The Monroe Doctrine, Caudillos, and Latin America after Independence

Global History and Geography II Name: ______

E. Napp Date: ______

Questions:

1.  What was the Monroe Doctrine? ______

2.  Explain the cartoonist’s use of the Stop Sign. What is the meaning of the Stop Sign and why is it placed near the islands of the Caribbean? ______

3.  What is Europe’s response to the Stop Sign? ______

4.  Which European nations in particular were upset with the Monroe Doctrine? ______

5.  Why would they be upset with the Monroe Doctrine? ______

6.  Do you think the cartoonist effectively portrayed the meaning of the Monroe Doctrine? Explain your answer. ______

The following is a quote from Undersecretary of State Robert Olds (Undersecretary from 1927 – 1928)

"There is no room for any outside influence other than ours in this region. We could not tolerate such a thing without incurring grave risks... Until now Central America has always understood that governments which we recognize and support stay in power, while those which we do not recognize and support fall. Nicaragua has become a test case. It is difficult to see how we can afford to be defeated." ~Undersecretary of State Robert Olds

Explain the meaning of the Undersecretary’s quote: ______

Questions:

1.  Define caudillo. ______

2.  How did caudillos often come to power? ______

3.  Why did the poor often turn to violence? ______

An Issue of Land Ownership:

·  Chile-

In the early 1990s, commercial farmers cultivated 61% of the farm area, while the poorest farmers, who were three times more numerous, cultivated only 2% of the land.

(Statistic from ruralpovertyportal.org)

·  Guatemala

Land ownership has a markedly skewed distribution: 2.5% of the country’s farms control 65% of agricultural land, while 88% of all farms, with an average size of 1.5 ha, occupy 16% of the land. Approximately 40% of the economically active rural population does not own land.

Questions:

1.  Who owns most land in Chile? ______

2.  How much land to the poorest farmers in Chile own? ______

3.  What percentage of farms control 65% of agricultural land in Guatemala? ______

Excerpt from the Denver Post:

U.N.: Half of all Latin American children live in poverty

November 15, 2006

Mexico City - Half of all children in Latin America live below the poverty line, the vice chairman of the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, Argentine pediatrician Norberto Liwski, told Efe here on Tuesday.

The recurrent economic crises in the region over the past decade have increased the number of children who are obliged to work, he said, citing his own country as an example. The number of working children in Argentina rose from 210,000 in 2001 to 1.2 million in 2003 because of the hard times during the four-year slump that saw the country's economy shrink by 20 percent.

Liwski, who is in the Mexican capital to give the federal government the committee's recommendations on its policies regarding children, mentioned Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Ecuador as the countries of the region where there is the most child labor. Most of the children in Latin America who work do so in agriculture, where it is more difficult to get access to social protection mechanisms, the U.N. says. Liwski also blamed child labor for the region's elevated school-dropout rates. "Investment in education did not keep pace with the spread of the policies to increase attendance," he said. Liwski said that the typical "dropout" in Latin America leaves school at around age 13.

Questions:

1.  State the percentage of Latin American children living below the poverty line according to the vice chairman of the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child. ______

2.  What factors have increased child poverty in Latin America? ______

3.  In what sector of the economy do most children work? ______

4.  How does poverty affect school-dropout rates? ______