Monday, February 3, 2014
The Rise and Fall (?) of Economic Nationalism
Share your thoughts (with some textual substance please....ahem....) about the sources of economic nationalism in Argentina (or Latin America in general). What global factors influence Argentina to become more nationalistic in its economic policies? To what extent were these policies sustainable once the Depression struck the global market? Finally, why did Argentina turn to a military dictatorship when the US and Canada didn't?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
At the beginning of Argentinas history they tried to depend on more domestic trading policies however, after WW2 that changed as shown by the following quote, "Argentinas industry was largely domestic their was limited foreign investment until the late 1920's". After this they began to trade internationally mainly focusing with the UK. Therefore, when the depression began to hit, it affected their trading with the outside world and renewed the need for their domestic made materials. This resulted in Argentina creating/ discovering their own source of state run oil company to compete with foreign groups named the YPF. They also created tariffs to limit imports and began to further build its relationship with the UK by passing a law which would allow the people of Argentina to have less trouble trading with the UK. Argentina also created domestic public works in order to help build up infrastructure and create new jobs. Considering that Argentina suffered a 43% decrease in the value of goods, a 40% deflation of the peso and a a huge unemployment rate these actions were needed. But if you notice, all these actions were made in order to rebuild Argentina from the inside out which is why it can be considered a nationalistic in its economy policies: because they were all centered around themselves. Still, the people were untrusting of the new elected ruler which is why the people did very little when he was overthrown by another dictator.
ReplyDeleteArgentina became more nationalistic in its economic policies because they relied directly on the USA and Britain to buy their goods. Argentina also viewed itself as the leader of Latin America, this is why they wanted to become more nationalistic in their economic policies. When the Depression came, because Latin American countries had only primary products, they were left with nothing. Once the Depression struck the global market, Latin America, “ simply could not compete with the cheaply produced European and US manufacturers and, therefore, made few sustained efforts to industrialize.” Latin America was in no way prepared for the aftershock of the Great Depression on its economy. Argentina turned to a military dictatorship when the US and Canada didn’t because the Argentinian government followed the Russian communist government, because it seemed to be working in order to keep all of their industrial workers under control.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the reading from last night, many immigrants began to set up their own businesses, which caused the government to “pursue economic nationalism”. Even though Argentina is not apart of Britain, they were susceptible to the British economy/ policies because they traded with Britain a lot. By the 1800’s during the depression many immigrant workers were let go in order to allow urban workers the chance to gain more power and benefits. Also, the article talks about how Argentina's economy diverse in both their exports and their imports. One way the government tried to protect their country since they were so diverse was to nationalize their economy so that they would have at least one thing in common.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the government established boards to lobby for protectionist policies for agriculture tariffs. Lastly, I’m not quite sure why Argentina turned into a military dictatorship but it makes since why the US and Canada didn’t. For starters the US and Canada had a more stable government and had a better idea of who their people were. Argentina on the other hand based off of the reading it sounds like the government really never knew who their people were and because of that they needed to have control over everything to make sure that they did so they became a military dictatorship (or at least that what I think).
Economic nationalism came from the immigrants that came to the country starting their own businesses. They all were coming from the same boat and were proud of their work, so that is where the nationalism comes from. The global factors that influence them to be more nationalistic are the immigrants coming to their country. People are leaving their countries and choose Argentina to go to. These policies stuck during the depression because the radicals had implemented them and the immigrants which now made up a lot of the population sided with the radicals. And the fight to keep these policies were great amongst the citizens to help businesses. Argentina became a military dictatorship because they failed to follow Russian rule, so they figured it would keep the workers and government under control.
ReplyDeleteWell yes the economic nationalism came from the immigrants who wanted to start there own businesses. They also went to a military dictatorship because they wanted to have the government under control and and be able to command at free will and do what they wanted. With a military dictatorship they would be allowed to have more freedom and they did not follow the United States and Canada because what works somewhere does not mean it will work everywhere.
ReplyDeleteAfter I read the reading, I realized that according to the article, it was the recent "immigrants with entrepreneurial spirit" who urged for economic nationalism. Perhaps coming from Europe themselves, they felt a need to detatch from their homes. So their response was to discourage foreign relationships with the place similar to where they came from. They came to Argentina with "entrepreneurial spirit" for a new start and new opportunities, so they may have felt the need to close off foreign ties because of this. Also, the article talks about how Argentina's economy is very diverse in both their exports and their imports. Maybe in a way to control this diversity, they felt the need to nationalize their economy and create some kind of standard in place of excessive diversity.
ReplyDeleteSurprisingly it seems to me that the government succeeded keep economic nationalism as intact as possible during the Depression. although the depression hit hard, the government established boards to lobby for protectionist policies for agriculture such (tariffs).
I am not sure why Argentina turned into a military dictatorship. Maybe it was because of the political reputation of the country. As a more democratic country it is less likely for US and even Canada to end up in a dictatorship in comparison to a country like Argentina who has history of many military coups and corrupt governments.
Argetina depended too much in imports of the foreign countries. The factors that influenced Argetine to become more nationalistic were, that the European countries economies started declining after the world war 1 therefore the Us and Canada were also declining. World war 1 had led to high rates of unemployments and increasing prices.In addition, the USA was protecting their industries with prohibitive tariffs and they were more interested in investments and not in trades anymore. Therefore they had to become more nationalistic and stop depending so much on the US and the UK. They stimulated many industries such as the oil one to do that. These policies could not me sustainable anymore once the Depression started since it hit Latin American countries so hard because they were very poor and there was a huge gap between poors and rich .
ReplyDeleteI believe that Argentina was much weaker than the US and Canada in terms of the economy and they were really hit by the Depression. They were influenced by economies that were sort of working at the time such as the dictator ships in Europe especially the Russian communist government (after the Russian Revolution).
THe sources for the economic nationalism began by the people pushing the idea of economic nationalism due to the fact that it was hard to latin america to trade with other countries due to its georaphical standpoint, but it overcame this problems because of the "entrepreneurial spirit" that the europeans came to Argetntina with. but because Argetina was still "dominated by primary production" it came out at a different stand point in the end of the depression than canada and the us did. Besideds production standpoint the population of argentia also grew which led to helping its economoy improve as well.
ReplyDeleteEconomic nationalism is a body of policies that emphasize domestic control of the economy, labor, and capital formation, even if this requires the imposition of tariffs and other restrictions on the movement of labor, goods and capital. The sources of this in Argentina were from the citizens and the businesses that they built. I think this because an economy is based on the businesses of the country and the countries spending. There are many global factors. One global factor is the war. Argentina turned to a military lead country because they didn't trust their leader and no one was really a fan of him.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning "the countries of Latin America relied heavily on the US and Western European countries, ... for foreign trade and investment."This was also due to the fact of the geography of Latin America and other causes, and dependeces on foreign trade. I definitely agree with Lauren, Argentina viewed itself as the leader of Latin America," which influenced Argentina to become more nationalistic in its economic policies. The depression "hit the countries of Latin America hard as they were not well equipped to deal with it." As a result these policies were clearly not sustainable during the depression because "international demand for the primary products suplid by Latin American countries was largely in decline." It seems as though Argentina turned into a military dictatorship because they had no where else to turn. Both Canada and the US were in better shape than Argentina.
ReplyDeleteThe economic nationalism of Argentina came from several factors. The US and the UK import raw material and export manufacture goods. However, Argentinean were in poorness. Most of them couldn't afford manufactured goods from importing. The geographic structures in South America made Argentina difficult to trade with other South American countries. Also, tariff was almost their only revenue. "This meant as markets decreased, they received less income". Therefore, Argentina was becoming economically nationalistic and not depending on UK or US. These policies did prepare Argentina better for the depression but in 1930, they over threw the president Yrigoyen and the country became a military dictatorship. I guess what ever the economy they had would become a mess anyway.
ReplyDeleteAs it said in tonight's reading, the USA and other Western European countries such as Britain provided most investment and trade with Latin America, but the reason why Argentina became more nationalistic in its economic policies was because it relied too much on the USA and other Western European countries, so when the first World War finished, it couldn't gain enough economic support from these countries. Argentina regarded itself as the leader of Latin America, and those policies forced it to industrialize and because it was not prepared for the depression, and lack off self economic support, Argentina turned into a military dictatorship since it couldn't fix its economy only by itself.
ReplyDeleteIn Latin American countries, the economy was heavily relied on the export of raw materials of european countries like USA, Britain. Some of these countries controlled the latin american countries which is called the "neo-colonialism". This dependence on european countries exacerbated the seriousness of the Depression when it struck the countries. Specific to Argentina, USA started to become a very important investors in Argentina. American companies dominated in the filed of media: radio, cinema and newspapers. Argentina regarded itself as the leading country in Latin America but the growth in US trade seemed incontrolveritible. In 1917-20, there had been considerable industrial unrest which much of them had resulted in successful strikes. However, many governments developed forces of repression through violence.
ReplyDeleteBefore the 1st World War and the Great Depression, Latin American countries mainly thrive from exporting raw materials. For example, Venezuela is the world second largest oil producer. Just like Argentina, many Latin American countries depend on Britian economically. However, 1st World War takes away Britian and other European countries' support on these Latin American countries. U. S. suddenly becomes the economic leader of both north and south America. With the thought that they are the colossus of the South America, Argentina see U.S. as a rival. However, Argentina is not even a competition for the U.S. The exacerbation of supports from European countries harshly strikes these Latin American countries. Their exporting rates goes down, and they cannot afford manufactured goods from european countries. After 1st World War and during the Great Depression, Argentina suffers greatly. Many newly emerged middle-working classes are not content with low wages or unemployment. Workers organized labor unions and start to have strikes to raise wages and so on. At first, these strikes work. For instance, in Brazil, "45000 stopped work in São Paulo in July 1917" and their wages increase up to 20%. While their case heavily inspires other labor unions to go on strike, governments start to worry about the damage from these strikes. Argentina therefore starts to shift to military dictatorship. The reason that US and Canada do not become military dictatorship is mainly because of their established history of strong democracy government. These two countries are also relatively much more stable on their economy, even though the depression also hit them really hard. Another reason would be that the wealth distributions in U.S. and Canada are comparatively more even than these Latin American countries. For example, three- quarters of the population in Mexico are farmer peasants.
ReplyDeleteThe geography of South America made trade with other Latin countries impractical; Argentina's factors that led to more nationalization include the great influence the US and Britain had in respect to trade and economic control over the country. Also the volatility of international pricing behavior which concealed the long term trends of high investments form the US. Example, import price rose while the commensurate rise in exports was concealed due to their non-availability. Once the Great Depression struck it made these policies unstable and unsustainable because of the economic downturn around the world. One big factor of this was their dependence on one trade rather than a diverse one. Like many countries around the world when hit with hard times, they turned to their military to solve problems
ReplyDeleteFirst off, Latin American countries depended way too much on the US and the Western European countries. Their economy was heavily fueled by profit from trading raw materials like coffee, cotton, etc. In return, they'd get manufactured goods from the more developed nations. This developed a problem: neo-colonization. These more powerful countries would, in a way, control the economies of the less developed countries. Places like Argentina, Brazil, and Chile would start to experience an oversupply in those raw products and thus take away from their value and demand. In the 1920s, with the start of WWI, some countries in Latin America finally started to modernize. However, the reading tells us that there was little investment for properly training people for those jobs, and that hindered industrial growth from actually booming as it should have. Meanwhile, the US was investing billions of dollars into Latin America, furthering the dependence of these countries on them. I mean, by 1930, they even controlled much of the damn electricity. And so these countries finally wised up.
ReplyDeleteArgentinean pride was high during the world war where it was able to produce meat to feed waring nations troops. the demand for food was so steep that the once prime meat of Argentina turned more into a factory where quality and sanity fell due to the sheer quality nations needed. Argentina was also improving its new found oil fields that were discovered in 1907. these resources created a great argument for Argentina being the south american power.
ReplyDeleteThere was neo-colonialism between the countries of Latin American, the USA, and Western European countries. The USA's investment stimulated economic activity. The countries greatly relied on foreign trade and investment for several reasons. One reason was that the geographical factors made it hard for Latin American countries to trade among themselves. Also, the majority of the population could not afford manufactured goods and the countries of Latin America couldn't compete with the US and Europe, so they didn't really industrialize. In Argentina, many people lost jobs because the government obtained their revenues from tariffs instead of direct taxes.
ReplyDeleteThe US had more influence in Latin America than the British did. US investment increased from 1.5 billion to 3 billion, and American companies dominated through out Latin America. After World War I, there were high levels of unemployment and increased living costs. As a result there were lots of strikes, and the government turned to the military to deal with them.