Social And Economic Inequality In Latin America

The European colonization of the Americas took place during the late sixteenth century and early seventeenth century. England approached the colonization by sending out groups. The groups were headed to the eastern cost of North America, and they all shared the same purpose. Those two hundred thousand men and women went to the Americas to establish colonies that were agriculturally sustainable. “England sent large numbers of men and women to establish agriculturally based colonies on the mainland.”

When the Europeans first arrived in Latin America, they didn’t realize the immensity of their actions. As history has proven, the Europeans have imposed many things on the Latin American territory have had a long, devastating effect on the indigenous people. In the centuries after 1492, Europeans would control much of South America and impose a foreign culture upon the already established civilizations that existed before their arrival. These imposed ideas left the continent weak and resulted in the loss of culture, the dependence on European countries, and a long standing ethnic tension between natives and settlers which is evident even to this day. The indigenous people of South America, which

Inequality is still common in the world today. Some suggest that inequality is a result of some people being biologically inferior to others. Jared Diamond challenges this by taking specifically about what gave the Spanish an advantage over the Incas.

The age of exploration affected Latin America in many, many ways. The Europeans had forced the native population to be slaves, leaving people today in poverty. The Spanish left the Indians with no voice or rights, which continues today with Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez turning Cuba and Venezuela into communist countries.

The conversation about economic inequality is not one that only exists in today’s contemporary society but rather one that continued through time, evolving with the changes in different societies. From before the existence of agrarian societies through the industrial revolution and even up till today, the topic of economic inequality is one whose moral implications to the equality of all individuals has been and always will be questioned. Today, it is one of the most debated issues in the United States. Regardless of the terminology used to discuss it—economic inequality, income gap, or wealth disparities—it is heatedly conferred and everyone has an opinion on it. Is it right or wrong? Should it exist? Is it justified? Does it corrupt our

After decades of fighting for their independence, the newly formed countries of the New World were now free to do as they pleased. The problem was, no one truly knew what to expect. This essay uses the books The Poverty of Progress by E. Bradford Burns and The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, to analyze Latin American during its national period. The post-independence nineteenth and twentieth centuries are crucial to understanding the core of Latin America, and how it came to be what it is today. Latin American during this period was filled with transcendental changes as well as various continuous patterns regarding political, economic, cultural, and social structures.

The struggle for equality in Latin America is a perpetual conflict. This battle began in the fifteenth century when the Spaniards and Portuguese colonized the lands of the Americas. In a book titled: Latin America: an Interpretive History, author Julie A. Charlip states, Latin America has moved from paradise to poverty as a result of historical patterns that have developed over the years” (Charlip and Burns 2002, 1). The constant redundancy of the elites taking advantage of the poor is a plague that haunts the Latin American people to this day. Moreover, the struggles include income inequality, suffrage inequality, land inequality, and the desire for personal and political liberty. Nevertheless,

During the late nineteenth century, liberals hoped to establish Latin America on a global scale by modeling Europe and the United States. As a result, certain Latin American countries were able to modernize itself. They had metropolises, telephones, and railroads. Urbanization granted Latin America the ability to export tons of sugar, coffee, rubber, bananas, tobacco, and other goods. Latin America’s massive export in goods during the 1880s led to what was known as the “Great Export Boom.”

Given Latin America's great land mass and population, it is no surprise that the country shouldproduce inequalities in race/ethnicity, income, and politics. While Latin America produces countries with a large population above the poverty level, it stillhouses a striking number of those that live below it. After all, “many Latin American states fall into themiddle-income category and support a significant middle class. ”(pg.103) However, even with all of it'simprovements, Latin America still proves to have poverty as a major hinderance to it's development.

The poverty and inequality that has plagued El Salvador since the early twentieth century stems from their rule by the Oligarchy, which dates back to colonial times. The Oligarchy's lack of consistency in implementing and following through with reforms has prevented progress from occurring in the country. Furthermore, the many wars and political revolts in El Salvador impeded its economic and social growth. The main focus of the Oligarchy was to turn a profit. And because they essentially ran the economy, they assumed that their actions were best for both their profits and the country's economy as a whole. Their selfish single-minded focus led to a growing economic inequalities, which was subsequently accommodated by ethnic and class

With the increase in industrialization, particularly rail roads and steam boats, Latin America could efficiently export more goods. The installation of railroads and increased trade stabilized the economy of many countries. As long as Europe and the United States required raw materials, the economy would continue to grow. With the economy growing, political stability followed. This is demonstrated in Chasteen’s essay “Governance did become more orderly. As the profits of the export boom rose, government revenues from import/export taxes rose too…Higher government revenues afforded middle-class people new employment opportunities…Greater stability and prosperity attracted further investment from aboard intensifying trade, and the cycle repeated itself” (Chasteen, 207). As more money flowed into the continent, the more the government improved. Using the available revenue from the export boom, local governments could afford better equipment and put down rebellions with less casualties. The government was better able to provide more individuals with employment opportunities, thus stabilizing the politics in the Spanish Americas.

“In the 1500s, Spanish and Portuguese colonizers imposed their language, their religion, and their social institutions on the indigenous Americans and enslaved Africans, people who labored for them in mines and fields and who served them, too, at table and in bed” (Chasteen 5). Many people would say this is where inequality in Latin America began, with colonization. However, colonization is just a small piece of the roots of inequality of the region, which actually started with the natives of the lands such as the Incas, Aztecs and Mayans. These three empires ruled most of the Latin American region and did so by conquering other native groups or tribes. The Empires had a ruling class or king that was able to oppress and work his people

Though the age of traditional imperialism is now over the scars of European conquest are far from gone. Likewise, the dark impacts of colonial rule are seen on both the domestic and international levels. Domestically, colonialism created massive territorial inequality which became the foundation for substantial economic inequality. In regards to territory previously discussed land tenure arrangements led to the expropriation of land from the masses into the hands of the chosen few (often the European chosen intermediaries). Notably, the infamous Latifundio-Minifundio system in Latin America. The Latifundio-Minifundio system is the main cause of the continent’s current economic crisis as the most economically unequal region in the world. Furthermore,

According to Lopez (2000), the poverty level in Latin America is far worse in rural areas like Mexico and the Andean countries. Government agencies, organizations and intellectuals across the world have expressed unease about the extreme amounts of poverty in Latin America (Mamalakis, 1996). The exact level of poverty in Latin America can only be projected because of the high number of people living in rural areas. This problem is only exacerbated by the number of countries in the Latin America region. Lopez (2000) projects that over sixty percent of citizens beneath the poverty level live in rural areas across Latin America. Those rural areas are more susceptible to poverty because there is less access to jobs and resources. Whole families, including children, are impoverished because they are forced to live off of the

Although Latin America has faced many social, political, and economic issues within the last three centuries, inequality remains one of the most important, historical, and omnipresent aspects of the region’s culture. As Europeans took over Latin America during the time of colonization, they implemented many elitist social structures that have held strong and are evident today (Harris). Income inequality is the most visible and greatest disparity that the region faces; yet inequality between gender, ethnicities, and education remain strong and significant problems with a necessity for improvement. Inequality of wealth and disparity of power and influence are Latin American’s greatest curses and are at the root of many of the