Colonialism's role in Latin American economic and social development

Latin America has seen the rise of colonialism in recent times. This has brought on some problems. Colonialism brought to Latin America the quick spread and influence of Christianity into the land, replacing traditional religions. European languages like Spanish, English, Portuguese, Dutch, and French have been introduced to the native people. With immigration from European countries and some Asian countries, millions of natives died and were killed due to the illnesses and diseases brought by the foreigners. Furthermore, a small minority of upper class control/controlled the vast majority of any colony or country's resources through generation of class societies.

Foreign invasion also brought division among numerous tribes from the result of European-generated borders. Lastly, much of the resources existent in Latin America were mined by European nations before these countries gained independence. When they gained independence they were left poor with little resources. This paper will assess class structure and colonialism and examine the various ways colonialism in general acted as the primary determinant of existing development in Latin America.

Background

The process and legacies of colonialism are numerous, too numerous to cover in one sitting. However, the economic and social effects of colonialism are clear. Europeans coming to Latin America to gather resources and colonize left a long-lasting mark on the area, forming into what countries like Brazil and Argentina are today. If one examines the past and current state of Latin America from a social and economic sense, one can spot the obvious differences. When examining topics like colonialism, it is important to think of the past in order to evaluate and examine the current state in previously colonized countries and what initial impacts colonialism had on them.

When looking at the definition of colonialism, it is often seen as broad and imprecise. However, colonialism generally lends to mean the foreign/external exploitation of native countries guaranteed through political control and supremacy, which then leads to a condition of dependency on the mother country or colonial power by the subjugated economy. Now people may think colonialism leads to violent conquests where people are murdered and raped into submission. However, religion through extension missionary work, can also lead to the control seen in colonialism and often provides a bigger influence/impact then violence and warfare.

Although colonialism is an inhuman system where people take and plunder the resources of a country, the long-term effects come from the inability of the exploited country to stabilize and develop as well as the way they seem themselves after the colonizers leave (Barker, 2012, 76). To begin, the colonized must deal with an imposed foreign culture. They not only lose a sense of self, but they also lose a sense of freedom. Old ways are removed in favor of new ways and those that choose to resist change are often brutalized or coerced into change.

Eventually many colonized people change their traditions and society to suit that of the dominant culture. People leave the country or progress into lower or altered states of living and lose a part of their ancestral identity. This has happened in parts of Africa and especially in Latin America. Brazil for example, is a perfect example of the aftermath of colonization.

The region of Brazil was colonized by Portugal. That is why Brazilians speak Portuguese. However, another country colonized and influenced Latin American natives more than any other. The most influential country to conquer Latin America was Spain. Most Latin Americans speak Spanish. Countries like Guatemala, Chile, Ecuador; they all speak Spanish and have Spanish architecture still existing within their borders. Europeans conquered the recent colonies of Latin America (turned independent nations) from 17th to 19th centuries and were established as part of an overall expansion of European capitalistic production that followed the Industrial Revolution. European powers like England and Spain sought to incorporate territories that would provide raw materials along with a free or low-cost workforce. In the process, they restructured the existing societies in Latin America. The effects of which are seen today.

This is why Latin America was left impoverished after many of the nations of the area sought independence. The main objective of the colonial powers was not the transference of a metropolitan population to inhabit the colony, as if it was in the United States, it was to gather resources and alter the area to suit the needs of the colonizers. They changed the religious beliefs of the people in Latin America to Christian in order to bond them to something more familiar with Europeans. They created class systems that separated people and removed old traditions. In fact, colonizers like Spain and Portugal built the economies of the colonies to serve as a source of natural resources and inexpensive labor, never planning to spark internal development. From this came monopolistic trade-relations that benefit the economies of the colonizers. To guarantee these monopolistic freedoms, the colonial powers effectively shaped the social and economic dynamics of the colonies.

How were economies and cultures shaped in Latin America?

Colonized countries like Brazil were forced to cultivate non-technologically concentrated monocultures (paradoxically distinguished as "specialization"), marketing unprofitably their complete production for the overriding countries. Even in countries like Chile that have experienced some stabilization and progress have many specializing in agriculture growing crops like coffee beans. This identical agro-export focused on dynamics delineated the land-owning structure, grounded in large properties under the (economic and political) hold of non-modernizing oligarchies. The part of such oligarchies is of central importance.

Meaning, the local elites played major in the political and economic structure of the colonized countries. Their internal activity demarcated, organized and established the associations of exploitation that took place within the colonies of Latin America. The literature will highlight some of the changes Latin America experienced in the progression from colony to independent nations. It will also highlight a specific country, Brazil and show the effects of colonization on its economy and social structure.

Literature Review

This literature review will focus on key aspects of colonization of Latin America. Each section will demonstrate what effects colonization had on Latin America in relation to economy and society. From class structure to language, to exportation, and economic development.

Effects of the Past on Today

A study by Bruhn and Gallego exclaimed that labor exploitation led to decline in colonized countries in terms of economic development. "…"bad" activities (those that depended heavily on labor exploitation) led to lower economic development today than "good" activities (those that did not rely on labor exploitation)." (Bruhn & Gallego, 2012, p. 433). People within countries like Peru experienced colonization as early as the 16th century when Spanish conquistadores came to survey the land. When Spain sought to control these areas, they made most of the people farm or mine in order to grow foods and gain minerals that they could then export back to their homeland. Today Chile's top exports are fish, fruit/nuts/seeds and ores.

Resources like these do not necessarily help an economy develop, as it is reliant on labor and some of these resources like ores were dramatically decreased during colonization. The authors of the study suggest political representation played a part in past and current development in colonized countries. "Our results also suggest that differences in political representation (but not in income inequality or human capital) could be the intermediating factor between colonial activities and current development" (Bruhn & Gallego, 2012, p. 433).

Current development in Latin America shares some similarities to one of its main colonial powers, Spain. In an article by Janoschka, Sequera & Salinas, the authors highlight the current trend of gentrification both in Spain and parts of Latin America.

Major social and political transformations such as the shift towards neoliberal urban policies have widely altered the contemporary structuring of metropolitan areas in Spain and Latin America. One key consequence is the recapture of city centres by wealthy tenants and the eviction of poorer households, a phenomenon usually designated by the term gentrification (Janoschka, Sequera & Salinas, 2013, p. 1234).

Those that are poor are essentially pushed out while the wealthy enjoy the more developed and maintained parts of the country. This happened when Spain colonized the area in 17th and 18th centuries. Natives were essentially pushed out of the central areas so the colonizers/merchants could live in the city center. When the nations gained their independence, they slowly grew to represent the same structure of the poor in the outskirts and the rich in the center.

Latin American economists as explained in the article, foreign countries often sided with the ruling class of an area in order to establish authoritarian rule. Meaning exclusion of large portions of the populace from participating in economic and police control of their communities and countries. This was done to decrease labor cost and yield higher profits. Profits of which the ruling class benefitted from. They took these profits instead of investing on improving infrastructure of the country, and spent it on luxurious and superfluous goods for pure pretention.

The long-term consequences of the restructuring of these colonies into an agrarian culture centralized wealth and power, promoting inequality, poverty and instability. This is why many in Latin America live well below the poverty line with some facing off starvation on a daily basis. Such actions helped to maintain a continuous cycle of lower production in colonized areas and the flow of wealth to dominant economies.

Sartre explains in his piece on colonization in Africa how the harsh treatment of the natives by colonists led to extreme poverty in the affected colonies. "Can we at least find some compensation for this poverty systematically created by European usurpers in those benefits which are termed not directly measurable, public works and improvement schemes, sanitation, and education?" (Sartre, 2001, p. 135). Colonies that then fought to become independent nations were left with countries that were devoid of resources and with no means to generate successful trade and commerce nor achieve political stability. Similar to Latin America, parts of Africa remain today underdeveloped, creating problems for those living in those countries. Colombia for example, has learned to subsist on the illegal sale of cocaine. Although Colombian officials and police attempt to remove the illegal cultivation and trade of cocaine, many in Colombia need to sell cocaine in order to survive. These are the devastating effects of colonization in Latin America.

The Changing Social Landscape of Latin America Post Colonialism

Former colonies have witnessed the change brought on by colonization as Brubaker mentions. "Colonial and postcolonial societies have been particularly rich sites for such studies" (Brubaker, 2009) Latin America is a prime example. Many Europeans immigrated and stayed in Latin America, effectively changing the ethnicities, languages, and cultures of Latin America. Argentina for example, boasts a large white population. Many countries in South and Central America speak Spanish. Brazil has a myriad of ethnicities and mixed races. Paraguay hosts recent European immigration. All of which comes from the effects of European colonization.

Some of these changes affected the political landscape of these countries as well as a wave of neoliberalism took hold. (Yates & Bakker, 2013, p. 62). In places like Venezuela proposals have to generate an alternative economic system to remove dependence on old systems of agriculture and reduce poverty in the country. Because colonization crippled so many of the countries affected, some countries decided to take a step towards restructuring to provide solutions and stability. Those that propose neoliberalism advocate implementation and expansion of relatively new types of policies, specifically so-called conditional cash-transfer programs that provide payments to impoverished people that meet certain desiderata, like enrolling their children in school or getting vaccinations.

Homi Bhabha's "Of Mimicry and Man," the author explains the desire for colonizers to establish familiarity in colonies. "Bhabha argues that colonial mimicry is "the desire for a reformed, recognizable Other, as a subject of a difference that is almost the same, but not quite" (Conversations on Postcolonial Theory, 2014).Put simply, he asserts the colonizer wants to develop the other by making him like himself, but in a manner that still preserves a clear sense of difference. The colonizers of Latin America injected European religion and tradition into Latin American countries. They also injected their own people into the population.

These people were still considered less than by colonizers, but eventually this influence turned into a permanent change in the colonized people's culture. Neo-liberalism for example, is one of them as they turned what they learned from the colonizers into something positive that can hopefully help stabilize their economies and people.

Conclusions

Colonialism has been part of the historical formation and process of countries in Latin America. The modern economies of such countries are markedly debilitated for the following main reasons:

a) The agro-export leaning economies gave the universal outlines to the colonized production, averting attempts at industrialization and import replacement.

b) The agricultural structure barred a majority from access to the land and advantaged a non-intensive assembly.

c) Concentration of poverty, income, and inequality obstructed the formation of internal consumption.

d) The inner dynamics of the ruling classes thwarted facilitation of savings, (re)investments as well as innovation in national economies.

Lastly, the geography gave motivation for easy exploitation of Latin America's natural resources (a necessary contribution to production), determining the patterns of livelihood and de-population of the colony. The future repercussions of European immigration led to racism and further inequality in the former colonies with rich whites living in cities and poor blacks living in the rural and developed areas. Although in some ways, Europeans helped to develop Latin America, it was done so out of need and desire for resources regardless of the turbulent outcomes after colonies gained their independence.