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South America: Social and Economic Activities

Subject: Social Studies

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Overview

South America is a land of superlatives. It has quite different types of landform, climate and vegetation. This note has information about the resources of South America and its economic activities.

South America: Social and Economic Activities

South America is a land of superlatives. It has quite different types of landform, climate and vegetation. The chief natural resources of South America are as follows:

Land

In most parts of South America, there are mountains, forests and deserts. There is a small portion of land for farming but this is an agricultural continent. Brazil is the largest producer of coffee in the world. Wheat is cultivated in the Pampas of Argentina and Central Chile. Maize is produced in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

Forests

There are two types of forests in South America: selves and coniferous forests. Selva is a dense forest of trees with hard wood. Coniferous forests are found in the Brazilian Highland and southern Chile.

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These trees are used for paper industries. Charcoal, gums, resin, cinchona, camphor, boat etc. are major products of the South American forests.

Water

The Amazon with its quite a many tributaries has an amazing volume of water. So it has become the largest river of the world. But it is not suitable for generating electricity because the land through which it flows is wet and flat.

However, this river is highly navigable and useful for trade. Peru is a famous fishing nation. The Angle falls that lies in Venezuela is the highest waterfall (979 m) of the world.

Grassland

One of the import occupations of South America is sheep and cattle rearing. Pampas, Patagonia plateau, savanna of Brazil and Venezuela are the main areas where livestock is reared. Sheep and cattle are reared for meat, milk, wool and hide. Llama and alpaca are animals of the camel family. They are used for carrying goods. Horses are kept for transport.

Minerals

Brazil has large iron and tin ore. Bolivia produces tin. Copper nitrate and zinc are found in Chile and Peru. Guiana and Suriname have bauxite.

Plenty of nitrites is found in Atacama desert. Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago are rich in petroleum.

 

 

South American People

The origin inhabitants of South America are the red Indians. They were from Asia nearly 12000 years ago. Italians and Germans also live in South America. Negroes were brought there to help on the plantation. The central parts of such as the north-west of Brazil are unsuitable due to remoteness, harsh climate or thick forests. This has created uneven population distribution in South America.

Agriculture

Agriculture in South America is poor. Mountains, plateaus and forests occupy most of the land there. The main areas of farming are the pampas, parts of Brazilian Highlands and the east coast of central Chile.

The chief agricultural products are wheat, maize, rice, potato, coffee, cocoa, sugar cane and cotton.

Animal Husbandry

Animal rearing is a very important occupation in South America. It is more extensively carried out than agriculture.

Pampas of Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil are the main areas for the rearing of animals like cattle sheep and goats. Argentina is the largest producer of meat.

Industries

The industry is not developed well in South America. Brazil is a most developed country in the continent. There are industries of coffee, cotton wool and sugarcane. Coffee curing, food processing and meat packing are also done.

Brazil is leading in iron and steel manufacturing. In addition, paper, rubber goods and weapons are also produced in Brazil. Argentina has a variety of industries. There are cotton textiles mills, wooden textile mills, sugar mills, flour mills, etc.

Fisheries and Tourism

Catching fish is also an important occupation in South America. Chile and Peru are famous for fish. Tourism is developing as an important economic activity because this continent is the continent of superlatives.

The Andes, Lake Titicaca, Amazon forest, coastal Plains, the Galapagos and Angel Falls as well as diverse cultural heritages are the valuable tourist resource of the continent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things to remember
  • South America is a land of superlatives. It has quite different types of landform, climate and vegetation.
  • There is a small portion of land for farming but this is an agricultural continent.
  • There are two types of forests in south America: selves and coniferous forests.
  • The Angle falls that lies in Venezuela is the highest waterfall (979 m) of the world.
  • Pampas, Patagonia plateau, savanna of Brazil and Venezuela are the main areas where livestock is reared.
  • Brazil has large iron and tin ore.
  • The main areas of farming are the pampas, parts of Brazilian Highlands and the east coast of central Chile.
  • Argentina is the largest producer of meat.
  • Tourism is developing as an important economic activity because this continent is the continent of superlatives.
  • It includes every relationship which established among the people.
  • There can be more than one community in a society. Community smaller than society.
  • It is a network of social relationships which cannot see or touched.
  • common interests and common objectives are not necessary for society.
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Questions and Answers

The people of South America adopt agriculture and trade as their economic activities.

Argentina is the largest meat exporter to Europe because it has got a vast grassland area called the Pampas, where excessive animal rearing is done for the supply of meat to other parts of the world.

The measure to make agriculture sector of Nepal business oriented like that of South America is to adopt modern method of farming.

Lama is a yak like, small animal. It has the capacity of working or carrying more though it eats less in comparison to other animals. It can easily cross hills. It is mostly found in Peru, Bolivia, Chili and Argentina.

Brazil is one of the industrial countries of South America. Foreign investment has been fully encouraged here so big industries with foreign investment have been opened. The Corpuscular is the 10th biggest company in Brazil with Brazilian investment. It produces alcohol from sugarcane to supply clean fuel for cars.
The five advantages for a country from having such a company are as follows:

  1. A country can gain trade profit by exporting the products of such companies.
  2. The resources of a country will be used properly.
  3. Industrial profit or income would not go to the other countries due to local investment.
  4. Employment opportunities can be created through the expansion of such companies.
  5. Country will be self-sufficient in various industrial products.
  6. Country can rely on clean, locally produced energy.

In Brazil there are many industries running in foreign investment. Some industries are based on agriculture products. The economic condition of Brazil is getting better with the help of extensive forest based industries, coffee processing, agro based industries, electricity, generation plants and cattle rearing. Cocoa is a major product here. The extended grassland in Argentina is called pampas. Here, cows are kept in large scale for milk and meat. From here, packed meat is export to the European countries on huge ships facilitated with refrigerator. These areas are famous as the prairies in North America for wheat production. Sheeps also are reared in the southern part of Argentina. From it, people get wool and meat in large scale.

Venezuela is the country in South America which exports petrol most.

The top exports from South America are oil, iron, soybeans, copper, meat, maize, bananas, coconut, and cotton.

Argentina is one of the greatest exporters of meat in the world. There are several reasons behind this. Some of them are:

  1. Most of the parts of Pampas's grassland, Patagonia desert fall here. So, cattle rearing has flourished, cow, sheep, buffaloes, etc. are reared in large quantities at commercial scale.
  2. The processed meat is exported to other countries.
  3. Sometimes raw meat is exported to other countries. Another reason for export is that the production is so great that it cannot be consumed within the country so it is exported. Further as many people are engaged in cattle rearing, the main source of income is meat. So people sell, eat and earn currency through meat.

South America is the richest continent because:

  1. It has a large number of gold mines and other minerals by exporting which it derives a lot of income.
  2. It has good access to sea and so water transportation (trade) is much easier.
  3. It lies in the Mediterranean region. Agriculture here is much more favorable in comparison to other continents.
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