The first period is characterized in economic historical terms as a phase of liberalization and modernization that was accompanied by the integration of the region into global economic structures and the strengthening of extractivist economic sectors. The dominant model of this agrarian transformation was the exploitation of large landholdings and plantations through (a) expansion and neo-feudal transformation of traditional agricultural regions (central Andean highlands, central Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic coast) and (b) internal colonization and land grabbing in peripheral regions (southern cone, southeastern Mexico, Amazon region) to produce commodities for export (quina, rubber, sugarcane, bananas, cacao, mate).
The second transformation epoch occurs with the rise of neoliberalism from the 1980s to the present, in which increased privatization and export orientation took place in contrast to the import-substituting industrialization of the "second conquest." Driven by the first and second Green Revolutions, the agro-industrial and capital-intensive expansion of agriculture was integrated into global value chains. The neoliberal economic model was pioneered during the military dictatorship in Chile, where selective integration into the global market was based on the development and modernization of agricultural sectors (fruit industry, forest plantations, grapes, salmon). In the second phase, integration into global agro-industrial production networks intensified with new products such as avocados, soybeans, cut flowers, and processed agricultural products such as meat. In particular, since the 1990s, the boom of soybeans and biodiesel (oil palm, sugar, corn) accelerated in South America. In parallel with the soybean and agrofuel boom, cattle farming is taking up large areas of land in Brazil, Colombia and Argentina. In Brazil, there are now more cattle than people. The consequences are large-scale deforestation of virgin forests to make way for feed production and soil degradation. Deforestation is also taking place in former nature reserves.
