Hey everyone, it's Bryan. We mentioned in the lesson Mexico:
Regions and Rivers that many people when the term Latin America is used think of Mexico. Likewise,
when someone mentions South America, Brazil is often the first place that comes to mind.
Today we're going to place our focus somewhere in between those two
as we head to the nations located in South America's Northern Tropics.
The Northern Tropics region is one of the three regions of South America separate from
Brazil.Tthe other regions are the Andean Mountain nations along the Pacific coast and the Southern
grasslands countries, both of which you'll learn about in separate lessons. The Northern Tropics
region consists of four independent nations and one departmental territory.
Those independent nations bordered to the north by the Atlantic Ocean
and to the south by Brazil and the Amazon rainforest include, from West to East, Colombia,
Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname. The territory mentioned earlier is French
Guiana located between Suriname and Brazil on the Atlantic Coast. Let's start there.
French Guiana. As a part of France and not an independent nation, French Guiana is about the
size of the U.S. state of Indiana at 35,000 square miles in area, almost 99% of that land
is covered in forest. In fact 41% of French Guiana is taken up by Guiana Amazonian Park
which despite its location in South America, is the largest national park in the European Union.
Cool, huh? French Guiana's population is just
under 300,000 and the population is estimated to be largely mulatto of mixed African, European,
and Indigenous Ancestry. Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion and French, as you'd expect,
is the official language although the dialect here is certainly different from that in France.
Suriname. Just to the west is Surinam, an independent nation with almost double the
size and population of French Guiana. Just over half of Suriname's population is of Asian descent,
many of them East Indians or Javanese, while about 30% of the population is classified as mulatto.
Surinam, a Dutch territory until its 1975 independence and formerly called Dutch Guyana,
features a republic form of government. More than half of the population is Christian but Hinduism
and Islam also have a significant number of followers as well. Dutch is the official language.
Guyana. Like Surinam, Guyana is a republic with a similar but even more diverse blend of religious
preference. Most people in Guyana are of Asian or African descent and the terms Indo-Guyanese
and Afro-Guyanese are used to describe their heritage. Guyana gained its independence from
Great Britain in 1966 but remains part of the British commonwealth, similar to the Bahamas,
and Jamaica, and the Caribbean. English is the official language for a population of just under
750,000. At 83,000 square miles, Guyana is similar in size to Utah or Idaho in the U.S.
Summary. The majority of the population of all three: Guyana, Surinam, and French Guiana live
in a narrow coastal plain in cities such as Georgetown, Guyana, Paramaribo, Surinam,
and Cayenne, French Guiana. The southern portions of each are dominated by the Amazon
basin and rainforest. The climate of the three ranges mostly from tropical monsoon
to tropical rainforest. As an example, check out this climate map of French Guiana. The variety and
ethnic composition of these countries reflects the migration patterns of their ancestors.
Europeans brought enslaved Africans to labor on sugar plantations.
After slavery was abolished, large numbers of Asian workers arrive for those agricultural jobs.
Farming remains the basis of the economy in all three nations as sugarcane and rice are
major crops. The primary economic activity of fishing also provides work for many.
Others turn to the bauxite mines which produce large amounts of aluminum.
Venezuela. Venezuela also is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the North while much of the
nation is covered with the Amazon rainforest, but is otherwise quite different from its
eastern neighbors. 28 million call Venezuela home and Spanish is the official language. The
population of Venezuela is made up primarily of two groups: Mestizos or those of European descent.
Largely because of that heritage, 71% of Venezuela's residents are Roman Catholic. Despite
a mixed economy based on petroleum production, Venezuela has the lowest GDP per capita in South
America at just over 1,600 U.S. dollars as of 2021. This despite Venezuela's status as one of
the world's top exporters of petroleum and owner of the world's largest oil reserves. You heard
that right. Venezuela has the world's largest oil reserves. Those are spread out among three primary
locations: around and beneath lake Maracaibo in the northwest part of the country, the Oronoco
River and delta in the east, and offshore in the Atlantic Ocean. The national revenue of
Venezuela is almost completely dependent on oil production, but questionable government policies
and decisions have led to a complete collapse of the national economy in 2013. The result has been
a nation troubled with hyperinflation which is a period of extremely high monetary inflation.
Other problems include unemployment, poverty, crime and corruption, attempted mass migrations
to the neighboring country of Colombia, and shortages of basic goods for its people. Little
stimulation for the economy exists other than reliance on petroleum. Much of the agriculture
is subsistence farming but the primary cash crop is coffee which is harvested in the mild tempered
highlands shown here in bright green. Overall, the climate for most of Venezuela is predictably
tropical as you can see with the varying shades of blue that represent the monsoon, rainforest,
and savannah ranges within the tropical climate. Along and near the coast, the orange and red
colors of the map reflect small areas with hot, semi-arid, and hot desert climate conditions.
The landforms of Venezuela are diverse and two physical features dominate the landscape. The
first is the Andean Highlands, a range of mountains, plateaus, and hills stretching
over most of northern Venezuela. The capital and largest city Caracas is located at the
foothills of these highlands along the Atlantic coast. Most Venezuelans, about 93% in fact,
live in these mountain valleys in the northern part of the country. The other
most notable physical feature of Venezuela is the waterfalls and grasslands of the southeast.
While the Guyana Highlands cover almost half the country, the population there is sparse but
the natural beauty isn't! Angel Falls is located here. Now you've heard of it and probably already
know that it's the world's highest waterfall. You may not know that its height, 3,212 feet,
measures more than half a mile and is nearly six times as tall as the Washington Monument.
Venezuela's most important river, the Orinoco, flows through the highland region before emptying
into the Atlantic Ocean. Wide tropical grasslands called Llanos flank each side of the Orinoco.
Despite the ecological diversity and natural beauty, Venezuela as mentioned earlier,
continues to deal with many political and economic issues. Millions fled the country
following the 2013 presidential election due largely to the government's instability.
Colombia. The second most populous nation in South America is Colombia whose 50 million
citizens trails only brazil in number. Almost 88% of Colombians did not identify with any
ethnic group in the 2018 census and are considered either Mestizo or white and of European descent.
About 90% of Colombians are Christian, the vast majority of those identify as Roman Catholic.
Spanish is the official language but English and Portuguese are recognized as well. Like several
Latin American nations, Colombia faces political and economic turmoil from social inequality.
A small percentage of people hold the majority of the nation's wealth and power while many suffer
extreme poverty. Such disputes and civil strife linger despite a civil war between the two main
political parties in the 1950s. Foreign policy in Colombia has delegitimized the government in
the past as money flowing into the nation was intended to wipe out the drug trade.
Instead, much of Colombia remains involved in the production and sales of marijuana
and cocaine among others which bring huge profits to the drug cartels and
in many cases, provide more financial reward for Colombians than other types of crops.
The Colombian economy is highly dependent on coffee for legal revenue.
So much so that the nation is at times considered monoculture, which is the cultivation of a single
crop in a given area. Coffee beans are grown on hundreds of thousands of small farms in Colombia,
but most farmland is owned by a handful of wealthy families who rent at high prices to tenant farmers
called campesinos, a system very similar to sharecroppers of the American south following
the U.S. Civil War. The physical characteristics and climate of Colombia make it near perfect
for growing coffee. The landscape is dominated by the Andes mountains, the lowlands, and the Llanos
as the vast majority of its 50 million citizens live in the fertile valleys between three
cordieras, or mountain ranges, of the Andes. The climate, while often characterized as tropical,
actually offers considerable variation based on the natural regions found within
Colombia. Those regions are based on altitude, temperature, humidity, winds, and rainfall.
Climate zones include tropical rainforest, savannah, steppe, desert, and alpine climate,
each dependent on the factors mentioned before. Colombia's largest city and capital is Bogota
located in the heart of the country. One more thing, Colombia is the only South
American nation that borders both the Atlantic Oceans Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
Conclusion. The geography of South America's Northern Tropics region is varied but defined
largely by the topography of the Andes mountains, the Amazon rainforest, and the Atlantic coast.
Cultural groups and nations are split by these physical features and past migrations
creating vibrant and varied nations facing economic and governmental challenges.
Until next time, keep exploring!