Chapter 6: Neocolonialism

The neocolonial times were a little different than colonialism, mainly because Latin America exports boom created a different society relying on a new leader, Great Britain. In this post independent period the most important thing is that although these new States were already formed, there was a real modification about who was the economic power in the region. The new economic power was now in the hand of the British merchants. The export driven economy relied on goods like sugar cane, coffee, bananas, cocoa and etc. Of course some “ industrialization” also occurred since the landowners had more money to invest, the urban population had access to good education and many famous intellectuals like Machado De Assis for instance

There was a Great export Boom and the beneficiaries were mostly the large landowners and urban merchants, the middle class grew rapidly but the majority of Latin Americans saw no benefits from progress.

In Mexico for example a lot of the peasants were pushed off their land, eventually they became employees of landowners and most of them were peons living in the rural farms, hacienda. These landless peasants had no land to grow their crops, and their wages were often too small to support a family.

There is also a coffee boom in Latin America, in Brazil specifically European immigrants are needed after the abolition of slavery. In Argentina and Brazil most of these immigrants were Italian. There is also industrialization of sugar and mining, which created a division in societies between poor and riches.

There is also a growing of authoritarian rule, tax revenue increases, increased revenue also increase the size of the government, creating jobs and also attracting more foreign investments. In general the governments were more orderly, which in Brazil prescribed an authoritarian rule for order and progress, becoming the slogan of the flag.

In Brazil there was an Oligarchy, so landowners pretty much enjoyed local autonomy and manage local elections and any political situation to their own benefit. These oligarchies were controlled by states, being the two most powerfull ones Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo.