Warm ups *How would you describe the physical geography of Central America? *How would you describe the ethnic breakdown of the region?

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1 Warm ups *How would you describe the physical geography of Central America? *How would you describe the ethnic breakdown of the region?

2 Lesson Objective: *describe the distribution of wealth in Central America *explain recent political troubles of Central America

3 Wealth and Poverty *the majority of the population in Central America is poor (at least 66%), and they have very little political power *the small percentage of wealthy people are mostly of European descent and dominate the government and politics

4 The Impoverished *this group consists of millions of farmers who own little or no land, or workers in factories that make low wages *most are of Indian or African descent

5 *it s growing, but is still very small compared to the millions of impoverished people The Middle Class *a very small, but important class of people *farmers who own small pieces of land, some employees of urban industries

6 Economic Activities *the majority of people earn their living from some type of farming *most of the rural population makes a living by subsistence farming

7 Economic Activities *wealthy families own large plantations and hire laborers for cheap *they produce cash crops: coffee, bananas, and cotton *these cash crops account for over half of the region s exports

8 Political Conflict *many Central American countries have political troubles *the biggest issue results from unequal distribution of land, and a growing population *a lot of the wealthy are descendants of Criollos or Peninsulares that were granted huge tracts of land by the Spanish king hundreds of years ago

9 Political Conflict *opponents of the government often form guerrila movements, that are armed forces outside of the regular army

10 Sandanistas in Nicaragua *from 1939 to 1979, one corrupt family controlled Nicaragua; they rigged elections, and manipulated the economy *this government was overthrown by the Sandanista guerilla group *they took over land from plantations and gave it to their supporters and tried to implement a socialist system

11 Sandanistas in Nicaragua *from 1939 to 1979, one corrupt family controlled Nicaragua; they rigged elections, and manipulated the economy *this government was overthrown by the Sandanista guerilla group *they took over land from plantations and gave it to their supporters and tried to implement a socialist system

12 What your textbook left out *think about what was going on with the U.S. and the Soviet Union at this point in time *the U.S. CIA began training, arming, and secretly working with the Contras (the people that were trying to overthrow the Socialist Sandanistas

13 What your textbook left out *Does anyone remember about the U.S. involvement in the international court system? *a lawsuit followed, Nicaragua vs. United States, and the International Court of Justice ruled against the United States, saying that we were, "in breach of its obligations under customary international law not to use force against another State", "not to intervene in its affairs", "not to violate its sovereignty", "not to interrupt peaceful maritime commerce"

14 El Salvador *wealthy landowners feared a revolution as the population of people owning no land continued to grow *they hired death squads to eliminate political opponents who wanted to reform the government *between 1979 and 1992, more than 70,000 people (many civilians) died...about 1.5% of their population

15 Guatemala *was basically ruled by military dictators from independence in 1821 until after WWII (around 1946) *democracy was short-lived as the military gradually regained power *leftist guerrilla movements led a civil war against the government which lasted around 36 years!

16 Guatemala *during their civil war, the government used death squads on their political opponents and leftists *more than 150,000 people were killed, and another 40,000 disappeared (which was nearly 3% of their population at the time)

17 Development of Central America *from 1939 to 1979, one corrupt family controlled Nicaragua; they rigged elections, and manipulated the economy *this government was overthrown by the Sandanista guerilla group *they took over land from plantations and gave it to their supporters and tried to implement a socialist system