What Caused the Gap Between Rich and Poor Countires

What caused the gap between North / South ?

There are several factors that contribute to the differences between nations; some are things that exist in a country, others are factors outside a country. To understand the present we need to also look at the past.

A) RESOURCES AVAILABLE: some countries have more resources than others. For

example Kuwait has large oil reserves from which it earns income. Some countries have few such resources and poor soils and limited rainfall.

B) POLITICAL INSTABILITY: the government frequently changes due to military coups. If there is war people do not invest money in industry etc so there are not enough jobs so people can not earn money.

C) POPULATION GROWTH: people are a major resource but if there are too many for a country to provide for the environment may suffer as people try to find land to live on or wood for cooking fires. How does the government educate children?

D) ENVIRONMENTAL DEGREDATION: as people struggle to survive, land is cleared of trees, tall grasses and may also be overused until the soil has lost its fertility. In parts of Africa (the Sahel) the desert is spreading due to overuse of the land.

E) CULTURAL PRACTICES: some cultures such as some groups of Hindus in India will not change how they do things even if the change would benefit people.

F) CORRUPTION: Some governments use national resources and profits for personal gain, at the expense of the nation.

A) DEBT BURDENS: many poor nations have borrowed money from richer nations or institutions such as the World Bank to pay for better roads, hospitals and factories. But they have to pay interest on these loans and in the 1980s interest rates went up a great deal while what they earned from selling products such as tea went down. More and more of their money was spent paying off the interest on their loans rather than on facilities to improve peoples lives.

Many developing nations have also spent...