Geography: Its Influence in the Development of South America

Source: https://bit.ly/36T3r5u

By: Jack Acrich

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the KCL Latin American Society or El Cortao.

The territory where a country is located can affect the way in which it is able to build the necessary infrastructure to pave its way to development and prosperity. It is common for states to take advantage of their geographical location in the best way possible –some may even use it to have advantage over other countries. In the case of South America, a lot of this region’s countries have had problems to properly build the necessary infrastructure for development and communication –an important factor for this is their geographical context.

First of all, the presence of rainforests such as the Amazon–which covers great part of the northern part of the continent– is considered to be very difficult to access due to its climatic conditions and density. Because of this, agricultural practices have not been very developed, and in many cases militant or criminal groups take advantage of this conditions to hide from the authorities. This usually results in governments using and sending resources to try and combat them. In this way, even if Venezuela and Brazil have close borders, roads are almost inexistent making their terrestrial communication very difficult due to the thick jungle. Furthermore, the presence of the Tapón de Darien, that is located in the border between Panama and Colombia, serves as a natural barrier. In this sense, the presence of rainforest in the region has also impeded terrestrial communication between Central America and South America.

Secondly, to escape form the conditions of the tropic where diseases can be present, many populations have decided to move and establish cities in elevated areas. The building and maintenance of infrastructure in these areas is very expensive, as well as contributing to the isolation of communities. This can be the case for cities like Quito in Ecuador, La Paz in Bolivia and Caracas in Venezuela. The spaces where most of the population live tends to be small; a lack of space leads to greater density and a poorer urban planification.

In addition, the Andes Mountains – one of the largest continental mountain ranges in the world – complicates the development and construction of roads to communicate different parts of the region. The part of the Andes located between Chile and Argentina consists of very high mountain ranges where snowstorms are very common. The topographical terrain in the region complicate traffic flow and communication between these two countries. This situation is not only between the countries in the region. The South American continent is considered to be far away from other parts of the world. For instance, the southern part of the region where Argentina and Uruguay are located are very distant to Europe. Again, the geographical context of the South American region makes it very challenging and costly to build tunnels and safe transportation, resulting in difficult the communication within the region and the rest of the world. 

Nonetheless, geographical conditions can be used for development advantages. For instance, the United States’developmental success has been in great part because of its geographical context –the presence of a great portion of land proper for agriculture, the existence of navigable rivers that promote the easy transportation of goods, and the availability of great ports. In addition, having coasts on both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans has allowed the U.S. to project its power outside of the American continent (Stratfor, 2016 ). Even if the landscape of South America seems to obstruct the possibility for progress and growth, there are other factors that are advantageous. First, the idea that the region does not have to worry about an external war due to the fact that other states outside of the continent could get the resources that the region offers in places that are closer to them or have safer sea routes. Moreover, the zone of Río de la Plata located in the southern part of the continent has arable land and rivers are optimal for navigation benefiting states like Argentina and Uruguay. Additionally, the proximity to the US can be positive to establish commercial ties in sense.  

Taking into account the geographical aspects of states, it is possible to have a better understanding of the challenges they have had to progress. Even if South America has struggled to establish stable economies, there can always be ways to take advantage of the situation, and in many cases the route to instability has been led by certain inefficient government policies. Corruption scandals are present all over the continent making it very difficult to advance and build a prosperous stateregardless of the geographical conditions that they have. Having a lot of obstacles for development can be a great challenge to build a stable and prosperous economy. Nevertheless, this should not be an excuse to drag behind in development and be consumed by corruption that is very present in the region.

Jack is a Venezuelan 3rd year student at the University of Navarra. Besides his deep interest for Latin America, he is passionate about geopolitics and how the dynamics in this field shape the world of International Relations.