MIDDLE AMERICA

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Middle America replaces the term Central America which is actually a region within Middle America. Central America comprises the republics that occupy the mainland between Mexico and Panama: Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica with Panama also belonging to Central America even though historically it was once a part of Colombia. Middle America functions as a land bridge between continental land masses (North and South America) and between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

This is a realm of intense cultural and political fragmentation. The political geography defies unification efforts, but countries and regions are working together to solve mutual problems. The realm contains the Americas’ least-developed territory. In terms of economic potential, Mexico dominates this realm. By reforming its economy, it hopes to overcome past economic crisis and expand trade with North America and South America under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Mainland Middle America was the scene of the emergence of major ancient civilizations. This is one of the world’s true culture hearths—a source area of new ideas that radiate outward. This culture hearth is often referred to as Meso-America which extended from Mexico City to Nicaragua. The first civilizations arose in the lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula, Honduras and Belize, then later on the high plateaus of central Mexico.

Mayans , Toltecs and Aztecs

Reaching its peak from the Third century to the Tenth century AD, the Mayan civilization arose in the lowland tropical areas of Mexico and Central America. It unified an area larger than any of the Modern Middle American states except Mexico. Some of its related languages remain in use in the area today. The Mayan state was a theocracy (ruled by religious leaders) with a complex religious hierarchy. They also produced skilled artists, writers, Mathematicians and astronomers. The Mayans grew cotton, created a textile industry and exported cotton cloth to nearby communities. The Mayans were eventually absorbed by the Toltecs, a highland people from Central Mexico. They formed an empire for three centuries which served as the basis for Aztec civilization which developed in the many lakes in the Valley of Mexico which now surrounds present-day Mexico (most of the lakes having been drained). These lakes formed a means of internal communication and the Aztecs connected several of them by canals. This urban complex was known as Tenochtitlán became the largest city in the Americas. The Aztecs brought agricultural produce to the cities and tribute paid by their many subjects to their ruling hierarchy. By the fourteenth century the Aztecs were expanding their empire throughout Central Mexico and into Central America. Although they were better borrowers than innovators, similar to the Romans, the Aztecs were involved in the domestication of corn (maize), squash, cacao, tomato, beans and tobacco.

European Contact

At the time of European discovery of the Americas, there were estimated to be 75 to 100 million Amerindians in the Middle America realm. Other estimates are more conservative; up to 25 million. After contact with Spaniards the population declined rapidly, primarily due to exposure to small pox. Despite Europeans superior powers, the Aztec civilization would not have fallen without help from the many indigenous peoples who were in bondage to the Aztecs in order to finance their ever expanding empire. Hernán Cortés led a rebellion against the Aztecs and eventually overthrew them between 1519-1521. The Spaniards then imposed their way of life on the remaining population.

In addition to decline in the Amerindian population, deforestation of surrounding vegetation, introduction of cattle and substitution of Spanish wheat for maize, they introduced the Spanish colonial town. Each town was located near what was thought to be good agriculture land so the Amerindians could go out each day and work the fields. The Spanish established these towns so they could exercise control over the indigenous population. Establishment of these towns allowed the Spanish to pursue mining, agricultural ranching and trade. The introduction of the Roman Catholic Church into the everyday affairs of the Amerindian population led the acculturation of the native population.

Mainland and Rimland Society

Middle America is actually divided into two societies: a coastal rimland society and a mainland society. These contrasts between the Middle American highlands and coastal areas have been conceptualized as a Mainland-Rimland framework:

1. A Euro-Amerindian Mainland consisting of mainland Middle America from Mexico to Panama with the exception of the Caribbean coast form mid-Yucatán southeastward. It is dominated by the hacienda, a large estate of Spanish origins. Native Amerindians lived on the land and had plots where they could grow their own subsistence corps. The hacienda, its imprints still visible in mainland middle America is characterized by inefficient land use and labor. The Amerindian population is dominated by intermingling of European and Amerindians known as mestizo.

2. A Euro-African Rimland which includes the previously stated coastal zone and the islands of the Caribbean. It is dominated by a mixture of European and African known as mulatto. Mulattos replaced the earlier indigenous population who were killed off by diseases introduced by Europeans who settled the islands. African slaves were brought to this region to work in large agricultural estates known as plantations. Plantations are located in the humid tropical coastal lowlands. They generally produce crops for profit, almost exclusively for export and are usually a single crop (i.e., sugar cane, bananas, coffee). Capital and skills are often imported so that foreign ownership and an out flow of profits occur. Labor is generally seasonal, idle some times, but needed in large numbers at other times especially during harvest. The use of labor at a plantation is typically more efficient than that of the haciendas.

The Caribbean

Caribbean America consists of:

The first obstacle is their small size and relatively harsh physical environment. Their small size makes it relatively difficult to attain industrial self-sufficiency. Many of these nations face shortages of fresh water and farmland. During the winter and spring, little precipitation falls and when the rainy season shows up from May to November, devastating hurricanes are possible. The entire Caribbean region is situated on the Caribbean Plate which collides with the North American Plate resulting in earthquakes and volcanoes especially in the Eastern Caribbean. Some of the worst natural disasters in history have occurred in this region, with the 1902 volcanic eruptions on the island of Martinique, one of the worst in history, killing 30,000 people. Presently, the island of Montserratt has been evacuated because of volcanic eruptions.

The second challenge is overcoming the colonial legacy. Most of the islands are politically independent but many functions as economic colonies, exporting relatively low-value raw materials, such as bananas and bauxite and importing relatively expensive processed products. The colonial legacy also left deep social and racial divisions. Following the near extermination of the native population due primarily to expose to European diseases, African slaves were introduced as a labor supply. Their descendents now constitute the principal population of the Lesser Antilles, Jamaica and Haiti and a minority of people in Trinidad and Tobago and Cuba, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. All of the populations have a European culture base (except Haiti which is African based). In many cases, the lighter ones skin is in these countries, the higher their socioeconomic status.

The third challenge is to preserve both the local ways of life and the environmental balance in the face of an ever increasing number of foreign visitors. While Caribbean tourism (which brings as many as 25 million visitors annually) is generally beneficial for many islands, there are some problems. Tourism sometimes has the effect of devaluating local culture which is adapted to suit visitors’ tastes. Resentment occurs when hotels tower over substandard housing and the intervention of islands governments and multinational corporations removes opportunities from local entrepreneurs in favor of large operators and major resorts. For this reason tourism is often referred to as the 'irritant industry'.

The impact of the sugar industry on this region cannot be emphasised enough in explaining the current physical and cultural landscape of the Caribbean.  Skim through "The High Price of Sugar" to find out more about the evolution of Caribbean region and its people

Central America faces difficult problems with each of its six countries facing serious economic and political problems. Other problems include lack of natural resources, geographic isolation, rugged topography, poor transportation infrastructure, environmental hazards and degradation and the lingering effects of land-tenure systems. The inefficient hacienda are found here as they are in southern Mexico.

Agriculture dominates Central American economies. Two new agricultural products have recently joined coffee and bananas as important sources of revenue. They are irrigated cotton and cattle ranching for export. One of the unfortunate by products of ranching has been tropical deforestation as rainforests are cleared for grazing. Today over 3 million acres of woodland in Central America and Mexico disappear each year. The causes of deforestation are related to the persistent economic and demographic problems of the disadvantaged countries. Because tropical soils are nutrient-poor, newly deforested areas function for only a few years. These fields eventually must be abandoned for other lands which will eventually be abandoned. Without the protection of trees, local soil erosion and flooding immediately become problems, affecting still productive areas. Another problem is the rapid logging of tropical woodlands as the timber industry increasingly turns to forested tropical regions. The rapid population growth of the region puts additional pressure as more and more peasants are required to extract a subsistence ways of life from inferior lands.

Perhaps more important to the peoples of this region is another important theme in Central America: Civil War.  Every country, with the exception of Costa Rica, has until very recently been involved in bloody internal conflict.  The names and parties involved in these conflicts are particular to the country, but the underlying root of all evil in this sub-region is economic disparity between the have's and the have-not's.  Many grass roots revolutions tend to lean toward communism or socialism as the answer to their ills--which became problematic for the United States during the Cold War, as they were busy trying to 'stamp out' such movements worldwide.  Thus, US involvement in Central America generally supported the 'rightist' regimes in the region--even when these regimes were militiristic or surpressive governments.  Another thing to keep in mind is the fact that it is in the self-interest of the US to protect the property of large US-based corporations in the region (a lot of fruit, logging, beef and coffee production is controlled directly or indirectly by US companies).  This becomes very confusing for most of us in understanding exactly who our government is supporting, and why--sometimes we support the right, sometimes the left, sometimes democratic movements, sometimes brutal dictators, depending on which side benefits us the most.