CHAPTER 30 review book

1. CHAPTER 30 review book LATIN AMERICA

2. GENERAL TRENDS IN LATIN AMERICA SECTION 1

3. Economic and Political Developments • With their economies dependent on industrialized nation’s military governments in Chile, Brazil, and Argentina encouraged multinational corporations to enter their countries. • To support their fragile economies Latin American countries borrowed money and became even more dependent on industrialized nations. • By the mid-1990s many of these nations began to embrace democracy as a way to improve their economies and get new loans.

5. Latin American Society • Population growth also hurt the already struggling Latin American economies. • The international drug trade has also brought crime and corruption to many of these nations.

6. The United States and Latin America • The United States has used its military to protect its interests in Latin America. • In 1948 the Organization of American States called for the end of one state in the affairs of any other state. • Still during the Cold War the United States provided military aid to anticommunist governments in Latin America to keep the Soviet Union for gaining an advantage.

7. Latin American Culture • Writers and artists have often been granted higher status in Latin America than in other parts of the world.

8. The Changing Role of the Catholic Church • Most Christians in Latin America are Roman Catholics. • For generations the church has backed the wealthy and powerful classes. • During the late 1990s however the church in Latin America began backing the poor and oppressed and has continued to work to improve their conditions since then.

9. Immigration to the United States • Growing numbers of Latin Americans have migrated abroad, especially to the United States. • Many leave seeking a better life but well educated people who could make great contributions to their home nations have also been leaving.

10. The Mexican Way • The official political party of Mexico has been the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) for decades. • After students who were protesting the denial of other political parties in Mexico were gunned down reform gradually occurred. • New political parties were allowed to participate in elections and greater freedom of press and speech was allowed.

11. In 2000 Vicente Fox was the first to defeat the PRI candidate for president. • Since NAFTA was signed in 1993 unemployment has decreased but poverty is still a problem in the nation. • These problems lead many Mexicans to attempt to enter the United States illegally to find work. • A drug war currently rages in Mexico which has cost thousands of people their lives.

12. Upheaval in Central America • Central America includes Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama, Belize, and Guatemala. • These countries depend largely on the exports of bananas, coffee, and cotton. • They also have a large gap between the poor and the wealthy which has created political instability and the fear of communist revolutions.

13. In Nicaragua the United States helped support the murderous and corrupt Somoza family in fear that should they lose power the communist would gain control. • When they stopped supporting this family communists did take power for a short time before being overthrown by a group called the contras who were supported by the U.S. • Nicaragua now has free elections.

14. Panama became independent from Colombia in 1903 with the help of the United States. • In return the United States was allowed to build and control the Panama Canal. • Many Panamanians felt they should control the canal. • In 1999 control of the Canal was finally returned to Panama based on a treaty signed in 1977.

15. In Guatemala the majority of the people are descendants of the Mayans. • Less than one percent of the people control 75 percent of the valuable land. • This situation led to a 36 year civil war between the military government and leftist guerillas who are sympathetic to native peoples.

16. Argentina • For most of the 20th century Argentina was ruled by Authoritarian or military governments which used violence to maintain control. • The Fascist Authoritarian president Juan Peron played to the middle class for support and used violence against his enemies to maintain control for many years following WWII. • Since the early 1980s however the country has moved in a more democratic direction.

17. Democracy in Africa Section 2

18. In South Africa things were more complicated. • A system called an apartheid had developed which legally separated blacks and whites and denied blacks basic rights including voting. • The African National Congress (ANC) was formed in 1912 to fight for rights but had little success. • After ANC leader Nelson Mandela was arrested in 1962 the group called for armed resistance to white rule.

19. Mandela would spend 26 years in prison for his activities in the ANC. • Archbishop Desmond Tutu and others worked to free him and end the apartheid in South Africa. • International pressure forced the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990 and the ban on the ANC was lifted by President F.W. de Klerk. • With the apartheid lifted the government agreed to hold free elections and Nelson Mandela became the nations first black president in 1994.

21. When Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union in 1985 he made changes that would lead to the end of the Cold War. • He pulled military support for Communist leaders in Eastern Europe which opened the door for Communist governments in these countries to be overthrown.

22. Upheaval in the Soviet Union • During the rule of Leonid Brezhnev the Soviet Union promised to intervene if Communism was threatened in other Communist states. • During his rule he did allow more Western Style music, art, and dress but still punished any dissidents.

23. When Gorbachev took power in the Soviet Union he began a new era of glasnost (openness in discussion of Soviet problems). • He also introduced perestroika, a restructuring of the economy in the Soviet Union and allowed other political parties to form in the Soviet Union.

24. In December of 1991 leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus announced that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist . • Gorbachev resigned and Boris Yeltsin became president of the new Russia.

25. Boris Yeltsin wanted to create a free market economy in Russia as soon as possible but organized crime and the Chechens wanting to secede from Russia and create a new state slowed the transition. • In 1999 Vladimir Putin took control and continued economic reforms towards a free market.

26. EASTERN EUROPE SECTION 4

27. Revolutions in Eastern Europe • Once Gorbachev made it clear that the Soviet military would not interfere revolutions broke out throughout Eastern Europe. • Communist governments lost control in Poland (1988), Czechoslovakia (1989), and East Germany in 1990. • In October of 1990 East Germany was reunified with West Germany to again become just Germany.

29. The Disintegration of Yugoslavia • Yugoslavia had never been a Soviet satellite state but it did have a communist government until the party lost power in 1990. • Within the country many ethnic groups sought independence including Slovenians, Croatians, Bosnian-Herzegovinians, and Macedonians. • In 1991 Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence.

31. Serbia led by Slobodan Milosevic also wanted to claim areas of Yugoslavia that contained Serbians. • They used the Yugoslavian army to take one third of Croatia’s land.

32. In 1992 the Serbs began an assault on Bosnia-Herzegovina. During the assault they began ethnic cleansing by either killing or forcibly removing Bosnian Muslims from their land. • By 1995 over 250,000 Bosnians had been killed and 2 million were homeless. • Bosnians regained much of their land with the help of NATO.

33. Kosovo was a self governing province in Yugoslavia containing mostly ethnic Albanians. • In 1989 Slobodan Milosevic took away this self rule. • When the Kosovo Liberation Army began to fight against Serbian control Serb forces began to massacre Albanians.

34. In 1999 Albanians were able to regain self-government. • Elections in 2000 ended the rule of Milosevic and he was put on trial for his role in the bloodshed. • In 2003 Serbia and Montenegro formed a union and stopped using the name Yugoslavia.

35. EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA SECTION 3

36. Winds of Change in Western Europe • Economic hardships in the 1970s and early 1980s cause mostly by rising oil prices caused the EEC to expand. • They became known as the European Union and their first goal was to create a uniform currency in Europe called the Euro. • It was so successful that many EU nations gave up their own currency.

37. In 1993, Mexico, the United States, and Canada signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which eliminated tariffs between the three countries. • Unlike the EU the agreement did not create any governmental body or laws that were above the laws of the participating nations. • Both the EU and NAFTA created what is called economic interdependence. This is when the success or failure of one nation impacts the success or failure of others.

39. The reunification of Germany made Germany the leading power in Europe but also caused some problems. • The East German economy which had been based in communism collapsed and some Neo-Nazis in the country attacked foreigners who had immigrated to Germany, especially Muslims.