North versus South?

During the 1980s and 1990s, world leaders tried to address the differences between the earth’s northern and southern regions. Other than Australians and New Zealanders, southern peoples generally suffered lower living standards and measures of health than northerners. Emerging from colonial rule, environmental destruction, and economic exploitation by northerners, citizens in the southern regions could not yet count on their governments to provide welfare services or education. Although organizations like the World Bank and the IMF provided loans for economic development, the conditions tied to those loans, such as cutting government spending for education, the environment, and health care, led to criticism.

Southern regions of the world experienced other barriers to economic development. Latin American nations grappled with government corruption, multibillion-dollar debt, widespread crime, and grinding poverty, though some countries—prominent among them Brazil—began to strengthen their economies by marketing their oil and other natural resources more effectively and by building administrative expertise among government officials. Africa suffered from drought, famine, and civil war, while in countries such as Rwanda, Somalia, and Sudan, the military rule, factionalism, and ethnic antagonism encouraged under imperialism produced lethal conflict and genocide in the 1990s and early 2000s. Millions of people perished; others were left starving and homeless due to kleptocracies that drained revenues. In the face of these conditions, other African nations began turning away from violence and dictatorship toward constitutional government, economic sustainability, and prosperity. By 2015, these reforms had made many parts of Africa a major target for outside investment.