The The Hispanic Hispanic

CaribbeanCaribbeanChapter 8Chapter 8

Geography & Environment

North American & Caribbean Plates

Geology1. North American Plate• Limestone Plateau – Cuba, Yucatan, Florida– Karst landscape – sinkholes, caverns, karst towers,

subterranean rivers– Sierra de los Organos (Cuba)– Sierra de Escambray (Cuba)– Fertile soils – sugarcane

2. Caribbean Plate• Uplifted fault-block mountains (Granite)– Sierra Maestra (Cuba)• Pico Turquino – 1,975 m (6,476 ft.)

– Cordillera Central (Dominican Republic)• Pico Duarte – 3,083 m (10,164 ft.)

– Cordillera Central & Sierra de Luquillo (Puerto Rico)

Republic of CubaPopulation: 12 million

Population: 9 million

Commonwealth of Puerto RicoPopulation: 4 million

Historical Geography & Economic Development

• Pre-Columbian culture – Ciboney • Once in Cuba

– Arawak/Taíno• Once in Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico

– Caribs• Today in Dominica • Black Caribs in Central America – Zambos

– Vocabulary:• Bohío – hut• Hurricane, barbeque

• Spanish conquest – Santo Domingo (Hispaniola/Hispañola)• Founded by Bartholomew Columbus in 1496• 1st European city and 1st Spanish capital in the Americas

– Havana (Cuba)• Principal gateway to the New World for Spanish trade• Mercantile trading system – stopover to and from

mainland ports of Veracruz, Cartagena, Colón (Acapulco, Lima)• Became more important than Santo Domingo and San Juan

• Independence from Spain & U.S. Hegemony– 1865 – Santo Domingo– 1898 – Cuba & Puerto Rico – Spanish American War

Economy• Sugarcane– Spain – importation of African slaves– United States investment after the Civil War

• Slavery abolished until 1878 (Puerto Rico) & 1886 (Cuba)– Cultivation and Processing on Plantations

• Small family plantations gave way to large landholdings • Sugar mills: trapiches, ingenios, and centrales • Sugar, molasses, and rum

• Other crops and livestock– Tobacco– Indigo – Coffee– Cattle ranching

U.S. Hegemony & the “Yankee Years”• Spanish American War – 1898 – Cuban revolution for independence

• José Martí, Antonio Maceo, and Máximo Gómez – U.S.S. Main explosion in Havana Harbor– T. Roosevelt and the “Rough Riders” – San Juan Hill

• Puerto Rico – U.S. territory in 1901• Cuban “independence” in 1902 – Platt Amendment– mediated “sovereignty”– Guantánamo Bay Naval Base

• Camp X-Ray – in order to avoid U.S. law toward prisoners– Dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista – 1933 - 1944, 1952 - 1959

• Dominican Rep. – U.S. intervention – – Dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo – 1930 – 1961 – Marines landed in 1965

Cuban Revolution• Fidel Castro • 26 of July Movement –

1953– Moncada Barracks

• Che Guevara – Return to Cuba on the

Granma• Revolution of 1959• U.S. Embargo – 1960 – Helms-Burton Act of 1996

• Bay of Pigs Invasion – 1961 • Cuban Missile Crisis – 1962

Contemporary & Social Geography• Cuba– “Revolution” continues • Education • Healthcare • Provision of food and consumer goods – bodegas • Housing • Committees for Defense of the Revolution (CDRs)

– Special Period of 1990s• Tourism • Self-sufficiency • Remittances from exiles

• Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico– Tourism

Tourism: A Mixed Blessing?

• Advantages– State and regional

economic options– A clean industry– Educational

• Disadvantages– Disjunctive development– Degrades fragile

environmental resources– Inauthentic

representations of native cultures

MEXICO

¡Ándale!

Chapter 9Chapter 9

Historical Landscapes of Mexico• Pre-Columbian– Teotihuacán– Tula (Toltecs)– Tenochtitlán (Aztecs)

• Tlaxcala• Purepecha (Tarascans)

• Spanish Colonial– Hernán Cortez vs. Moctezuma– Haciendas – Silver and gold mining in the Bajío region

• Independence and Republican Period– “Grito de Dolores” – Dolores (near Guadalajara)

Historical Landscapes of Mexico– 1821 – independence from Spain for Mexico and Central

America– Mexican-American War – 1846

• Gen. Zachary Scott Taylor – Monterrey (1846)• Gen. Winfield Scott – Mexico City (1847)• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) – present border between

Mexico & U.S.l– French Intervention – Emporer Maximiliam I (1861 – 1867)– Modernization of Mexico and the Railroads – President

Benito Juárez– “Pax Porfiriato” (1876 – 1911) – President Porfirio Díaz

• Mexican Revolution– Pancho Villa (North) & Emiliano Zapata (South)

• Constitution of 1917– Expropriation and the Ejido

Regions of Mexico1. Independent North• Borderlands• Arid Northwest• Humid Gulf Lowlands

2. Central Mexico • Central Metropolitan Axis• El Bajío

3. Southern Poverty Belt• Southern Mountains• Chiapas• Yucatán• Tourist Fringe “Club Mex”

• Mayan Riviera • Pacific Resorts• Baja California

Regions in MexicoMexican Plateau1.Mesa Central - Valle de Mexico– Neovolcanic Range• Pico de Orizaba – 18,490 ft.• Popocatepetl Volcano – 17,887 ft. • Paricutin & Colima

– Mexico City – Guadalajara (Mexico’s 2nd largest city), Puebla,

Morelia– El Bajío (Guanajuato, Querétaro, San Miguel de

Allende)• Spanish colonial mining centers

Regions in Mexico2. Mesa del Norte

– Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora Deserts – mesquite, cacti, agave, creosote – Northern Borderlands (Mexamerica) – Monterrey (Mexico’s Pittsburgh):

3rd largest city in Mex.– Mining and manufacturing – Saltillo, Monclova, Chihuahua, Torreon,

Durango, Hermosillo, San Luis Potosi – “Silver Belt” – Zacatecas, Durango, Parral, Chihuahua – Haciendas– Ranching – Mexican Border towns – Matamoros, Reynosa, Nuevo Laredo, Ciudad

Juarez, Nogales, Mexicali, Tijuana– Maquiladoras – Mormons and Mennonites

• Sierra Madre Oriental – sedimentary (mostly karst – i.e. limestone)• Sierra Madre Occidental – volcanic origin (mostly crystalline – i.e.

granite) – Copper Canyon – Chihuahua

Central America

Chapter 10Chapter 10

Physical Environment• Caribbean & Cocos Plates• Sierra de los Cuchumatanes• Central American volcanic axis

– Guatemala: Agua Vol., Fuego Vol., Lake Atitlán – El Salvador– Nicaragua: Concepción, Momotombo, Masaya – Costa Rica: Arenal, Poás, Irazú

• Lake Nicaragua– Freshwater sharks– San Juan River

• 49 Gold Rush • Caribbean Lowlands – humid tropical• Pacific Lowlands – tropical wet-and-dry • Highlands in Guat. and C.R. – tierra fría and páramo

– Mt. Chirripó• Wildlife: resplendent quetzal, toucans, parrots, tree sloths,

capuchin & howler monkeys, and many others

Historical and Contemporary Geography• United Provinces of Central America (1823 – 1840) • Highlands: Coffee farms – fincas (Costa Rica vs. El Salvador) • Caribbean Lowlands: Bananas – Standard/United Fruit Company • Guatemala and Costa Rica: Tourism• Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua: Expatriots from N. America & Europe

United States as regional hegemony (Gringos) – “Yankee Years”• Monroe Doctrine• President Theodore Roosevelt “The Bully” – Panama Canal

– "Carry a Big Stick and use it..."– Rough Riders and San Juan Hill (Cuba)

• Good Neighbor Policy – President Franklin D. Roosevelt• Alliance for Progress – President John F. Kennedy Guatemala• Jacobo Arbenz – democratic leader of Guatemala • United Fruit Co. of Boston – “The Octopus” – Bananas• CIA and Operation Success – deposed Arbenz• John Foster Dulles (Advisor to President Dwight Eisenhower)• URNG – Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity

Historical and Contemporary GeographyNicaragua•Río San Juan and Lake Nicaragua

– Trans-isthmian route for 49ers in California Gold Rush– Potential canal prior to Panama Canal

•William Walker – filibuster from Nashville, Tennessee & established Nicaragua as a slave empire

– President of Nicaragua 1856 – 1857 – Captured by British and executed by Hondurans

•U.S. Marines – 1912 – 1933•Augusto César Sandino – rebel leader•Anastasio “Tacho” Somoza García – Nicaraguan National Guard•Anastasio “Tachito” Somoza Debayle•Pedro Joaquín Chamorro – journalist assassinated by Somoza Debayle•Revolution in Nicaragua – 1979 •Violeta Chamorro (FSLN Junta member, President in 1990)•Daniel Ortega (FSLN Junta member, President in 1980s, current President since 2006)•FSLN “Sandinistas” – Sandinista National Liberation Front •“Contras” – Contra-Sandinistas (illegal funding and support by President Ronald Reagan)

Historical and Contemporary GeographyEl Salvador•Civil War•Assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980•FMLN – Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front•U.S. military advisorsCosta Rica•Juan Santamaria – pushed W. Walker out of C.R. in 1856 •Civil War – Figueres vs. Calderón (1948)

– Abolished military – Public healthcare

•Oscar Arias – Nobel Peace Prize (1987)– Ending conflicts in Central America

Panama – independence in 1903•Canal – completed in 1914

– Canal Zone reverted to Panamanian sovereignty in 2000 •Gen. Manuel Noriega

– U.S. Invasion in 1989Caribbean Lowlands •Mosquito (Miskito) Coast/Mosquitia – British loggers (mahogany) •Black Caribs/Garifuna of Honduras

Physical Environment

Guatemala

Costa Rica

¡Pura vida!