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LATIN
AMERICA
CONCEPT
The term Latin America refers to Spanish
rtuguese-speaking countries in the Ameri
usually small Island countries as we
America is generally understood to con
entire continent of South America in ad
to Mexico, Central America, and the isl
of the Caribbean whose inhabitants spea
Romance language.
The peoples of this large area shared th
experience of conquest and
colonization by the Spaniards and
rtuguese from the late 15th through the
ntury as well as movements of independ
ain official languages in the region - Spa
tuguese (and French) are derived from La
First attempts to explain America.
The "discovery" of America is attributed to Christo
whose voyage to America in 1492 captured the Euro
Ironically, to Columbus's dying day, he insisted th
found was part of Asia.
Thus, perceptions of America have been mistaken fro
(Sixteenth-century mapmakers, recognizing Colum
named the New World not after him, but after Am
Hence the name America —whom they credited
as the first to realize that the New World was its
The Indians
From 1492 until the American Revolution, and in
into the twenty-first century, America evoked t
Archaeologists believe that the American c
was first inhabited by human beings who wa
to Alaska over the Bering Strait on a frozen
about 30,000 to 40,000 years ago.
However, what the Indians represent in the
a fairly static image informed by media port
depict the Indians either as barbaric savages
of the land living in harmony with nature
The Indians of America were misreprese
the very beginning and ever since the
Not only did Columbus believe Americ
someplace else; therefore, the name Ind
But his description of its inhabitants
He claimed to discover cannibals, Cyc
Sirens, dog-faced peoples, people with n
people with tails.
This began a pattern of preformed opinions di
supposedly found in America.
He (Columbus) saw the land as potential wealt
people as possible converts or slaves.
For him, as for most of the early conquistado
the Indians had no independent status, no int
They were just to be used.
The Spanish Renaissance philosophers
reflected on the discovery of the In
better in appreciating them.
Two positions dominated the Spanish
The first position, arguing that the Indian
the faculty of reason, went so far as to a
were the concrete embodiment of Aristotl
According to this view, the Indians could
into Europe's traditional Christian-Aristo
but only in its lowest place.
God created the Indians as natural
the argument went, so it was just an
that the Spanish subjugate them.
The second view saw the Indians as rational
—as evidenced by their languages, economics,
But as underdeveloped and needing Spanish tu
Because they were human, the Indians had to
consent—not their formal, explicit consent,
would consent to after they came to under
which of course the Spanish thought they po
In short, because the Spanish were so confiden
it never occurred to them that they might b
possess only a partial truth. Their cultural c
led them to reject the Americans as barbaric
Spaniards in a new world: 16th
By 1506 the entire continental shore of the
has been explored from Honduras to the mo
Known at first as Tierra Firme (a phrase app
isthmus of Panama), it is believed to be part of
until Vespucci's furthest journey south gives
Impression, which becomes gradually accepted
During the first decade of the century the only
in the new world is Santo Domingo, on the isla
established in 1496 by Diego Columbus, brother of
An equivalently stable settlement is not achiev
America until 1510, when Balboa founds Santa Ma
del Darién
(the site from which, in 1513, he makes his expediti
Thereafter the speed of Spanish expansion and co
over a vast region is astonishing.
By 1515, with the conquest of Cuba and the found
of Havana, the islands of the Caribbean are und
They become the launch pad for further advent
The Aztec kingdom in Mexico is conquered in 1521
followed by a campaign against the Maya in Yu
from Guatemala to Nicaragua, is brought unde
between 1524 and 1526.
In the southern part of the continent the coas
the first region to attract Spanish settlers, from
Down the west coast, the Inca kingdom in Peru is
Ecuador and Colombia are subdued later in the
and most of Chile is gradually brought under co
On the east coast of the continent Argentina, ar
is colonized from the 1540s.
Brazil, meanwhile, is developing in Portuguese han
Two adventures in particular catch the imagina
and of every age since. They are the victories won
greatest odds and for the richest gains - the fal
of Spaniards of the great empires of the Aztecs an
But the first important development in Continen
the establishment of Panama.
San Salvador, Cuba and Hispaniola: 1
Columbus and the Pinzón brothers step ash
12 October 1492 on an island in the Bahama
They plant in the ground the royal banne
claiming the place for Ferdinand and Isabe
They name it San Salvador, after Jesus the S
(It is not known which island they landed
though one in the Bahamas now bears the
These are not the first Europeans to reach the
but they are the first to record their achieve
Columbus believed that he had reached the Ea
The friendly inhabitants were Indians to the C
Description, this region becomes known to Eur
A few days later the explorers sail on.
They pass many more islands, giving each a
Spanish name, until they reach during No
the most important landfall of their expe
- the large island of Cuba, which Columbu
himself to be Cipango. This is a place of mar
Marco Polo at the eastern extremity of A
Panama
After Balboa discovers the Pacific in 1513, he is given
responsibility for Spain's new ocean. But the bitter rivalry of
Pedrarias, governor of the neighboring crown colony, prevents
Balboa from making anything of his new appointment.
Panama immediately becomes a place of focal importance in the
developing Spanish empire. From here expeditions set out to colonize
the Pacific coast (most notable being the departure of Pizarro on his
voyage to Peru in 1530). And here the produce of the Pacific colonies
is subsequently brought, to start its journey to Spain.
Panama
The goods are carried on caravans of mules for fifty miles across the
isthmus to Portobelo - a harbour named beautiful by Columbus in
1502.
Portobelo becomes the scene of a great trade fair. Each year, until the
event is discontinued in 1748, a fleet of Spanish galleons arrives, to
deliver European goods for the colonies and to take home the wealth of
Latin America.
Cuba
West Indies
Puerto Rico
La República
Dominicana
Mexico &
Central America
South America
Spain
México & Central America
Honduras
México
Nicaragua
Guatemala
El Salvador
Costa Rica
Panamá
México D.F.
(La Ciudad de México)
mexicano
La Ciudad de
Guatemala
guatemalteco
San Salvador
salvadoreño
Tegucigalpa
hondureño
Managua
nicaraguense
San José
costaricense
La Ciudad de Panamá
panameño
La América del Sur
Venezuela
Colombia
Ecuador
Perú
Bolivia
Chile
Paraguay
Uruguay
La Argentina
Caracas
venezolano
Bogotá
colombiano
Quito
ecuatoriano
Lima
peruano
La Paz
(Sucre)
boliviano
Asunción
paraguayo
Montevideo
uruguayo
Santiago
chileno
Buenos Aires
argentino
Puerto
Rico
Las Antillas
Cuba
La República
Dominicana
España
La Habana
cubano
Santo Domingo
dominicano
San Juan
puertorriqueño
Madrid
español
El FIN