Southern Cone
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Map that frames the area named Southern Cone |
The term
Southern Cone (
Spanish:
Cono Sur,
Portuguese:
Cone Sul) refers to a geographic region composed of the southernmost areas of
South America. Typically, it includes
Argentina,
Chile,
Uruguay,
Paraguay and southernmost
Brazil (
Rio Grande do Sul,
Santa Catarina,
Paraná and
São Paulo). Rarely is
Bolivia included, though it forms a geographic part of the region. Argentina, Chile and Uruguay are
always included.
The main languages spoken are
Spanish and
Portuguese, and the autochthonous
Aymara,
Guaraní,
Mapudungun (or Mapuche), and
Quechua. Furthermore English is spoken in the
Falkland Islands, a disputed territory between the
U.K. ( inhabited by British subjects) and Argentina.
Italian,
French, and
Welsh are spoken by descendants of immigrants in Argentina, and to a lesser extent the same is true for
German and
Korean in Chile, and the aforementioned, less Korean plus
Japanese and Italian in Brazil. Generally speaking what goes for Argentina goes for Uruguay; where
Portuñol, Portunhol in Portuguese, a pidgin language of
Brazilian Portuguese and
Rioplatense Spanish is spoken by a large amount of the populace.
English and French are studied and understood by the upper middle classes and upper classes in Brazil and the rest of the southern cone. Lebanese and Syrian immigrants speak
Arabic in Buenos Aires and São Paulo, some descendants of
Welsh settlers in Trelew-Rawson, Argentina preserved their
Celtic language, and some Basque of French origin brought the ancient
Basque language into Chile.
In contrast to most of Latin America, the populations of Argentina, Uruguay, and southern Brazil are composed in their majority by people of
white European descent, with relatively small numbers of people who are of visibly mixed race;
mestizos and
mulattos. They also retain almost no indigenous
Amerindian population, and in Uruguay's case the indigenous population is now extinct.
Meanwhile, although the majority of the population of
Paraguay and
Chile is composed of
mestizos (mixed European &
Amerindian), it is not uncommon for the admixture to lean more towards the
European element (as opposed to a relatively equal amount of both) and in some cases it is the only discernable element. Both countries do also have an undetermined number of unmixed White Europeans, as well as a visible
Amerindian minority.
The other distinguished and probably most significant characteristic of the southern cone is the high average of standards of living and life quality. Although Brazil is known for its considerable inequality of opportunities, the southern region's HDI (
human development index) can be compared to countries like Croatia and Slovakia and Latvia. Uruguay, where illiteracy technically doesn't exist, reaches the same level of this social development even facing natural restrictions to industrial and economical growth. Argentina and Chile are considered developed countries when it comes to human development, since their high indexes of 0.86 and 0.85 respectively surpass many places in
Europe and other industralized regions. High
life expectancy, health and education access, significant participation on the world's economy and profile of emergent economy make the southern cone the most prosperous macro-region of Latin America.
In terms of religion, the overwhelmingly majority are
Christian and
Roman Catholic, but there are
Protestants,
Eastern Orthodox,
Mormons and other
Christians.
Jewish communities thrive in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Despite the Southern cone's religious conservatism, it never curtailed the region's characteristics of social reform.
Uruguay has a strong church and state separation policy,
Chile passed a law to legalize divorce and
Brazil has a recent trend in tolerance of the
gay and
lesbian lifestyle.
The population of the mentioned countries: Argentina (38 million), Chile (16 million) and Uruguay (4 million) respectively. Southern Brazil's three states, including
São Paulo state, are home to over 65 million out of Brazil's 180 million people, especially the megacity of
São Paulo has an estimate of 12 million residents.
Buenos Aires is second largest at 10 million and
Santiago, Chile has 5 million. Uruguay's capital and largest city,
Montevideo, has 2.5 million, and it receives many visitors on ferry boats across the Rio de La Plata from Buenos Aires, 50 km (35 miles) away.
Although many theorists link development with the temperate region it is clear that the European objective in colonizing this region was to promote new perspective of life in opposition to most
Latin American regions as well as
Africa and
Asia, where colonization meant enriching the colonial power. People who occupied the region were running from wars, starving in their own country or searching for personal prosperity in all periods since the discovery. During the late 19th century and the early 20th century, they welcomed immigration mainly from Europe and the
Levant.This formed multiethnic societies later fused through the Iberian languages and Catholic religion.
The climates are humid subtropical, mediterranean, highland tropical, maritime temperate, sub-Antarctic temperate, highland cold, desert and semi-arid temperate. Except for northern regions of Argentina (
Thermal Equator in January), the whole country of Paraguay and regions like
Porto Alegre, the Argentina-Brazil border and the interior of the
Atacama desert, the region rarely suffers from intense heat. In addition to that, the winter presents mostly cool temperatures, except for the
Andes and
Patagonia desert (almost unoccupied regions). Strong and constant wind and high humidity is what brings sensation of low temperatures in the winter. The Atacama is the driest place on Earth.
The most peculiar plant of the region is the
Araucaria tree (
pinus) which can be found in Argentina, Chile, and Brazil. The only native species of
pinus found in the southern hemisphere had its origin in the Southern Cone.
Araucaria angustifolia, once widespread in Southern Brazil, is now a critically endangered species. The steppe region, situated in central Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil is known as the
Pampas, and the typical people of the region are a mixture of Portuguese,
Spanish and some Amerindian blood, and are called
Gauchos. Maritime tropical trees,
tundra, mediterranean vegetation and desert plants are also natural occurrences. Besides
Antarctica,
Patagonia is the cleanest place on earth.
During the second half of 20th century, these countries were often ruled by
juntas, military nationalistic dictatorships.Around the 1970s, these regimes collaborated in
Plan Cóndor against leftist opposition, including
urban guerrillas.However, by the 1990s, these countries restored democracies.
Currently, Argentine President
Nestor Kirchner and Chilean President
Michelle Bachelet have restored credible and reformist governments. Uruguay has a liberal and secular tradition and its social welfare policies are sometimes held as the "Swiss Of Latin America". For information on countries' political histories, see
Argentina,
Chile, and
Uruguay.
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Mercosur
