Geography Of South America - The Continent

getting acquainted with a whole continent is not a simple job the continent of south america is just about as big as continental united states and canada together within this vast area live millions of people our film will introduce us to some of these south americans there are big modern cities where people work in business and industry there are farmlands of many kinds where people work growing and harvesting crops there are vast areas in south america where very few people live even as we watch our south american neighbors doing many kinds of work and as we see the different products of the land we will still be seeing only a small part of this vast continent we can get better acquainted with south america by looking at the face of the continent by getting some idea of the surface of south america let's see what kind of face south america has first three highland areas one the andes a great mountain system extends along the western edge of the continent two the guyana highlands in the north and three the brazilian highlands on the east and among the highlands three great river basins one the oronoco river basin in the north two the amazon basin a great central lowland and three the parana basin drained by the parana river which empties into the plata and so the face of south america has these main features three lowlands and three great highland regions let's see how people live in these different regions we'll start in the andes the andean highlands contain some of the highest peaks and plateaus in the world here we'll find some of the most beautiful and least populated places in south america majestic snow-covered peaks and deep mountain valleys thousands of feet above sea level is the altiplano the high plateau where people live close to the clouds on the altiplano there are villages like this one in andean countries such as ecuador or peru or bolivia and cities too some of the highest cities in the world the growth of cities here has been partly hampered by the difficulty of transportation which has long been a problem in the andes today more highways are being built across the rugged landscape but for centuries llamas have been and still are used for carrying goods some andean people make their living providing such transportation many others raise sheep for wool and meat most of the andean people however make a living by farming these farmers are indians indians make up a large part of the population of the andean highlands the indians work hard using primitive tools to make a living from their small farms still other people in the andes make a living by mining minerals such as copper and tin not all the andean region is inhabitable there are hot barren deserts on the western slopes of the andes but most of the andean region is cool even though close to the equator this stone marks the equator in ecuador the andean country whose spanish name means equator as we can see most of the continent is south of the equator let's move from the andean highland to the lowland of the parana basin ships enter this region through the wide plata the river into which the parana flows the broad mouth of the plata river the rio de la plata is one of the great gateways into south america into the plata come ships of many nations in big harbor cities such as buenos aires and montevideo manufactured products are imported into south america among the exports of south america are livestock products this is a herd of beef cattle on the pampas the broad grass-covered plains that are used for grazing both cattle and sheep the western pampas are much like the great plains of the united states or canada the pompous includes some of the earth's finest farmlands these farmers are harvesting corn corn and wheat are the important crops of the pampas these scenes in argentina look very much like those we might see in the corn belt of the united states much of the corn and wheat grown on the pompous is exported from the pompous farm products are sent to buenos aires montevideo and rosario on the waterfront of rosario big ships are loaded with wheat from the grain elevators rosario is a big commercial city it is sometimes called the chicago of south america very different from modern rosario is asuncion on the paraguay river asuncion founded by the spaniards in 1538 is the oldest permanent settlement on the paraguay river spanish influence in the churches of asuncion reminds us that much of south america was settled by the spaniards north of these big cities and the plains called the papas is the gran chaco another part of the paranal lowland in the gran chaco are vast regions of plains and scrub forest in some places in the chaco are forests of quebracho are hardwood some men in the gran chaco make a living as lumbermen now let's move from the parana lowland into the neighboring region the brazilian highlands the arrow points to the edge of the highlands where the iguazu falls drop into the parana basin higher and broader than niagara falls the igua sioux falls someday may be harnessed for power although there are no big cities nearby today much of the tropical brazilian highland with its resources of soil minerals and forests is undeveloped in the remote regions of this area people live very simply farming small patches of ground vast stretches of the brazilian highlands are grassy plains called the compost the compost are grazing lands but because much of this region is hot and humid only certain breeds of cattle do well here brahman cattle and related breeds can withstand the heat and tropical diseases of the campus ranches in brazil may remind us of those in north america cattle ranching is a leading occupation in much of the south american continent on the brazilian highlands a very important activity is growing coffee this huge coffee farm or fazenda men are picking coffee berries in recent years more and more cotton is being grown on the brazilian highlands new lands are being cleared to plant more cotton because brazil sometimes has a surplus of coffee almost half the coffee in the world is grown in this area in southeastern brazil much of it goes by rail to the seaports of santos and rio de janeiro train loads of coffee are delivered to the port cities to be shipped overseas this is a wharf in santos an important shipping center of south america rio de janeiro or rio as it is often called is another big port on the atlantic it is also one of the most beautiful cities in south america people come from many parts of the world to vacation along rio's famous beaches we could take a plane from rio and go to another important region of south america we could fly from rio northward to the city of belem at the edge of the amazon lowland now over the amazon lowland we see a green thick tropical forest the amazon is one of the most important features of the continent of south america boats on the amazon river carry the products of the amazon forests products such as these brazil nuts other products of the amazon forests are lumber and small amounts of raw natural rubber much of this rubber is sold to the united states natural rubber is collected by men who live in the interior of the amazon valley in some very remote places in the amazon region primitive indians live even when we leave the hot amazon lowland and go north of the equator to the guiana highlands we are in tropical lands mountains and hills of the guiana highlands rise out of the tropical forests because the rough highlands are difficult to penetrate we'll find most people living in the lowlands near the coast georgetown is a city on the coast of british guiana westward from the highlands is the oronoco basin like the amazon lowland the oronoco lowland is a hot humid region boats on the oronoco river carry products of this region the grassy plains of the orinoco are called lanos or in spanish janos herds of cattle here remind us again of the importance of grazing in south america other people work in the big cities of the north cities such as caracas in venezuela here are modern buildings busy traffic factories and working people these two are an important part of south america getting acquainted with a whole continent is not a simple job we saw three great highland regions we saw three great river basins or lowlands in these different regions we saw people making their living from the land in many different ways we saw something of the commerce of south america and how many people make a living handling the products that are exported from the continent as well as the product south america buys from other countries as we study and read more about south america we'll learn of the many other ways people there earn a living in our film we were introduced to some of the big cities of south america as we become better acquainted we'll learn that some of the big cities such as the new city of brasilia are the capitals of countries we've had an introduction to the people of these countries by seeing something of the great continent in which they live the continent of south america you