Latin America and China economic relations

Latin America/China

China vs. Latin America -- two studies in colonial influence

Although both the Chinese and the Latin American geographic areas stretch across vast territorial expanses, the impact of colonial rule upon the Chinese nation and the Latin American region was notably different, throughout both areas' respective exposures to European domination. The first reason for this pertains to the centralization of political authority in China, before Europeans ever set foot upon the land. In Latin America, different explorers from different European nations encountered Aztec and Incan natives in dispersed settings, creating a sense that no one 'owned' the land, because the control of these different tribal units was not centralized. In contrast, China had a very clearly defined political leader of its territory, in the form of the emperor and a hierarchical structure of power the European nations could identify with, if not respect, and could negotiate with in ways they were accustomed to, amongst one another.

The European explorers came to Latin America in search of natural resources. They came to China, however, in search of the nation's new technological innovations, such as gunpowder and opiate medications. Of course, China attempted initially to turn itself away from the rest of the world's trade. Even later on, after the European powers carved up the nation into spheres of economic influence, however, China still retained its integrity as a nation. Latin America's different regions, however, were subject to direct territorial control by Europe. Moreover, there was a great deal of intermarriage between the colonial nations of Spain and the native populations, and thus the social and cultural development of Latin America as well as its economic development was changed in a way that China was not.

Both Latin America and China have been noted for their extremely formalized codes of relations between the genders, as well as their highly contextual relations between social superiors and inferiors. However, Chinese schemas of beauty and female deference may be traced to religious and social codes that evolved within the nation. In contrast, Latin America's specific cultural attitudes towards gender can be largely traced to the influence of the Catholic Church, another example of the extent to which European faith structures permeated Latin American societies.