Latin American History and Politics

Latin American History and Politics

Introduction

20th Century Latin American history is riddled with events and incidents that are a testament to the loss of socio-political equilibrium in a region. However, the appearance of political trends is of undeniable relevance. The rise of oligarchic systems can be seen towards the latter half of the 19th Century. In the same vein, pages from Latin American history that explore the 20th Century are filled with the unrest that spurred a trend of rapidly changing governments. European and American flags continued to adorn government buildings well past the end of the Second World War.

In 1929, the collapse of the capital market resulted in an economic crises that spread world-wide. This crisis also affected the political situation throughout South and Central America. The impact on Europe was even greater as several regimes changed and in some places, dictatorial systems were installed. All this changes after the World War II as the demand for demographic government increased. During this time, colonies were absorbed by neighboring countries after they gained independence (Goodwin, 2011).

In the 1960's, the political situation witnessed another change when dictatorial and military regimes predominated. In the 1980's, almost every colony became independent or self governing and subsequently there was a change towards democratic systems in which multi-party elections were held. This shows that the most common political administrations at the beginning of the 21st century were multi-party states. The purpose of this essay is to systematically discuss the history and politics of Latin America, so as to understand and provide an insight to what is going on in Latin America today.

Discussion

The transition of politics in Latin America is still incomplete and due to this it has resulted in the institutional weakness throughout the structure of society in Latin America which due to actions of defector power is damaged. Latin America is marked by underdevelopment, by late industrialization and dependent on foreign capital, the social and political problems and, to some extent, by political instability.

The region comprises of several ethnicities, the main reason for this is the population shifts that took place in the colonial period. Spanish is the most extensively spoken language in the region, followed by the Portuguese (due to the large Brazilian population) and the French.

An Overview of Latin America

From Jamaica to Brazil, Mexico to Cuba, Argentina to Paraguay - a multitude of sovereign states coupled with dependent states (British overseas territory or French regions) comprise of Latin America. If we consider the etymology of “Latin America”, we'll come to realize that it is part of America while the widely spoken Romance languages (most similar to Latin) give its name. Latin American history and politics have been exciting and colorful, to say the least. From the Cuban Missile Crisis to the “Turn to the Left”, Latin America is a region of much interest in the global political theatre. (Skidmore & Smith, 2009).

Important Trends in Latin American Economics

USAID identifies five key trends in economic policy in modern times, ...