SOUTH AMERICA

One final region pre-occupied with the ideological struggles between capitalism and communism was Latin and South America, itself affected by the US need to keep communism at bay.
Following the Mexican-American War of the 1840s, Mexico lost a great deal of territory and was forced to reform. However, during the 1860s the country was briefly occupied by France. Finally withdrawing, Mexico became a dictatorship under Diaz until the Mexican Revolution from 1910-40.

CENTRAL AMERICA

A process of reconciliation brought Mexico into the modern world, bolstered by oil. Although burdened by heavy debt, massive industrialisation followed, and by the 1990s the country moved towards free trade with the US, although much of the country remains underdeveloped.
Further south, following a period of Mexican rule, Central America became a confederation in the 1820s and 30s, but local rivalries led to it falling apart, allowing US, British and French involvement in the region.
The formation of the Organisation of Central American States in 1951 led to more cohesion, but by the late 1970s the US was involving itself in the region clandestinely as left wing movements attempted to steer the region towards communism.
In the main these movement are beaten and Central America is entering free market economics. However, with Colombia to the south, many of these states form the hub of the drug trade.

SOUTH AMERICA

Most of South America was under Spanish control, but by 1825 Simon Bolivar had led a mass independence movement that saw the creation of Colombia, Venezuela, Equador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
Portuguese Brazil also gained independence at this time. Predominantly Catholic, much of the continent flirted with fascism, but in Chile Marxism was democratically endorsed with the rise Allende in 1970.
This was too much for the US, who became hostile, leading to the military coup of General Pinochet in 1973, imposing a dictatorial right wing regime. The Junta was born, remaining until 1988 when democracy returned.
Argentina gained a National Constitution in 1853 following a period of instability, with an agricultural revolution now taking place to bolster its economy of cattle and grain. The Depression badly affected Argentina, leading to military dictatorship in 1930.
Following World War Two a populist movement led to the presidency of Peron until 1955, and briefly again in the 1970s before the country again became a right wing military dictatorship. In the early 1980s internal instability led the Junta to invade the disputed Falkland Islands in an attempt to reunite the country.
The British response caused the Falklands War of 1982. Argentina was defeated, leading to the fall of the Junta and reinstatement of democracy.
Brazil became a federal republic in 1891 but fraudulent elections and the Depression led to military dictatorship in 1930. Under Vargas, this survived until 1915. Brazil then began a period of rapid economic expansion, even building a brand new capital, Brazilia.
However, a number of peasant leagues attempted to force land reform, prompting the landowners to back a right wing military coup in 1964. A number of regimes followed until the establishment of civilian rule in 1978. A new constitution followed in the late 1980s with rapid industrialisation. Today, with Mexico, Brazil is an emerging economy which will no doubt increase in global importance.

(c) Anthony North, February 2008

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