convention, new reservation allowing for the traditional uses of the coca leaf in Bolivia ● 2013, kicked out the USAID’s “help” ○ Morales lost his office only a few months ago from a social coup in Bolivia ● Case 2: Drug policy and narco-deforestation (NOT ON EXAM) ○ Drug movement through rural Honduras ○ Result of the pushing from US: ■ Land speculation, inflation of land values, privatization of community lands (i.e. land grabs) ■ Land cover change in the area: forest loss, ecological simplification ○ Observed local development and social effects: ■ Exacerbate income inequality ■ Dispossession of land ■ Violence ■ Shifting livelihood strategies → leaving traditional economic activities, labor displacement ■ Land and wage inflation ○ Drug traffickers are only moving into more remote places in LAC, huge increase of the amount of land used for drug making/distribution