Timeline

Historical Dictionary

First posted on May 29th 2004, last revised on September 20th 2005

Narratives : History of South America http://www.zum.de/whkmla/sat/texts/narrsamerica.html

Conquest and Settlement. The Spanish Conquest in the 16th century was more or less limited to the northern and central Andes region; for the other areas, in that 16th century, we better write of a Spanish or Portuguese settlement (which, in the case of Buenos Aires 1536, met so much resistance by the native Amerindian population that it was abandoned in 1539). While the lasting impact of the Spanish conquest on the central and southern Andes region is discussed in every historical account of the region, it has to be stressed that the preceding civilizations of Peru, the Empires of the Chimu and of the Inca, similarly were belligerent and inclined to conquest. The Inca Empire, under founder Manco Capac, had ruler over Cuzco and environs; by the means of conquest it had expanded; on the eve of the Spanish conquest, it extended from Ecuador to central Chile. For the large majority of the inhabitants of the Andean region, Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532-1533 meant, they continued to be ruled by a foreign class - only the Incas had been replaced by the Spanish. The Spanish conquistadores were quick to intermarry with the traditional Inca elite. Regarding the factors of climate, fertility, even accessability of the various regions of South America, the areas best suited for settlers originating from the Iberian peninsula are northern Argentina, Uruguay, southern Brazil and central Chile. In the later 19th century, these regions attracted the bulk of European immigration. Oddly, during the 16th century, the time of the Conquistadores, these regions were almost completely neglected; Buenos Aires was abandoned in 1539, resettled in 1580, but administratively placed under Lima, through which all legal imports from and exports to Europe had to pass, making legal trade with Europe excessively expensive so that smugglers took over the entire export and import trade. Uruguay's capital of Montevideo was founded only in 1717. Portuguese settlement in Brazil centered on the tropical northeast, where the climate permitted cane sugar plantations. Initially, the Spanish were only interested in conquest, i.e. in the exploitation of a native civilization; in the northern and central Andes region, large populations accustomed to be ruled over, to be exploited by, others existed, and here the conquistadores settled down, despite a climate much less hospitable than that found further south. When Cabral accidentally discovered Brazil, his reports of country and population were disappointing, and the Portuguese only occasionally visited the shores to pick up Brazilwood, lumber of appreciated quality. In 1532 Portuguese settlement began in Brazil's northeast, cane sugar plantation country, and Brazil soon would produce the lion's share of the world sugar harvest. Only after the Dutch conquered a large segment of the sugar plantation belt in 1630, did the center of Portuguese Brazil move southward; gold having been found in Minas Gerais, and the introduction of a new plantation crop, coffee, in 1727, helped in that process. Again, the work in the plantations and mines was not to be done by those who staked out the claims respectively owned the land, but by an enslaved population, either Amerindians forced into slavery or negro slaves brought over from Africa in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The percentage of persons of African descent in South America varies from country to country and serves as an indicator of the importance of the plantation industry in the 16th to 18th centuries. Argentina, Chile and Uruguay have a population which is largely European in appearance, because hardly any African slaves have been imported into the area, and the native Amerindian population has resented any attempt to be enslaved, fighting the settlers to the end, which, as in the case of Uruguay's Chamorros, often was extinction. Society The Spanish, in the northern and central Andes, established a class society based on ethnicity, with peninsulares and criollos at the top, followed by mulattos, mestizos, negroes and, at the bottom, 'Indios' (Amerindians). The criollos lived the life of European noblemen who owed their status to birth; the lower classes had to work to support their lifestyle. Society in the 'white belt' stretching from central Chile to Uruguay, because of its more homogenous ethnic population, could not develop among those lines. Society is more egalitarian. Brazil combined both elements. Settlement by immigrants of European or African origin (the latter involuntary immigrants) has concentrated on some areas, while in others Amerindian population continues to dominate. In Peru-Bolivia, Quechua and Aymara continue to be spoken by a significant element of the population, in Paraguay Guarani. Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay also are the poorest countries in South America. In the late 19th century, modern agricultural technology required less manpower in the cultivation of grain, coffee etc. and the herding of cattle; migration into the cities and massive urbanization set in. However, the cities did not have sufficient industrial bases to supply these masses with jobs. A social problem emerged, the urban poor. In Uruguay, the labour movement established Latin America's only welfare state (here the 8 hour workday was introduced in 1915, earlier than in most European countries). In Argentina, Juan Peron lead a political movement (Peronism) which tried to adress the needs of the urban poor and received such a loyalty on the side of the latter that this movement outlived the founder for decades. The problem of the urban poor remains unsolved; the favelas, the street children of Rio de Janeiro, death squads are among the more visible facets of it. The Economy Before the Spanish conquest, trade among Amerindian states seems to have been conducted on a minimalistic scale. Dona Marina (Malinche), as a slave girl, was sold by Aztecs to Mayas; yet the Spaniards, in Panama, only gained rumour-kind information on the existence of the Inca Empire to the south. The Inca Empire exploited the conquered population (which had the status of slaves). Society, at the bottom, was communist, the peasant communities sharing labour and harvest. The structural difference caused by the Spanish conquest was bringing Pacific South America into the world market. To begin with, the Spaniards moved the political and administrative center from Cuzco to Lima. The native Amerindians continued to be exploited, but not only to satisfy the demands of the ruling class, nut also those of the European market. Europe wanted gold, silver from Peru, in addition precious stones from New Granada, cocoa from Venezuela, cane sugar, later gold and coffee from Brazil. South American imports from Europe were to satisfy the needs of the ruling class of white conquistadores, plantation, mine owners and the essentials for the export-oriented industries they established (perhaps in addition to weapons and items needed by the church). The Amerindian population was exploited as a labour force, but hardly became a factor as customers in this intercontinental trade. Spain and Portugal were not interested in developing manufacturing industries in South America; the colonies were to produce raw matierials the motherland could not produce, and they were to produce them cheaply. Legislation barring fair trade were loosened when the Bourbon administration in the 18th century implemented administrative reforms (creation of Viceroyalty of New Granada in 1717, of V. of La Plata in 1776) and when the staple right of Lima, valid for all of Spanish South America, was cancelled in 1740. In that year Spain permitted ships to sail around Cape Horn; until then all traffic to and from Pacific Spanish America had to go through Panama. With independence, the South American countries were no longer legally barred from developing manufacturing industries. However, the countries lacked an appropriate infrastructure - they had universities dating back into the 16th century, but no polytechnics. In the 19th and early 20th century, South American countries benefited from export booms - guano, copper and salpetre, rubber, coffee, cocoa; grain and beef. All minerals / mining products and plant products. Argentina temporarily was regarded one of the world's richest economies. In the late 19th and early 20th century, Argentina received a dense network of railroad lines, mostly built with British capital. Argentina became dependent on British machinery, and Britain was unwilling to see Argentina become independent of this lucrative export trade by developing a manyfacturing industry of their own. The most serious attempts to industrialize were undertaken by Juan Peron in Argentina 1946-1955 and by Getulio Vargas and Juscelino Kubitschek in Brazil, 1930-1961, respectively. While a native manufacturing industry developed respectively foreign enterprises established factories in South America (VW do Brazil), South America remains a net importer of processed goods, her main exports continuing to be raw materials. Culture South America has strongly been influenced by Catholicism. Among South America's most famous monuments is the statue of Christ the Redeemer towering over Rio de Janeiro. The Catholic church has tried to eradicate pagan religious cults; but Armerican and African religious traditions have found their ways into Catholic festivities, such as Carnival; African music and rhythm has influenced the development of Brazilian music and dance. The best places perserving pre-Colombian architecture are those the Spanish never found, such as the Inca acropolis of Machu Picchu. The intolerance of the Catholic church toward the Jews (many of whom were involved in the sugar plantations of Brazil) caused Brazil, in the 1650es, to lose her control of the world sugar market : many of these Jews, under severe pressure, outwardly had accepted baptism. Following the Dutch conquest - the Dutch practised religious toleration - a good number of these returned to openly practising Jewish faith. When the Dutch left Brazil, these Brazilian Jews, as apostates, faced the death penalty - and emigrated into the Caribbean, settling anywhere where the Inquisition could not reach them, i.e. on islands ruled by the Dutch, English or French. They brought with them the knowledge how to run a sugar plantation; soon, the Caribbean replaced Brazil as the world's leading sugar producer. In the 20th century, South Americans have achieved great success in sports (soccer, race car driving); South Americans have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (f.i. Pablo Neruda of Chile). Similar achievements in the fields of science and in inventions have been few.

EXTERNAL FILES

REFERENCE

Boris Fausto, A Concise History of Brazil, Univ. of Cambridge Press Syndicate 1999, 362 pp., KMLA Lib.Sign. 981 F268a Kenneth Mills, William B. Taylor, Colonial Spanish America, a documentary history, Wilmington : Scholarly Resources 1998, 372 pp., KMLA Lib.Sign. 980.01 M657c Daniel K. Lewis, The History of Argentina, Greenwood 2001, 214 pp., KMLA Lib.Sign. 982 L673h David Rock, Argentina 1516-1987, From Spanish Colonization to Alfonsin, University of California Press (1985) 1987, KMLA Lib.Sign. 982 R682a Orin Starn e.a., The Peru Reader, History, Culture, Politics, Duke University Press 1995, 531 pp., KMLA Lib.Sign. 985 S795t Simon Collier, William F. Sater, A History of Chile 1808-1994, Cambridge : UP 1996, 427 pp., KMLA Lib.Sign. 983.04 C699a E. Bradford Burns, Latin America. A Concise Interpretive History, Prentice Hall (1972) 1994, 372 pp., KMLA Lib.Sign. 980 B967l Thomas E. Skidmore, Peter H. Smith, Modern Latin America, Oxford : UP (1984) 2001, 466 pp., KMLA Lib.Sign. 980 S628m Salvatore Bizzarro, Historical Dictionary of Chile, Scarecrow 1972, 309 pp. [G] Jean L. Willis, Historical Dictionary of Uruguay, Scarecrow 1974, 275 pp. [G] Robert H. Davis, Historical Dictionary of Colombia, Scarecrow 1977, 280 pp. [G] D.K. Rudolph and G.A. Rudolph, Historical Dictionary of Venezuela, Scarecrow 1971, 142 pp. [G] Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th edition, Macropædia, articles Argentina (Vol.14 pp.38-55), Bolivia (Vol.15 pp.157-169), Brazil (Vol.15 pp.185-210), Chile (Vol.16 pp.21-36), Colombia (Vol.16 pp.571-585), Ecuador (Vol.17 pp.953-963), Guyana (Vol.20 pp.441-447), Paraguay (Vol.25 pp.425-434), Peru (Vol.25 pp.515-528), South America (Vol.27 pp.578-634), Suriname (Vol.28 pp.317-321), Uruguay (Vol.29 pp.458-465), Venezuela (Vol.29 pp.468-480) Victor Bulmer-Thomas, The Economic History of Latin America since Independence, Cambridge : UP (1995) 2003, KMLA Lib.Sign. 330.98 B938e

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