Colonialism and culture in Latin America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Colonialism and culture in Latin America - Essay Example Most of the Colonialism is done by Spain, Portugal and some is done by France. The Highest GDP per capita income is from Argentina, which is $ 13,153 and lowest is recorded by Haiti, which is $1,6141. In this discussion, colonialism and culture of Argentina would be discussed specifically to address the emerging questions in the Latin America about the society. Barton and L. Tedesco said in the year 2004: "Political crisis in Argentina and Venezuela, social mobilization in Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, and state failure in Colombia. This is the Latin American political landscape at the beginning of the twenty-first century. There are currently few countries in the region that can be described as increasingly stable; the cases of Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay may be the exceptions that prove the rule in this regard, although they are not without their internal divisions and conflicts. This lack of stability can be explained to a large extent by the considerable social, political and economic upheaval that took place across the region during the last quarter of the twentieth century"(p. 1). Argentina is the second largest country in the South America area vise, it is one of the Latin American republics that appeared as a result from the fall of Spanish colonial empire in the early nineteenth century, it was actually a movement that was started and led by Creole merchants and assisted by rebel irregulars in rural areas that brought the separation of Argentina from the Spanish empire, the separation appeared in two different phases, the first took place in 1810 and the second in 1816. The country had faced almost 50 years rivalry and after that in the earlier nineteenth century it had started to appear as a super power with beef exports as a principal economic activity, the country by then had started practicing every economic activity. About discussing the identity of the people of Argentina, most of them belong to three different groups, the first one were Creoles, the African slaves brought in by the Spanish empire, many of them have disappeared now, or perhaps mixed in whites, the second group consists of Italians, it is claimed that Argentina is the second homeland of Italians, the third most important group appeared in Argentina is the Jewish group, at the time of Spanish conquest so many of the Jews were also the part of immigrants in 1880s. Today more than 90 percent of the people in Argentina are professed to be Roman Catholics, there are other religions followed as well, such as Judaism, Muslims. The modernizing Argentina came in view when it started educating its people, as written in Facundo: "But the state of primary education is what gives the most complete idea of the culture of that time. No city of the Argentine Republic has distinguished itself more than San Juan in its diligence to expand education, nor has any other obtained more complete results. The government, not satisfied with the capability of the province's men to carry out such an important duty, in 1815 ordered that a person combining competent training with great morality be brought from Buenos Aires." (Ross, 2003: 89) The above-mentioned sentences can show the importance of the Buenos Aires, which is perhaps the biggest city in Argentina