Most of Latin American countries had gained their independence during the nineteen century, but they still continued to be very dependent on outside or global economic forces. Most of their exports and production was sent to Europe and North America, thus continuing with an economic model from colonial times.
The crisis of the Stock Market and the subsequent Great Depression of 1929, affected Latin American governments in many ways, and there were monetary crisis they have to endured. There were problems to find outside financing for commerce and to pay for imports. Also, many governments were having hard times to find the capital to pay their external debts obligations. In terms, many of them just stopped payment, like Bolivia in January 1931, which consequently brought more negative circumstances.
Finally, the combination of difficulties to balance payments, budget deficits, and decreasing gold reserves to almost zero, were very negative and detrimental for the survival of many Latin American governments.
