Latin American Export and Economy in the 20th Century

Latin America really began to show itself in the 20th century. There was high economic growth occurring, and with the growth of an economy brings the debate of whether the economy should be fully government ran or if it should be run by the economy. There are arguments for and against each one of these options.

During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s there was as a great export boom. This included sustained economic growth that Latin America had never experienced before. From 1877 to 1910 Mexican trade alone grew nine hundred percent. Brazil was producing two thirds of the world’s coffee by the early 1900’s. By 1929 Cuba had production of sugar of five million tons. Between 1870 and 1900 the railroads were built up to aid in the transport of the exports. They went from 2,000 miles to 59,000 miles. Landowners really benefited from this because the value of their land increased dramatically with the need for land for the railroad tracks. Also, the boom in exports helped the middle class people such as professionals, merchants, and office workers because they were able to perform secondary functions (Chasteen in Chasteen, p. 182-183).

However, in order to have railroads and crops to export there is a need for law and order. Mexico and Brazil were the first ones who had their government’s step up and become involved. Then Bolivia, Cuba, and Nicaragua followed them. In other areas people were building up support to have more state intervention relative to foreign ownership and trade. They made the state take over foreign owned banks, utilities, railroads, and mining properties. They also forced income redistribution with mandated wage increases and public spending (Harper and Cuzan, in Hillman, p. 152). An increase in exports brings an increase in government revenues from export taxes. Also armies and police forces were able to have modern weapons and more training. The increase in railroads help to increase the pace of transportation and troops were able to get to areas faster to end rebellions. With this and the fact that families were busy with the export boom, civil wars occurred less. Middle class people were given better employment opportunities in the bureaucracies and the schools with the increased government revenue. With having more stable economies, Latin America experienced more foreign investment. However, all of these positive effects only helped the minority of the population. The majority of the population didn’t have much of an option. There were income and literacy requirements for voting and there were managed elections anyway. As long as there was an export boom the neocolonial government had the vote of the large land owners and the judges did their part to disqualify people from voting. Most people knew about this but just came to see it as the way things were (Chasteen, in Chasteen, p.193-194).