Political & Economic Development of Latin America

Throughout the modern era, Latin American countries have sought to achieve political and economic independence from colonial, imperial, and neo-imperial powers. Latin America presents a series of contrasts in its history and in its current reality. Latin America is a region both old and young, old in terms of the national entities formed there, young in terms of political independence. Throughout its history, the region has shown tendencies to be both tumultuous and stable. Latin America has also managed to be both dependent and independent, autonomous and subordinate. As noted, the region is also both prosperous and poor. At the end of the nineteenth century, the region emphasized wealth as it was penetrated by external powers, beginning with Britain and France and then including the United States--after which economic and political weakness with reference to Europe and the United

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multinational corporations, and viewing countries like India as having a need for foreign capital and as being dependent for this reason. There are also other forms of dependency that have been addressed, such as cultural dependency and technological dependency, all of which imply relationships between developed and underdeveloped nations. For the classical economist, dependency theory does not indicate why dependency is taking place, only that it is taking place. For the Marxist, the theory lacks the element of conflict between classes that the Marxist sees as the important issue. The patterns discerned explain the past patterns of development and underdevelopment, as in Latin America, and more recent patterns such as with India or Africa (Topik 554-555). The fact that the accent has been on poverty rather than wealth after the nineteenth century is a function of the uneven economic development of the region. What served the interests and pockets of European and U.S. interests did not translate to the masses in Latin America. Among the reasons for this was the unequal development of political power first in the colonialized states and then after independence as oligarchies ruled and maintained a wide separation between th
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Latin America, Latin American, World Europe, Latin America's, Third World, Europe United, Africa Topik, latin america, Europeans Western, Africa Americas, Skidmore Smith, latin american, dependency theory, third world, nineteenth century, patterns development, america seen economically, underdevelopment latin, incorporation region, region capitalist, latin america seen, capitalist mode, dependency third world, seen economically backward, region capitalist mode,
Approximate Word count = 1436
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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