World History II

Chapter 33: The Global South: Latin America and Africa
1945 to the Present

63: Wed, Apr 29, 2020

Please post in the forum for the day a short essay in response to this question:

Developing nations in both Latin America and Africa struggled to include (or exclude, depending on the leadership) native populations, immigrants who did not want to return to their native countries, and those of mixed descent. These groups were often culturally at odds as each sought to retain its own identity or create a new one. Transcending these boundaries in many places were issues of economic status, poor vs. middle class, vs. wealthy, each of which sought to improve its status or keep it. As a result, different communities with different goals were often at odds, sometimes violently so.

Was cultural and ethnic identity more or less important than economic status in forging communities of protest in Latin America? in Africa? How did these attitudes affect the formation of political parties, support for individuals (including dictatorships), and eventual establishment of stable governments — or the failure to establish them?

As the Cold War progressed, membership in global communities with similar political attitudes or views of economic progress and human dignity affected groups within nations. Countries that had been formerly “unaffiliated” aligned with other Marxist, Fascist, or democratic powers. How did the USA and USSR try to control governments in Latin America and Africa as part of the “democratic” or “communist” communities? How did these alliances shift with the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1989?

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