Why is North America (US + Canada + Mexico) ,.more economically developed than South American counties.. is it just because the is US culturally that different , I mean South Americans.are we’re originally influenced by Western Europe as well . Or is the some geographic or climatic difference that affected development?
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There are a lot of reasons, but I’m going to say one for now: Soil.
Most people back in the day were illiterate, so the most common way to make a living was by farming. Canada’s and America’s soil are really good for farming. This gives people the ability to make their own food to eat and even sell the rest, that makes sure that you’re not hungry and is able to build some wealth to pass down to your kids, creating a big middle class. This is also really important for democracy, because the people are not hungry and wealth is more equally distributed among the people in the form of land and farming.
**Most of South America is located in the tropical region, which SUCKS for farming.** The soil is too salty and acidic. Most of the time, the country also heavily relies on one material good (oil, sugar cane, mineral), if you control that material good and you basically control the country’s only source of wealth.
This means the vast majority of people can’t make their own food and can’t build wealth, making them hungry and poor, and the country’s only wealth is concentrated on one small group of people. The perfect recipe for totalitarianism or a failed democracy.
Tl,Dr: poor soil means south American people are hungry and can’t make a lot of money, so the poor are vulnerable and the wealth is concentrated on the top 1%.
**Addendum: countries like Uruguay, Chile and Argentina (all outside of the tropical belt, go figure) are more developed than Mexico. They’re also the exception since they have good soil. Which is why I just said America and Canada.**
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