Progress and Integration in Central America

For my mapping assignment I chose the Central America region. This region is unique in the sense that its present situation is heavily intertwined with its colonialized past. Central America today is a place still reliant on agriculture as a notable part of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is mostly the eastern side of the region that receives heavy rainfall, but on the whole, holds a climate throughout that is very welcoming for agriculture. Agriculture in general is the largest employer throughout this region. However, jobs are undergoing differentiation as the economy incorporates a more industrial and service oriented agenda. The agricultural economy is a direct byproduct of the colonial structure set in place from Spanish explorers in the early 1500’s. This export tradition is a concern for modern economists because it may be holding back the region in regards to long-term development.

Most of the countries in this region have a strong presence of primate cities, where one disproportionately larger city dominates overall country influence and activity. Primate cities bring with them a load of additional problems to a region. The pulling factor of these cities creates a lack of resources in the outer areas around these metropolises. When a primate city draws all of an area’s resources it causes rural-to-urban migration, which is when people deliberately choose to come to a city because of the lack of opportunity in revolving rural areas. Their sheer size and activity becomes a strong pull factor, bringing additional residents to the city, and overall continuing the issue of size disproportion with nearby cities. This regions colonial past has not only affected agriculture, but also impacted their road to urban primacy, ...

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...ternary types of output. Other regions throughout the world that have been colonized and are considered to be a part of the periphery will probably display very similar data to that of what is seen here in Central America. Recall that the colonial structure that was set in place a long time ago still plays a significant role in these countries economies today.

All in all, these maps provide a visualization tool of the Central American region that offers viewers intuition about how a colonialized past has impacted this area’s modern day status. Despite their chaotic history, this region has been creating economic momentum and progress. The region has begun to integrate itself into the global market, and with that we can hopefully expect, in the near future, a more progressive mapping result relative to data that would be produced from any given developed country.