What Holds a Country Together or Tears it Apart? Crash Course Geography #36

Today we’re going to talk about the forces that affect a country’s stability. We’ll take a closer look at Costa Rica, Venezuela, Cuba, and Brazil and examine how the cohesiveness of these Latin American countries varies dramatically even though they are in a region with similar characteristics. As you’ll see, a country is like a figure skater, and maintaining peace and stability is much like a pair performing a “death spiral” balancing the forces attempting to pull a country apart and keep it together.

Sources
General
CIA Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/docs/one_page_summaries.html
Getis, Bjelland, and Getis. Introduction to Geography, 15 ed. McGraw-Hill Education. 2017. ISBN: 978-1-259-57000-1
Gregory, Derek, Ron Johnston, Geraldine Pratt, Michael Watts, and Sarah Whatmore, eds. 2009. The Dictionary of Human Geography. 5th ed. Willey-Blackwell. ISBN: 978-1-4051-3288-6

For a free and open source option for Intro to Human Geography:
https://humangeography.pressbooks.com/
For a free and open source option for World Regional Geography:
https://worldgeography.pressbooks.com/front-matter/introduction/

Cracking the AP Human Geography Exam: 2020 edition. The Princeton Review.
Checkerboards and Shatterbelts: The Geopolitics of South America by Philip Kelly

https://fragilestatesindex.org/analytics/fsi-heat-map/

Costa Rica
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/costa-rica/#government .
https://fragilestatesindex.org/country-data/

Venezuela
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/venezuela/#people-and-society
https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/venezuelan-crisis-explained
https://thesolutionsjournal.com/2016/02/22/the-venezuelan-food-sovereignty-experiment/
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-gasoline-explainer-idUSKBN22V32G
https://sgp.fas.org/crs/row/IF10715.pdf

Brazil
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/brazil/
https://theconversation.com/populism-in-brazil-how-liberalisation-and-austerity-led-to-the-rise-of-lula-and-bolsonaro-146780
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/01/how-brazil-and-south-africa-became-the-worlds-most-populist-countries

Watch our videos and review your learning with the Crash Course App!
Download here for Apple Devices: https://apple.co/3d4eyZo
Download here for Android Devices: https://bit.ly/2SrDulJ

Crash Course is on Patreon! You can support us directly by signing up at http://www.patreon.com/crashcourse

Thanks to the following patrons for their generous monthly contributions that help keep Crash Course free for everyone forever:
Dave Freeman, Hasan Jamal, DL Singfield, Jeremy Mysliwiec, Shannon McCone, Amelia Ryczek, Ken Davidian, Stephen Akuffo, Toni Miles, Erin Switzer, Steve Segreto, Michael M. Varughese, Kyle & Katherine Callahan, Laurel A Stevens, Vincent, Michael Wang, Stacey Gillespie, Jaime Willis, Krystle Young, Michael Dowling, Alexis B, Burt Humburg, Aziz Y, DAVID MORTON HUDSON, Perry Joyce, Scott Harrison, Mark & Susan Billian, Junrong Eric Zhu, Alan Bridgeman, Rachel Creager, Jennifer Smith, Matt Curls, Tim Kwist, Jonathan Zbikowski, Jennifer Killen, Sarah & Nathan Catchings, Brandon Westmoreland, team dorsey, Trevin Beattie, Divonne Holmes à Court, Eric Koslow, Jennifer Dineen, Indika Siriwardena, Khaled El Shalakany, Jason Rostoker, Shawn Arnold, Siobhán, Ken Penttinen, Nathan Taylor, Les Aker, William McGraw, Andrei Krishkevich, ThatAmericanClare, Rizwan Kassim, Sam Ferguson, Alex Hackman, Jirat, Katie Dean, NileMatotle, Wai Jack Sin, Ian Dundore, Justin, Jessica Wode, Mark, Caleb Weeks
__

Want to find Crash Course elsewhere on the internet?
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/YouTubeCrashCourse
Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/TheCrashCourse
Tumblr - http://thecrashcourse.tumblr.com
Support Crash Course on Patreon: http://patreon.com/crashcourse

CC Kids: http://www.youtube.com/crashcoursekids