>>54738787>Colonial timesIberian powers didn't try to develop these countries, just exploit them for resources. The strategy resulted in lots of gold and valuable production for Spain and Portugal, but not social development in the colonies. Britain tried to make those places an extension of the UK and entire families went to populate those lands. We sent male soldiers who mixed with natives.
>Contemporary timesEurope decided to adopt protectionism for Latin American exports (agriculture, cattle, raw materials...) because of local European groups of interest, despite teliing Latin Americans to open their borders to buy European products. It was not a fair trade, they were in disadvantage from the start and we didn't allow them to compete at our level. This fucked every country there and stopped Argentina and Uruguay's road to development.
>Current timeSome of them (Pacific Ocean countries) have finally opened enough to the rest of the world (mainly Asia). An open economy, with good economic policies (Chile, currently Peru and Colombia) can achieve a more than average growth and try to improve their societies, which have never been really good. Brazil was heading to be a BRICS power but that is not working well anymore. Venezuela had the terrible luck to find oil and being commie at the same time.
