Northern South America

Northern South America includes the area of the South American continent that stretches from the Caribbean Sea and the Isthmus of Panama south to the southern border of Brazil. Included in the region are eight countries and one protectorate of France, French Guiana. The independent nations are Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago.

The region occupies the largest and northernmost portion of the continent of South America. Most of the continent is in the Southern Hemisphere, but a small part of Northern South America juts north of the Equator. The inclusion of the region’s nations is somewhat arbitrary, because South America does not have a neat north-south dividing line. From the southern borders of Bolivia and Brazil to the Caribbean Sea, it is a huge, mineral-rich, tropical region. From giant Brazil—almost the same size as the United States—to tiny Trinidad and Tobago, it is also a region of dramatic contrasts, extraordinary natural beauty, and a complex human history.

Historical Perspective

The nations of Northern South America do not share a common history in specific terms or even a common language; they are all united by the legacy of European colonization. The interactions of the European conquerors, immigrants, African slaves, and indigenous peoples of many different societies have made Northern South America what it is today.

The long history of colonialism in Northern South America has left both a legacy of European traditions and a wide array of official languages. By population, the vast majority of people in the region speak either Portuguese—the official language in Brazil—or Spanish. This is a direct consequence of the Treaty of Tordesillas, which was signed in 1494 CE—just two years after Europeans first arrived in the Western Hemisphere—by Portugal and Spain. These two great maritime powers agreed, with the blessing of the Pope, to divide all lands outside of Europe between themselves. They chose a line of longitude to be the dividing line. Brazil began to the east of the line, so it went to Portugal. To the west the lands fell under Spanish control. Thus did the colonies of Northern South America come to speak the two languages of Europe’s Iberian Peninsula.

However, other European powers managed to gain footholds in the Atlantic coastal area of the region, and the local languages reflect that legacy. Dutch is the official language of Suriname. Guyana’s official language is English, which is also the case in Trinidad and Tobago. In the French protectorate of French Guiana, French is the official language. It is also the second language in Amapá, a northern Brazilian city. Spanish is the official language, in some cases along with indigenous languages, in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Northern South America saw the rise and fall of great civilizations, particularly to the west of the Andes Mountains. The development of agriculture to the north, often called the Second Neolithic Revolution, spread south across the Isthmus of Panama and gave rise to civilizations and trade networks. Innovations in irrigation, fishing, and political administration drove the rise of powerful cultures, especially in Bolivia and Peru. The best known of these is the Inca Empire, a short-lived (1438–1533 CE) civilization. Extending over an incredible thirty-two degrees of latitude, it was the largest empire in the world at the time. The Inca Empire included as many as fourteen million people, many of them living in cities made with stonework that is matchless for its era and connected to one another by 15,530 miles of paved roads.

Riven by civil war, the Inca Empire collapsed with the arrival of Spanish conquistadors bearing with them European diseases. Indigenous people of Northern South America died by the millions. As local enslaved laborers died off, the Europeans turned to importing African slaves. Slavery was not abolished in Brazil until 1888.

In the early 1800s autonomy movements arose in Spanish and Portuguese colonies in South America. In Northern South America, a Venezuelan named Simón Bolívar led the great wars of independence. By 1826, after many years of savage fighting, all of the countries of South America had been liberated. Brazil retained its colonial borders, but all of the other modern nations emerged only after negotiation and strife.

On the northeastern coast Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana were controlled in turn by the Dutch, the English, and the French. A large country called Gran Colombia separated into Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador in 1830. Bolivia and Peru were briefly confederated in the 1830s.

For decades, the region suffered under the control of the caudillos, military dictators with private armies. Only gradually did oligarchies and military dictatorships relinquish control of many of the nations, and the societies continued to recover from autocratic traditions into the twenty-first century.

Geography and Climate

Given the vastness of the region—its area is about 5,230,000 square miles—Northern South America has a simple geography. To the west are the Andes Mountains, to the east are the Brazilian and Guiana Highlands, and in between is a vast depression called the central lowlands. There are also narrow coastal plains on the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, but the three main features dominate the topography.

The great bowl between the uplands contains a surprisingly small number of rivers. Consequently, the Amazon and the Paraná Rivers are the two largest in the world by drainage area. The other giant river in the system is the Orinoco, which connects to the Amazon. Much of the Amazon Basin is a seemingly endless tropical rain forest, with a hot, humid climate. This is in sharp contrast to the heights of the Andes, which are tall mountains that are always cold above certain elevations.

The Amazon River Basin, coastal areas of French Guiana, Suriname, and Guyana, and the Colombian and Ecuadorian coasts all get very heavy annual rainfall. Only at higher elevations do any parts of Northern South America experience a temperate climate.

Economy

The economy of Northern South America is dominated by Brazil, which is the world’s seventh-largest economy. It almost exports more than the other eight economies combined. It agriculture, mining, service, and manufacturing sectors are all robust. Venezuela, thanks to abundant oil and natural gas, is also a major exporter.

Peru, with its arid coastal plain, high mountainous regions, and tropical border with Brazil and Bolivia, has a widely varied economy. It is rich in fish and minerals. It is the world’s second-largest silver producer and third in copper. Landlocked Bolivia also owns great natural resources, but its growth lags other Northern South American countries. Its main export earnings come from natural gas.

Colombia is noted for its sound economic policies, but it is dependent on mineral exports, particularly coal and oil. This makes it vulnerable to drops in commodity prices. Infrastructure limitations and a history of narcotics trafficking also hinder its development. Venezuela is likewise dependent on energy exports, which deliver more than 85 percent of its export earnings and 40 percent of government revenues. Ecuador is in a similar situation, depending on petroleum resources for more than half of its export earnings and about a quarter of public-sector revenues. Trinidad and Tobago is the leading Caribbean producer of oil and natural gas.

Guyana is dependent on just six exports: sugar, gold, bauxite, shrimp, timber, and rice, which account for more than 60 percent of GDP. Its annual income can be severely impacted by bad weather. Suriname also has a narrow economy, but it depends more heavily on mining and oil. However, exports of gold, aluminum oxide, and oil account for 85 percent of its export earnings, making it vulnerable to commodity price shocks.

French Giuana is entirely dependent on France. It is part of the European Union, and its currency is the euro. An important element of the local economy is the Guiana Space Center, which opened in 1964.

The biggest issue facing the economies of Northern South America is income inequality. This is true throughout the continent, but it is particularly marked in Bolivia, Brazil, and Colombia.

Demographics

About 340,000,000 people live in Northern South America. The ethnic makeup of the societies differs from country to country, but all are more diverse than most other regions of the world. For example, Trinidad and Tobago has English as its official language, but the ethnic division of the nation is 35.4 percent East Indian, 34.2 percent African, 15.3 percent mixed indigenous, 7.7 percent mixed African and East Indian, 1.3 percent other, and 6.2 percent unspecified.

A similar example of a melting pot occurs in other Northern South American countries. Versions of Hindi and Javanese are widely spoken in Suriname. German is a common language in southern Brazil, and Arabic speakers from Lebanon and Syria are found in Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela. Brazil and Peru have large populations of people descended from Japanese, Korean, and Chinese immigrants.

Descendants of indigenous people from Amazonia are the majority of the Bolivian population. People of African descent make up large proportions of the populations in Brazil, Guyana, Ecuador, Colombia, and French Guiana, while Mestizos (people of mixed European and indigenous Amerindian ancestry) are a majority in Bolivia and a very large group in Peru.

Bibliography

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