American Neocolonialism

American neocolonialism

The bibliographic material that will be used for this written work is the result of an exhaustive search in different sources and places of information, taken from books in libraries and different articles qualified on web pages, with the aim of deepening the theme of Latin American neocolonialism andin this same way to be able to support the thesis that will be proposed later.

The first reference taken into account is the book América in its ideas, of the Mexican philosopher Leopoldo Zea, of the XXI Editores Editorial Editores, published in 1986. This specimen corresponds to the first edition and is located in the Aquinate Library of the Santo Tomás University, identified with Topographic Number 199.8/a52a. In this book you can visualize themes of Latin American historiography;Question about philosophical thinking;Science and technique: ideas or mythoids;Panorama of change processes: revolution, reformism and class struggle;Religious thought;Pan -Americanism and Latin Americanism;Cosmopolitism and internationalism, among other important issues. In this same Library of the USTA, is the book History of Latin American Philosophical Thought, an incessant search for the identity of the Doctor in Philosophy and a degree in theology and professor of the University of Deusto in Bilbao, Mr. Carlos Beorlegui.

This text seeks to travel the history of Latin American thought, from pre -Columbian worldviews to the most recent philosophical currents.

The third material that has been taken into account has been the book Introduction to Philosophy, Latin American Perspective, by Mr. Eudoro Rodríguez of the USTA publishing house published in 1998 in Bogotá – Colombia, which is located in the Monsignor Ramón Mantilla Library of the FoundationSan Alfonso University, identified with 199 topographic number.8/R627, in this book an introduction to Latin American reality is made, where the possibility of philosophical thinking from the reality and context of these countries since the time of the conquest is admitted.

As mentioned above, several web documents are had as reference, one of them is an article of the magazine entitled The Neocolonialism in our day: the perspective of Leopoldo Zea, made by Karla Cecilia Macías Chávez, of the Michoacana University of San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Mexico and published in December 2015 in Bogotá Colombia by the Javeriana University, this writing is taken from Scielo.org. Another reference is the web article, entitled of Neocolonial Thought to the philosophy of Latin American liberation, by Damián Pachón Soto published in 2017 at the Santo Tomás University, Bogotá, Colombia, taken from Dialnet. 

The third document is an article by the International Magazine of Social Sciences and Humanities, SocioTamof the Redalic Fuenteic, Org. Finally, the last reference document is a magazine article at the University of Medellín Colombia, entitled Latin America and Globalization, made by Lizandro Alfonso Cabrera Suárez, in December 2009, taken from Scielo.org.

Taking into account the research process and each of the documents and previous bibliographic material that support the main theme of neocolonialism in Latin America, the following thesis can also be sustained and defended: neo -colonialism is a subtle way of submission to Latin American peoples.

As is well known, to talk about neocolonialism, it is necessary to remember that before a process of colonization and decolonization was passed. After the colony becomes independent, other states take advantage of the colony, but no longer by military force, but in a more subtle way such as mercantilism, business globalization, cultural imperialism, the conquest of territory in terms of territory in terms of territory no longerspace, but for the market, capital, and thus, among other factors. To better understand neocolonialism, Macías comments:

Neocolonialism is understood as an adapted form of colonialism, which helps the weakness of the newly independent;All for the purpose of obtaining economic, political and cultural benefits, which is generally carried out by granting political power to the elites of the State, still dependent, that favor the dominant countries. 

In Latin America as in other parts neocolonialism, as a new colonial system, at first it can be seen as a favorable option that facilitates the development of all peoples, since some support, invest and others return as if it were a species of a loan,But in reality it is only favoring the dominant countries, the great world elites.

The various new policies "help" "donation" "assistance" "cooperation" and "loans" were prosecuted from the points of view of the subjection they generated, how politically motivated they seemed not to touch (as in the case of certain promotions in theinfrastructure) the actual centers of underdevelopment, of implying humiliating paternalisms or very little acceptable intervention and investigation, of promoting more than anything else the American economic activity itself (additional clauses), of strengthening the sector of higher social powers or beingmerely devoured by them, to form- in the last term- a docile Latin America to the external dictates, unable to overcome their ills itself.

When forming a docile Latin America, before the external agents who largely take advantage of it, a visible delay is generated, this originates especially since the beginning of the discovery and conquest, but more notoriously in the stage of independence. "Independence was the beginning of a growing material delay in Latin America, because the liquidation of colonial power for the benefit of the great owners and the opening to the world market did not lead to economic growth and material progress, but to the opposite". From this starting point, after the colony, independence and decolonization, as mentioned above, this new state is consolidating, which is reinforcing new geopolitical and mercantilist practices. 

Vargas comments. “This gives rise to a-neocolonial state that is active, regulatory and interventionist, as well as the welfare or state-state state, but its activities, rules and interventions are aimed at serving the interests of foreign capital and classtransnational capitalist ". In relation to this, when developing the neocolonial state, domain and dependence are created. In this same line of ideas, Macías refers. “A new form of colony can be understood by neocolonialism. That is, the economic, political, cultural, ideological and even educational dependence, of one country with respect to another ”.

The new neocolonial system, wherever it is analyzed it has great advantages, but in particular for developed countries. "The new neocolonial structure of the State is organized for the transfer of values and resources to the metropolis where the large transnational corporations are located, which seek to achieve greater efficiency in their economies of scale". If in neocolonialism as already discussed some advantages, it also represents disadvantages, especially for developing countries or states, especially generating poverty and inequality. Pachón manifests. “The cause of that inequality was historical and structural and rooted in neocolonialism and the dependent way in which Latin America had inserted itself into the world market since the 19th century. In short, there was an unequal development of capitalism ”.

As mentioned earlier, neocolonialism continues to lead to a deep social, political and economic crisis, all under the domain of imperialism. "But the typical relationship of European countries in modern history has been sheltered in political terms under the aspect of imperial domination with respect to Third World areas and that coincides from the economic point of view with the expansion of capitalism.". In this way, the gap between developed and underdeveloped countries remains increasing and increasingly noticeable. “Today, time after the end of world wars, while the world attends the consolidation of integration models such as the European Union, in the new continent there is the economic dependence that is reflected in the political, that is, neocolonialism is still alive". This dissociated process of submission and use by the most powerful to the countries that support them remain unfavorable and unfortunate, this implies many factors such as intrusion to their territory, the use and exploitation of their resources, few chances of economic progress andsocial, it is then a total setback.

The world attends the gala function, in which the United States of America becomes the center of the world. Then begin the transnationalization of capital that replaces the previous total concentration in the metropolis;Now the colonies will receive in their territories the establishment of branches of the industries of the powerful giant of the north. America continues to deliver raw materials and bringing finished products.

To conclude, and as a final comment, you can again affirm the initial thesis, neocolonialism is a subtle way of submission to Latin American peoples, and each of the documents affirm and support us this approach. Undoubtedly, imperialism and capitalism as part of the neocolonial system are still rooted, benefiting developing countries, and harming many developing states, Latin American countries are one of them. It is inconceivable as with the neocolonial system, instead of being a agent of change and progress, little apocus is generating poverty and few probabilities of progress for Latin American peoples, it is sad and contradictory to see how the same thing that occurs in our lands, it is sent and then when elaborate products return, it is difficult to access them for the high prices that put the same as our peoples have produced. So, reality to the conquest and the colony has not changed much, they have only been the same disguised systems, always the most rich people who submit and take advantage of the poor peoples, which are increasingly poorer.