Neo Colonial Latin America Essay

The neo-colonial period in Latin America begins around 1860 with the end of the caudillo rule and ends with the great depression in the United States in the 1930s. The term neo-colonial is defined as the dominance of strong nations over weak nations, not by direct political control, but by economic and cultural influence. (1) The characteristics of a neo-colonial are a centralized authoritarian government in the form of dictatorships or oligarchic rule, economic development relying on export mono-export-led market, dependence upon foreign markets, capital and technology, and imported ideologies and foreign cultural models which promotes the interests of strong nations instead of assuring the development of poor ones. As a result, the classes of the people were divided even more with the educated, landowner, and government elite growing even richer while the poor laboring class lost …show more content…
The election in Latin America were “managed elections” in which landowners in Chile, Brazil, and Argentina would run for office the elections were fixed to insure victory went to landowner with the most power. In Mexico, the rules of the nation were in the form of dictators with the strongest military might. Even though the elections were fixed or the country ran by a dictator, it did provide a stable authoritarian government that was needed to attract foreign investors. With the liberal reforms that represented change for landowners who want to sell coffee, hides, and tobacco, and middle classes wanted improved streets, sanitation, and education looked to the Industrial Revolution for potential markets and advance technology to improve Latin America, but to be able to create and sustain an exporting economy in the world market these countries would need: ports, canals, and railways.(5) To make this happen the countries borrowed most of the money to finance these facilities, or in the case of