PROBLEMS IN Chapter I ASSETS OF LATIN AMERICA The opening of the Panama Canal changed the map of the world. It inaugurated a world movement toward Latin America. That movement was interrupted by the War but it has started again with new impetus. One only has to go into the counting houses, the offices of steamship companies, of manufacturing concerns, and into the council room of the Foreign Departments of the great governments of the world to realize how intensely the commercial and political organizations are stretching every nerve to extend their influence into these twenty young countries. For they are the land of the future. Unlike the old nations of the Orient their Golden Age lies before them. Just as the most remarkable development of the nineteenth century took place in North America so the most wonderful developments of the twentieth century are destined to take place in Latin America. This is true of Latin America principally because of four great outstanding reasons. First, there is, room there for the overcrowded populations of the world. Second, there is power to produce the food and raw products for the world. Third, those lands are a market place for the manufactured goods of the world. Fourth, they possess a remarkable circle of intellectual leaders. Beginning at the Rio Grande and stretching on down through Mexico, over Central America, beyond Panama, through Colombia and Venezuela, the Andean countries, Brazil, Chile, down through the abounding plains of the Argentine to the Straits of Magellan, is the largest expanse of undeveloped, fertile land in the whole world. There is more undiscovered territory in Brazil than there is in the whole continent of Africa. One state in that mighty republic equals the area of Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. If Argentina were as densely populated as is the State of New York, and it is far more capable of caring for a dense population, it would have 225 million people instead of its present population of 9 millions. Venezuela is not considered one of the largest republics but it has three times more territory than Japan, while Japan has a population equal to that of all South America. Arguments might have been made in the old days against the dense population of these lands because they were tropical but modern science has overcome the difficulties of the tropics for men. The island of Santo Domingo is said to be more capable of sustaining a dense population than any? other similar sized territory in the world. The over-crowded populations of the Orient and of Europe will without question seek the great fertile fields and friendly climates of these Latin American countries. The World War has brought to light the wonderful productive powers of the Latin American lands. In exportation Chile leads the world in nitrates, Argentina in wheat, Mexico in oil, Brazil in coffee, Cuba in sugar, Bolivia in tin, Costa Rica in bananas,-in fact every one of the twenty Latin American countries is especially noted for at least one product upon which the world is absolutely dependent. The old idea in the United States was that Latin America, being so largely made up of Indians and illiterates, offered little opportunity for our commerce. Business men are gradually awakening to the great error of such an opinion. Little Cuba, with two and a half millions of population, had a foreign commerce in 1919 larger than that of China, with 400 millions of population. Argentina alone did about 2 billion dollars' worth of foreign trade the year closing June, 1920. In spite of the revolution in Mexico, the United States sold more farm implements to that country in 1920 than it did to France, in the midst of reconstruction work. Because of these basic economic facts there is now going on in Latin America a tremendous struggle between those countries which were formerly allies for commercial and cultural supremacy. Germany and Japan are entering this field with well laid plans. For the first time in the history of the United States she too is making a very serious effort to occupy a large place in Latin American life. Some of North America's greatest business executives are being transferred to South America. Trade commissions from various countries are met in all parts of these southern lands. Prominent representatives of political and intellectual circles from all parts of the world are also visiting these countries. Cultural supremacy is being fought for with little less intensity than is commercial supremacy. This very struggle among outsiders has revealed to the Latin Americans themselves their own strength. The spirit of nationalism is growing rapidly and the people are learning to play off one foreign element against another to the advantage of the national. They have recently begun to develop their own economic independence. Thus we have one of the most intensely interesting situations in any part of the world. These economic possibilities of Latin America have been well advertised. But her people justly complain that little attention has been paid by outsiders to the intellectual and spiritual assets of these countries. It was the frank recognition of these latter assets by Secretary of State Root, whose visit to Latin America in 1906 has been called the greatest event in United States history in the first decade of the twentieth century, that so endeared him to the Southern Republics. He began that remarkable tour by declaring in Rio de Janeiro: "I bring from my country a special greeting to her elder sisters in the civilization of America." Was this a mere compliment to the Latin Americans, an attempt to match their incomparable courtesy? The answer is very clearly revealed by a hasty glance at the civilization of these southern countries. It will not be necessary to enter into detail upon the civilizations developed by the Indians. The wonderful ruins found in Mexico, Central America and Peru are among the most remarkable in the world. Some of the pyramids of Mexico are larger than those in Egypt and the Maya ruins show an architecture comparable to that of the best of ancient Asia. The old fort just outside the city of Cuzco and the many ruined temples in Peru and Bolivia constitute some of the greatest marvels of the archeologist. The city of Machu Picchu, recently unearthed by a North American expedition, has shown the very great antiquity as well as the advanced development of these pre-historic people. The Incas and Aztecs were conquerors of races older than themselves and superior to them in civilization. Unfortunately, most of the evidences of their civilization were destroyed by the fanatical Spaniards. As one of the early ecclesiastics wrote, "We found a great number of their books, but because there was nothing in them that had not some superstition or falsehood of the devil, we burned them all, at which the natives were marvelously sorry and distressed." Surely we share with the natives such sorrow and distress. It is a significant fact, however, that Mexico and Peru became great centers of culture during the Spanish colonial regime. No doubt, however, Secretary Root was referring to the civilization which the Spaniards brought with them and introduced into these new lands. This in itself, as a brief reference will show, antedated North American culture by many years. FOUNDING OF UNIVERSITIES It is customary to think of the early Spanish settlers as only interested in gold. But the facts show that they had hardly landed on any shore before they began the task of the 、 development of a cultural life. The first university inAmerica, that of St. Thomas, was founded in Santo Domingo in 1538, a hundred years before John Harvard conceived his plan for a college in Cambridge. It received the patronage of both the Pope and the Spanish king and sent its graduates into Cuba, Porto Rico, Mexico and far-away Peru. Until Santo Domingo lost its prestige it was a notable center of culture and missionary zeal, causing the city to be known as the Athens of the New World. |