Southern Cone

Southern Cone
Area	4,944,081 square kilometres (1,908,920 sq mi)
Population	135,707,204 (July 2010 est.)
Density	27.45 /km2 (71.1 /sq mi)[1]
Countries	3, 4 or 5
Dependencies	18
Demonym	South American
Languages	Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and many others
Largest urban agglomerations (2005)	São Paulo Buenos Aires Santiago de Chile Porto Alegre Curitiba Montevideo Asunción

Southern Cone (Spanish: Cono Sur, Portuguese: Cone Sul) is a geographic region composed of the southernmost areas of South America, south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Although geographically this includes Southern and part of Southeast (São Paulo) of Brazil, in terms of political geography the Southern cone has traditionally comprised Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. In the narrowest sense, it only covers Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, bounded on the north by the states of Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia and Peru, on the west by the Pacific Ocean, and south to the junction between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, which it is the closest continental area of Antarctica (1000 km).^[2]

High life expectancy, the highest Human Development Index of Latin America, high standard of living, significant participation in the global markets and the emerging economy^[3] of its members make the Southern Cone the most prosperous macro-region in South America.^[2][4][5]

Geography and extent

Satellite images of the Southern Cone month by month

Landforms in the Monte Desert at Ischigualasto, Argentina. Much of the southern cone is covered by the Atacama, Patagonian and Monte deserts.

The climates are mostly temperate, but include humid subtropical, Mediterranean, highland tropical, maritime temperate, sub-Antarctic temperate, highland cold, desert and semi-arid temperate regions. Except for northern regions of Argentina (thermal equator in January), the whole country of Paraguay, the Argentina-Brazil border and the interior of the Atacama desert, the region rarely suffers from heat. In addition to that, the winter presents mostly cool temperatures. Strong and constant wind and high humidity is what brings low temperatures in the winter. The Atacama is the driest place on Earth.

One of the most peculiar plants of the region is the Araucaria tree, which can be found in southern Brazil, Chile and Argentina. The only native group of conifers 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, protected by law. The steppe region of central Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil is known as the Pampas.

Central Chile has Mediterranean vegetation and climate, grading southward into oceanic climate. The Atacama, Patagonian and Monte deserts form a diagonal or arid lands separating the woodlands, croplands and pastures of La Plata basin from Central and Southern Chile. Apart from the desert diagonal, the north-south running Andes form a major divide in the Southern Cone and constitute, for most of its part in the southern cone, the political border of Chile. In the east the river systems of the La Plata basin form natural barriers and sea-lanes between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Culture

Mate, as shown in the picture, is a typical beverage from the Southern Cone

Besides sharing languages and colonial heritage, the residents of the states of the Southern Cone are avid players and fans of football, with top-notch teams competing in the sport. Argentina and Uruguay have both won the FIFA World Cup twice, and Brazil five times; they are the only national teams outside Europe to have won the cup. Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay have all hosted the World Cup. Additionally, national teams from the region have won several Olympic medals in football. Also, football clubs from the Southern Cone countries have won large numbers of club competitions in South-American competitions, Pan-American competitions, and world-FIFA Club World Cup-level competitions.

The asado barbecue is a great culinary tradition. The asado developed from the horsemen and cattle culture of the region, more specifically from the gauchos of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay (and southern Chile) and the huasos of Chile. In the Southern Cone, horsemen are considered icons of national identity; they are featured in the epic poem Martín Fierro. Mate is popular throughout the Southern Cone, especially in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. In Chile mate is popular in the southern regions and south-central rural areas.

In this area, there was extensive European immigration during the 19th- and 20th-centuries, who, with their descendants, have strongly influenced the culture, social life and politics of these countries. They helped organize labor movements and popular movements for democracy but also participated in the dictatorships.

Language

The overwhelming majority, including those of recent immigrant background, speak Spanish (in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay) or Portuguese in the case of Brazil. The Spanish-speaking countries of the Southern Cone are divided into three main dialects:

• Paraguayan Spanish, which is highly influenced by the Guarani language that is spoken alongside Rioplatense Spanish;
• Rioplatense Spanish, spoken in Argentina and Uruguay, where the accent and daily language is heavily influenced by the Italian of 19th-20th century immigrants; and
• Chilean Spanish.

These dialects share common traits, such as a number of Lunfardo and Quechua words.

Other minor languages and dialects include Portuñol, a hybrid between Uruguayan Rioplatense and Portuguese, and Cuyano, originally a variant of Chilean Spanish now infused with Rioplantense.

Rioplatense Spanish

Preliminary research has shown that Rioplatense Spanish, and particularly the speech of the city of Buenos Aires, has intonation patterns that resemble those of Italian dialects on Naples and that area, and differ markedly from the patterns of other forms of Spanish.^[6] Argentina, and particularly Buenos Aires, had huge numbers of Italian immigrant settlers since the 19th century, who mostly came from southern Italy. The researchers note that the development of this dialect is a relatively recent phenomenon, developing since the beginning of the 20th century and the main wave of Southern Italian immigration.^[7]

Native American languages

Map of the different indigenous groups in the Southern Cone at the arrival of Europeans in the first half the 16th century.

Some Native American groups, especially in rural areas, continue to speak autochthonous languages, including Mapudungun (also known as Mapuche), Quechua, Aymara, and Guarani. The first is primarily spoken in Araucanía and adjacent areas of Patagonia, in southern Argentina and Chile. Guarani is an official language of Paraguay. It is also spoken in the northeastern Argentine provinces of Corrientes and Misiones, where it is an official language along with Spanish.^[8]

Non-Iberian European languages

English is spoken in the Falkland Islands, a British Overseas Territory. Welsh is spoken by descendants of immigrants in the Patagonia region of Argentina. Portuñol (Portunhol in Portuguese), is a pidgin or creole language of Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish that is spoken on the border with Brazil.

Italian (mostly its Northern dialects, such as Venetian), is spoken in rural communities across Argentina and Southern Brazil where immigrants had settled. German in some dialects is mostly spoken in Southern Chile and Southern Brazil. Croatian and other Slavic languages are also spoken in the southernmost areas of Chilean Patagonia, reflecting patterns of immigration and settlement.

Religion

The majority of residents are Roman Catholic, but there are Jewish and Protestants as well (mostly in Argentina and Chile), with rapid growth among some Protestant evangelical sects, especially in Brazil. Religions include Islam, Anglican, Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox, Buddhism and Dao. Jewish communities have thrived in cities of Argentina and Uruguay.

A history of Catholicism has left landmarks like the Churches of Chiloé (in picture) in the Southern Cone.

While the Southern Cone has been conservative in some aspects of religion, it has had a tradition of social reform and "liberation theology" has been followed by many in the Catholic Church. Uruguay, where agnosticism and atheism is common, has a policy of strong separation of church and state. It is one of the most secular countries in the Americas.^[9] Uruguay, Argentina and Chile, in that order, have the least religious residents in South America, according to their responses about the significance of religion in their lives. According to a Gallup poll, 51% of Uruguayans, 56% of Argentines, and 60% of Chileans think of religion 'as something important in their lives,' contrasting with the higher values given by the residents of countries such as Brazil (87%), Bolivia (89%) and Paraguay (92%). In another social survey, residents rated their countries as 'good places for gay or lesbian people to live;' the following percentages said 'yes' in Uruguay (69%), Argentina (58%) and Chile (52%). By contrast, fewer people in the following countries agreed: Bolivia (24%), Ecuador (31%) and Peru (32%).^[10]

Countries and territories

Country or territory	Area (km²)[11]	Population (2011)[11]	Population density (per km²)	Capital or most important city
Argentina	70062780400000000002,780,400	700740091359000000040,091,359	14.42	Buenos Aires
Chile	7005756096000000000756,096	700717094275000000017,094,275	22.60	Santiago
São Paulo and Southern Brazil	7005824618000000000824,618	700768636975000000068,636,975	83.23	São Paulo
Uruguay	7005176215000000000176,215	70063424595000000003,424,595	19.43	Montevideo
Paraguay	7005406752000000000406,752	70066460000000000006,460,000	15.88	Asunción
Total	70064944081000000004,944,081	7008135707204000000135,707,204	27.45

Demography

Population density of the Southern Cone by first level national administrative divisions. Population/km²

View of the Southern Cone at night, where there are population densities in the accumulation of light from cities.

The population of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay is 40, 16.8 and 3.6 million respectively. Buenos Aires is the largest metropolitan area at 13.1 million and Santiago, Chile has 6.4 million. When part of Southeastern Brazil is included, São Paulo is the largest city, with 19.8 million; in the Southern Brazil, the largest metropolitan area is Porto Alegre, with more than 4 million. Uruguay's capital and largest city, Montevideo, has 1.8 million, and it receives many visitors on ferry boats across the Río de la Plata from Buenos Aires, 50 km (31 mi) away. Asunción, Paraguay's capital city has a population of 2.1 million.

Ethnicity

As far as ethnicity is concerned, the population of the Southern Cone has been strongly influenced by waves of immigration from Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. People of European descent, called whites make up 80% of the total population of Argentina, Uruguay and Southern Brazil.^{[12][13][14][15]} Mestizos make up 15.8% of the population, and are a majority in Paraguay,^[16] and Chile.^[17] Native Americans make up 3% of the population, mulattoes (people of European and African ancestry) (0.2%) and Asians (1.0%), mostly in Southern Brazil and Uruguay, the remaining 1.2%.^[18]

Genetic and Historical roots

Since interethnic marriages are widespread in Latin America, complex ethnic classifications emerged, including 16 "racial" categories created in 18th century Hispanic America, including terms like castizo, morisco, cambujo and ahí te estás. In Brazil, about 190 "racial" categories were detected by the Census of 1976.^[19]

Blacks made up 25% of the population of Buenos Aires in 1810, 1822 and 1838. In 1887, the government decided to cease asking Argentine citizens about their race. According to Laura López, it was a way to "hide" the Black population, not only from the Census, but also from the public opinion.^[20] Nowadays, 87% of Argentines are "White".^[21] Chile does not ask its citizens about race, but a study from the University of Chile concluded that Mestizo make up the majority, 65% of the Chilean population,^[22] while the CIA World Factbook described 95.4% of the population as white and mestizo.^[23]

Recent censuses in Brazil are conducted on the basis of self-identification. In the 2000 census, 53% of Brazilians (approximately 93 million people in 2000; around 100 million as of 2006) were white and 39% pardo or multiracial Brazilians. White is applied as a term to people of European descent (including European Jews), and Middle Easterners of all faiths. According to IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), Pardo is a broad classification that encompasses Brazilians of mixed race ancestry, mulattoes, and assimilated indigenous people ("caboclos"). The geneticist Sérgio Pena criticised foreign scholar Edward Telles for lumping "blacks" and "pardos" in the same category, given the predominant European ancestry of the "pardos" throughout Brazil. According to him, "the autosomal genetic analysis that we have performed in non related individuals from Rio de Janeiro shows that it does not make any sense to put "blacks" and "pardos" in the same category".^[24]

A recent autosomal DNA study (2011), with nearly 1000 samples from all over Brazil ("whites", "pardos" and "blacks"), found out a major European contribution, followed by a high African contribution and an important Native American component.^[25] "In all regions studied, the European ancestry was predominant, with proportions ranging from 60.6% in the Northeast to 77.7% in the South".^[26] The 2011 autosomal study samples came from blood donors (the lowest classes constitute the great majority of blood donors in Brazil^[27]), and also public health institutions personnel and health students. The study showed that Brazilians from different regions are more homogenous than previously thought by some based on the census alone. "Brazilian homogeneity is, therefore, a lot greater between Brazilian regions than within Brazilians region".^[28]

Different ethnic groups contributed for the composition of the population of the Southern Cone. The original population, the Amerindians, was in large part exterminated. As in the rest of Latin America, in the first centuries of colonization the region was settled by Spanish and Portuguese colonizers and most of them were men. Soon after their arrival, an intensive mixture between those European men and the local Amerindian women began, producing a new population named Mestizo in Hispanophone countries and Caboclo or Mameluco in Brazil. Amerindian ancestry is widespread in the region, mostly through the maternal line, while European ancestry is mostly found on the paternal line. African ancestry is mostly found in Brazil.

An autosomal DNA study from 2009 found the composition of the Argentine population to be 78,50% European, 17,30% Native American, and 4,20% SSA African.^[29]

A DNA study from 2009, published in the American Journal of Human Biology, showed the genetical composition of Uruguay to be mainly European, but with Native American (which varies from 1% to 20% in different parts of the country) and also SSA African (7% to 15% in different parts of the country).^[30]

In the case of Chile,"The use of mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome" test results show the following: The European component is predominant (91.0%, versus 9.0% of the aboriginal one) in the Chilean upper class,^[31] the middle classes, 76.8%-72.3% European component^[31][32] and 27.7%-23.2 of mixed aboriginal^[31][32] and lower classes at 65%-62.9% European component^[31][32] and 37.1%-35% mix of Aboriginal.^[31][32] The same study states that 31,6% of the Chilean upper class girls have either green or blue eyes, whilst only 9,6% of girls from the lower classes have light eyes. Also, 21,3% of the upper class girls have natural blonde hair, a percentage that descends to the 2,2% in girls from the Chilean lower classes.

Similar to the rest of Latin America, the genetic ancestry of the population of the Southern Cone reflects the History of the continent: the Iberian colonizers were mostly men who arrived without women. In consequence, they had children with the local Indian women or with African female slaves. The intense European immigration to this part of the World in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (particularly to Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Southern Brazil)^{[33][34] [35]} brought more European components to the local population (mainly Spaniards in Chile, Italians and Spanish in Argentina and Uruguay, while Italians and Germans in Southern Brazil and Southern of Chile).^[36][37] European immigration was encouraged by local governments, among other reasons, to "whiten" the local population, which reflected the scientific racism that considered the Amerindian and African elements "inferior", while the European element was seen as "superior".^[38] As a consequence, the White phenotype came to dominate these areas that received larger numbers of European immigrants. But the predominantly non-White majority before the mass European immigration did not disappear, of course, but was largely assimilated into the White population.

Education and standards of living

The other conspicuous characteristic of the Southern Cone is its relatively high standard of living and quality of life. Chile's, Argentina’s, and Uruguay's HDIs—(0.819), (0.811), and (0.792)—are the highest in Latin America, similar to those of the richest countries in Eastern Europe, such as Slovenia, Poland or Hungary.^[39] Uruguay, where illiteracy technically does not exist, reaches the same level in this area, even considering that it faces restrictions to its industrial and economic growth. The Southern Cone is the most prosperous macro-region in Latin America. It has high life expectancy, access to health care and education.^[40] From an economic and liberal point of view the region has been praised for its significant participation in the global markets, and its "emerging economy" profile.^[40] More troubling are high levels of income inequality.^[41]

Southern Cone =  Argentina  Chile  Uruguay

Mexico =  Mexico

Northern South America =  Brazil  Colombia  Venezuela  Paraguay  Ecuador  Peru  Bolivia

Central America =  Costa Rica  Panama  Nicaragua  Honduras  El Salvador  Guatemala

Politics

During the second half of 20th century, these countries were in some periods ruled by right-wing juntas, military nationalistic dictatorships. Around the 1970s, these regimes collaborated in Plan Cóndor against leftist opposition, including urban guerrillas.^[54] However, by the early 1980s Argentina and Uruguay restored their democracies; Chile followed suit in 1990.

Dictatorships

Timeline

Usage of the term

When entire countries are considered, generally only Argentina, Uruguay and Chile are included in the Southern Cone. If the term is applied to countries under military dictatorship during the middle of 20th century, Brazil is included, although most of its territory is geographically outside the Southern Cone.

The southernmost states of Brazil (the states of São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul) and less often, Rio de Janeiro, are generally included because they share the same characteristics as Uruguay, Argentina and Chile: above-average standard of living, mild climate, high level of industrialization, and strong European immigration.^{[citation needed]}

References

External links

Media related to Southern Cone at Wikimedia Commons

• Pictures of the capital cities of the countries that compose the Southern Cone

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