Transcript Livin’ La vida Loca in Latin America

Latin America
What IS Latin America?
• Reaches from the Rio Grande to Cape Horn.
• Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean
islands and South America
Latin America
• For more than 300 years most countries of
L.A. were colonies of Spain and Portugal
• The term Latin refers to the Spanish and
Portuguese languages
• It also refers to the cultural heritage that
Spain and Portugal established in America
Location
• Lies between Atlantic
and Pacific oceans.
– These oceans link LA
to other parts of the
world
– Movement of
ideas/religion/goods
Latin and then some
• The cultural heritage of Africa is also a part
of Latin culture.
Land and People
• More than 20 nations and many landforms,
environments and peoples.
• Some land rich in resources-others have
very few.
• Therefore-some places densely populated
and others empty of human life.
• Extreme poverty
Landforms
• Include the second
highest range of
mountains in the
world, as well as huge
lowland.
• Andes Mountains and
the Amazon Basin
Great Rivers
• Central America lacks
rivers large enough for
ships
• South America has
three major river
systems
– Amazon-Peru-Brazil
– Orinoco-Venezuela
– Rio de la PlataUruguay-Argentina
Climate and Ecosystems
• More than 1/2 the continent lies between the
tropics-therefore the sun is directly
overhead for much of the year. This makes
it hot everywhere except mountains
• Mountains create their own climateselevation and distance from the equator.
Three important early
civilizations
• The Mayas Yucatan Peninsula &
Guatemalan lowlands
• Aztecs in central Mexico
• Incas in the Andes Mountains (present day
Peru)
Latin America is carved up
• Portugal took over Brazil
• The Spanish conquered Central America
and the western coast of South America
• France, England and the Netherlands
claimed certain islands in the Caribbean.
Economic Development
• Mexico-Farming and ranching, tourism,
exporting goods.
• The people mainly European and Native
American background. Language?
Religion?