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This chapter examines how the contours of American literature have changed over time by focusing on the shifting geospatial dynamics associated with the American South. In particular, it juxtaposes South America with the American South in order to highlight the historically variable nature of their interrelationship and the complicated ways in which these domains have intersected over time. The chapter first considers how the American South was imagined in the writings of William Bartram, William Gilmore Simms, and José Martí before discussing the notions of southern “regionalism” and pseudo-geography in the works of Zora Neale Hurston and Elizabeth Bishop. It also analyzes the fiction of William Faulkner and Frederick Barthelme.

This chapter highlights and explains the impressive story of the persistence of the Amazonian rainforest throughout the Cenozoic. Palaeoclimate and palaeoecological records suggest that the Amazon rainforest originated in the late Cretaceous and has been a permanent feature of South America for at least the last 55 million years. During the late Palaocene the ‘rainforest’ or ‘megathermal moist forest’ (MTMF) may have stretched as far south as 45°S in South America. The main climatic feature of the last 55 million years has been global cooling and the general constriction of the megathermal moist forests to the tropics. However, the Amazon rainforest has survived the high temperatures of the early Eocene climate optimum and the aridity and low carbon dioxide levels of the Quaternary glacial periods. The Amazon rainforest should, therefore, not be viewed as a geologically ephemeral feature of South America, but rather as a constant feature of the global Cenozoic biosphere. The forest is now, however, entering a set of climatic conditions with no past analogue.

This chapter introduces savannahs and looks at their distribution worldwide. It examines the general climatic and physical conditions that produce them. It briefly looks at the Llanos of the Orinoco basin of Venezuela and Columbia, and the cerrado of Brazil. It also looks briefly at the savannahs of northern Australia where eucalyptus and kangaroos replace the acacias, and ungulates of Africa. The chapter concludes with a geographical survey of the major savannahs of sub-Saharan Africa, from the arid savannahs that border the desert regions in the north and south, through the dry savannah and woodland savannahs that run from northern Kenya to northern Botswana, to the forest savannahs that surround the central lowland rainforest of the Congo basin. The influence of temperature and rainfall on the savannahs of Africa are briefly considered, and the action of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone described.

From 8,000-5,500 BP, the African Sahara was a centre for domestication of millets and sorghum. Agriculture in the region was extinguished following a sustained drought after 5,450 BP, but may have contributed to the development of the Nile Valley as one of the greatest agro-urban cultures of the ancient world. In Central Europe, after 8,500 BP, farming was introduced by migrants from the Near East who slowly travelled northwestwards along the fertile river valleys from the Balkans towards the Atlantic coast. Other seaborne migrants brought farming to southern Europe via the Mediterranean. Complex urban cultures did not develop in this region for many millennia. Agro-urban cultures developed separately in Mesoamerica, the Andes, and parts of North America once the indigenous crops could be cultivated under high yield conditions. Social collapse and simplification occurred repeatedly in several parts of the continent, probably due to a combination of climatic and social factors.

This chapter examines the small, local, river fish faunas in the Magdalena and Maracaibo basins in Northern South America (NSA). It analyzes species richness and distribution patterns of the freshwater fishes of the coast of NSA to delimit biogeographic units and relate them to historical and ecological variables. It evaluates the application of techniques of classification and ordination to the river fish faunas and describes the evolution of ichthyofaunas in the Magdalena and Maracaibo drainages.

The loss of riparian woodland recorded in the archaeological and geomorphological records of the basins of the lower Ica Valley is but one early part of a larger and still ongoing history of the deforestation of the coast of Peru. This is an old and gradual story that can be read through the Spanish chronicles, administrative records, and recent memory. This chapter follows the traces of this tale, beginning in the deep past with the archaeology of the south coast, beyond the lower Ica Valley. It then turns to historical documentation, firstly to review the uses of Prosopis by humans on the coast of Peru and in arid lands elsewhere in South America, before finally returning to focus on the south coast to examine the historical record of deforestation there.

This chapter discusses the search for the ten tribes in the Americas. It shows how the possibility to find the tribes in the Americas was “there” even before the discovery of the Americas ” through telling the story of Canary Island’s discovery several decades before. It also shows how the Ten Tribes were “removed” by European cartographers from their “original” locations in Ethiopia and Central Asia and placed in northeastern Siberia. From there they crossed the water barriers to the Americas. The chapter also discusses how the reformation affected Christian thinking about the ten tribes and heightened the debates about them among Christian thinkers, such as Sebastian Munster, John Calvin, and others. The chapter also discusses how the ten tribes became central in Spanish thinking after the conquest of America. Finally, the chapter shows how the story of the ten tribes became briefly fused with the myth of Atlantis and the history of the Scythians.

The year 1950 opened a new chapter in Philippa's life when she started her professional travels abroad. While the relationship of Philippa and her mother continued to be troubled, the tour accomplished one important thing: it renewed Philippa's faith in her ability as a performer. During 1951 and 1955, Philippa visited and performed in every South and Central American country, and numerous Caribbean islands. American National Theatre and Academy's financial support seldom amounted to more than a contribution toward travel expenses for Philippa, yet the sponsorship provided her with an official stamp of approval. While travelling all over Central and South America, Philippa had realized for the first time in her life an alternative to America's colour obsession.

This chapter explores criticisms of British trade practices in South America from a variety of sources within the US. The recurring theme of this criticism was that Britain was following policies ostensibly aimed at advancing the Allied war effort that in fact harmed US commercial interests in South America, while advancing Britain's own. While on one level these criticisms were a legitimate response to British connivance, various groups within the US inflated them to advance their own agendas. Combined, these groups represented indications from within the US of a wish to exclude Britain from South America in the post-war period. While there was a keen desire within Britain to resist this effort, as criticisms of British trade practices in South America became an increasingly prominent political issue in the US, they were consequently viewed as a threat to ensuring the benevolence of the Roosevelt administration. The British government therefore took a variety of steps to pacify US criticisms of British commercial activities in South America. This resulted in a contraction of British economic interests in the region, and in this sense, an early success on the part of factions within the US aiming to exclude British interests from South America.

Successful late industrializing countries (the rest) all allocated intermediate assets to the same set of mid‐technology industries, and in almost all cases, these industries started as import substitutes. What differed among countries was how vigorously and rapidly exportables were extracted from a sequentially rising number of import substitution sectors. The wide variation among countries in export coefficient—share of exports (manufactured and non‐manufactured) in GDP—depended on structural characteristics (population size and density), investment rates, and price distortions. Even controlling for these variables, however, some countries became overexporters while others remained underexporters. The reasons behind this disparity—rather than its importance for growth—are explored in this chapter, which addresses in particular the trading institutions of the latecomers and the influence of earlier industrializers on them—notably Japan and its Asian emulators, the USA and its South American emulators, and (later) Europe as a role model.

This chapter highlights regional arrangements in South America that advance energy integration in the region. Three significant multi-state agreements have the potential to provide the framework for moving energy from source to end user in South American nations. These are the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), and the Community of Andean Nations (CAN). Can those regional agreements supply an adequate legal platform for multinational energy networks to develop and operate successfully in South America? What are their strengths and weaknesses? These are the questions that the chapter attempts to answer.

This book is organized chronologically to convey a sense of how events appeared to those who made the critical decisions that led toward the Great Depression. Chapter 2 begins with the prewar gold standard. Besides documenting the role of credibility and international cooperation in the operation of the system, it highlights differences in the functioning of the gold standard at the center (in Britain, France and Germany) and the periphery (North and South America, Australia and New Zealand). It is shown that the smooth operation of the prewar system hinged on a particular conjuncture of economic and political forces – forces that were in decline even before the outbreak of World War I. The chapter finishes by explaining why interwar observers failed to appreciate the tenuous basis of the prewar system.

Throughout the autumn of 1942 and into the spring of 1943 it became clear that, notwithstanding the efforts of internationalists to promote multilateralism in Latin America, there remained powerful forces within the US which posed a direct challenge to this goal. This challenge to multilateralism in South America came from Latin Americanists within the State Department, temporary government agencies and US business interests in the region. Cumulatively, these groups represented a parochial faction within the US, focused on Latin America, and largely impervious to how this region related to broader global issues of post-war planning. As a result, the policies pursued by these groups threatened to exclude British interests from South America. This chapter therefore shows that the promotion of multilateralism in Latin America that had been attempted by internationalists was continually undermined by the persistence of forces with different imperatives. As British officials observed these tendencies, any optimism that the efforts of US internationalists would protect British interests and engender cooperation between the two countries in Latin America soon evaporated. British suspicions of being excluded from South America, which had been partially allayed by internationalists in the State Department, were therefore quickly re-ignited.