South America:
Defining the Realm
If you travel directly south from Chicago, over which countries of South America will you pass? (Don't just click and read - think about the question, answer it, and then click!)
ANSWER:.
South America is not only south of North America, it is to the east. This means that South America is a lot closer to Africa than North America is to Europe. In fact, if you look at a globe [euldhemi], South America is about the same distance from Europe as it is from North America.
Thus, South America has a definite eastward, and northward orientation. To further emphasize this east and north orientation the western border of the realm contains the Andes Mountains [smmtns] from Venezuela in the north to the southern tip of Chile in the south. These mountains act as a barrier to the west and help orient South America's attention to the east and north. Also, a look at a map of population density [smpopden] shows a clear higher density in the east.
Regional Criteria
Study the following maps to identify the characteristics of the
South American realm. Be sure to compare South America with its
neighbors and identify the differences that explain why the realms
are divided as they are.
This may be a good time to review why our authors have decided to divide "Latin America" into two different realms: Middle America and South America.
Regional Criteria:
South America is definitely a physically well-defined realm being virtually surrounded by oceans, but it is historically and culturally well defined as well. Economically, South America is most often considered part of the developing world [wwldc], but if you look at world maps of GNP per capita [wbgnpmap], urbanization [wrurban], and population growth rates [wrpopgr], you'll see that it is one of the more developed of the less developed realms. Living standards in South America are significantly higher that in Sub-Saharan Africa and most parts of Asia [wwhdi].
Examine maps of some of the other measures of economic development and see if they also display this pattern [wraglab] [wwtrans].
[top]