Latin America

2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Central & South American Geography

Latin America (Spanish: América Latina or Latinoamérica; Portuguese: América Latina; French: Amérique latine) is the region of the Americas where Romance languages, those derived from Latin, and in particular Spanish and Portuguese, are primarily spoken.

Definition

• In most common contemporary usage, Latin America refers only to those territories in the Americas where the Spanish or Portuguese languages prevail: Mexico, most of Central and South America, plus Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean.
• Strictly speaking, Latin America can designate all of those countries and territories in the Americas where a Romance language (i.e. languages derived from Latin, and hence the name of the region) is spoken: Spanish, Portuguese, and French, and creole languages based upon these. Indeed, this was the original intent when the term was popularized by Napoleon III as part of his campaign to install Maximilian as emperor of Mexico. Using this definition, Latin America includes not only all Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries, but also the current and former French territories in the hemisphere, including Quebec in Canada; Louisiana in the United States; Haiti, Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean; French Guiana in South America; and St. Pierre and Miquelon near Newfoundland.
• Often, particularly in the United States, the term may be used to refer to all of the Americas south of the U.S., including such countries as Belize, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, and the Bahamas where English prevails, although the West Indies are also referred to as the Caribbean region.
• The former Dutch colony Suriname, the Netherlands Antilles, and Aruba are not usually considered part of Latin America, although in the latter two, a predominantly Iberian-derived creole language, Papiamento, is spoken by the majority of the population.
• In historical terms, Latin America could be defined as all those parts of the Americas that were once part of the Spanish, Portuguese, and French Empires, and that speak languages stemming from Latin. Under this definition, much of the U.S. Southwest, Florida, and French Louisiana would be also included in the region.

The distinction between Latin America and Anglo-America, and more generally the stress on European heritage (or Eurocentrism), is simply a convention by which Romance-language and English-speaking cultures are distinguished, currently being the predominant languages in the Americas. There are, of course, many places in the Americas (e.g. highland Ecuador, Bolivia, Guatemala, and Paraguay) where American Indian cultures and languages are important, as well as areas in which the influence of African cultures is strong (e.g. the Caribbean, including parts of Colombia and Venezuela, coastal Ecuador, coastal Peru, and coastal Brazil).

U.S. influences shaped the cultures of Latin America, especially those of Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico as a U.S. territory. In addition, the U.S. held a territory in a swath of land in Panama over the 20-mile-long Panama Canal from 1903 (the canal opened to transoceanic freight traffic in 1914) to 1979 when the U.S. government agreed to give the territory to Panama.

Etymology

Originally, Amérique latine was a political denomination thought coined by French Emperor Napoleon III, in citing Amérique latine and Indochine as goals for his region's imperial expansion, thus justifying French imperial claims to the native peoples and their lands; eventually, Amérique latine denominated the Americas colonised by Spanish, Portuguese, and French settlers between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries; nevertheless, Michel Chevalier introduced his alternate etymology, the Southern Americas, in 1836, in Lettres sur l'Amérique du Nord. In the United States, before the 1890s, Spanish America was the nominal term for the region until early in the twentieth century when Latin America became current.

Contemporaneously, Latin America is equivalent to Latin Europe, implying supranationality greater than statehood and nationhood. Supranational identity is expressed through common socio-economic initiatives and organizations, such as the Union of South American Nations; nevertheless, the terms Latin American, Latin, Latino, and Hispanic denote and connote different things.

Many Latin Americans do not speak Latinate languages, but native tongues transplanted by immigration, e.g. German in Paraguay. Moreover there are Latin European-derived cultures resultant from European immigrants blending with the indigenous peoples and with the imported African slaves. Thus, they are Latin American, but not Spanish, Portuguese, and French, as usually connoted by the Latin American term.

Francophone Canada (except Québec) and the U.S., such as Acadia, French Louisiana, and places north of Mexico are often excluded from the socio-political definition of Latin America, despite significant or predominant populations speaking a Latinate language, because they are not sovereign states and are geographically discrete from Latin America proper; yet, French Guiana, a French dependency, is included. Some Latin American countries do not have a Romance language as the official language, yet are denominated Latin American countries, i.e. Dutch-speaking Suriname, and the Anglophone country Guyana.

To avoid the ambiguities inherent to Latin America, the term Ibero-America is used in Spain and Portugal referring to the nations and countries once colonies of itself and of Portugal; Ibero-America derives from the Iberian Peninsula wherein lie Spain and Portugal. The Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI — Organzación de Estados Iberoamericanos) extends the definition by including Spain and Portugal (the Mother Countries of Latin America) as member states.

History

The Americas are thought to have been first inhabited by people crossing the Bering Land Bridge, now the Bering strait, from northeast Asia into Alaska more than 10,000 years ago. Over the course of millennia, people spread to all parts of the continents. By the first millennium AD/CE, South America’s vast rainforests, mountains, plains and coasts were the home of tens of millions of people. Some groups formed permanent settlements such as the Chibchas (or "Muiscas" or "Muyscas") and the Tairona groups. The Chibchas of Colombia, the Quechuas of Peru, and the Aymaras of Bolivia were the three Indian groups that settled most permanently.

The region was home to many indigenous peoples and advanced civilizations, including the Aztecs, Toltecs, Caribs, Tupi, Maya, and Inca. The golden age of the Maya began about 250, with the last two great civilizations, the Aztecs and Incas, emerging into prominence later on in the early fourteenth century and mid-fifteenth centuries, respectively.

With the arrival of the Europeans following Christopher Columbus's voyages, the indigenous elites, such as the Incans and Aztecs, lost power to the Europeans. Hernán Cortés destroyed the Aztec elite's power with the help of local groups who disliked the Aztec elite, and Francisco Pizarro eliminated the Incan rule in Western South America. European powers, most notably Spain and Portugal, colonized the region, which along with the rest of the uncolonized world was divided into areas of Spanish and Portuguese control by the Line of Demarcation in 1493, which gave Spain all areas to the west, and Portugal all areas to the east (the Portuguese lands in South America subsequently becoming Brazil). By the end of the sixteenth century, Europeans occupied large areas of North, Central and South America, extending all the way into the present southern United States. European culture and government was imposed, with the Roman Catholic Church becoming a major economic and political power, as well as the official religion of the region.

Diseases brought by the Europeans, such as smallpox and measles, wiped out a large proportion of the indigenous population, with epidemics of diseases reducing them sharply from their prior populations. Historians cannot determine the number of natives who died due to European diseases, but some put the figures as high as 85% and as low as 20%. Due to the lack of written records, specific numbers are hard to verify. Many of the survivors were forced to work in European plantations and mines. Intermarriage between the indigenous peoples and the European colonists was very common, and, by the end of the colonial period, people of mixed ancestry (mestizos) formed majorities in several colonies.

By the end of the eighteenth century, Spanish and Portuguese power waned as other European powers took their place, notably Britain and France. Resentment grew over the restrictions imposed by the Spanish government, as well as the dominance of native Spaniards (Iberian-born peninsulares) over the major institutions and the majority population, including the colonial-born Spaniards ( criollos, Creoles). Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808 marked the turning point, compelling Creole elites to form juntas that advocated independence. Also, the newly independent Haiti, the second oldest nation in the New World after the United States and the oldest independent nation in Latin America, further fueled the independence movement by inspiring the leaders of the movement, such as Simón Bolívar and José de San Martin, and by providing them with considerable munitions and troops.

Fighting soon broke out between the Juntas and the Spanish colonial authorities, with initial Creole victories, including Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla in Mexico and Francisco de Miranda in Venezuela, crushed by the Spanish troops. Under the leadership of Simón Bolívar, José de San Martin and other Libertadores in South America, the independence movement regained strength, and by 1825, all Spanish Latin America, except for Puerto Rico and Cuba, gained independence from Spain. Brazil achieved independence with a constitutional monarchy established in 1822. During the same year in Mexico, a military officer, Agustín de Iturbide, led conservatives who created a constitutional monarchy, with Iturbide as emperor (followed by a republic, 1823).

Political divisions

Latin America is politically divided into the following countries and territories:
The countries included in all definitions are:

Independent Countries and Puerto Rico
Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia	Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Rep. Ecuador El Salvador	Guatemala Honduras Mexico Nicaragua Panama	Paraguay Peru Puerto Rico Uruguay Venezuela

The more expansive definition can include:

Independent Countries			French dependencies	Netherlands dependencies	United States dependency
Argentina Belize Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Costa Rica	Cuba Dominican Rep. Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala Haiti Honduras	Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Uruguay Venezuela	French Guiana Guadeloupe Martinique Saint Barthélemy Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon	Aruba Netherlands Antilles	Puerto Rico

Owing to their geographical location the Falkland Islands, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago could be added to this grouping, but they are not culturally or linguistically Latin American. They maintain economic ties with nearby countries, and are grouped by the United Nations in the predominantly Latin American region of South America. All except Suriname are also the objects of long-standing territorial claims by their Latin American neighbors.

Demographics

Demographics 'Notable Latin Americans' Fidel Castro Ricky Martin Juanes Shakira Salma Hayek Pelé Diego Maradona Benicio del Toro Evo Morales Gloria Estefan A few examples of famous Latin Americans

Racial groups

The population of Latin America is a composite of ancestries, ethnic groups and races, making the region one of the most — if not the most — diverse in the world. The specific composition varies from country to country: Some have a predominance of a mixed population, in others people of Amerindian origin are a majority, some are dominated by inhabitants of European ancestry and some populations are primarily of African descent. Most or all Latin American countries have Asian minorities. Europeans and groups with part-European ancestry combine for approximately 80% of the population.

Amerindians

The aboriginal population of Latin America, the Amerindians, experienced tremendous population decline particularly in the early decades of colonization. They have since recovered in numbers, surpassing sixty million, though they compose a majority in only one country, Bolivia. In Peru they are a plurality, while in Ecuador and Guatemala, they are large minorities of more than 25%. Most of the other countries have small Amerindian minorities. In many countries, people of mixed Indian and European ancestry make up the majority of the population (see Mestizo).

Africans

Millions of African slaves were brought to Latin America from the sixteenth century onward, the majority of whom were sent to the Caribbean region and Brazil. Large numbers of Afro-Caribbean contract workers arrived in Panama during the construction of the Panama Canal (1903-14). Today, people identified as black constitute significant minorities in the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Brazil, Colombia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Puerto Rico. They compose a majority in Haiti.

Asians

People of Asian descent are numerous in Latin America. The first Asians to settle in Latin America were Filipino, as a result of Spain's trade involving Asia and the Americas. The majority of ethnic Asians in Latin America are of Japanese ancestry and reside mainly in Brazil, home to the largest ethnic Japanese community outside of Japan itself, numbering 1.5 million. Peru has important Chinese and Japanese communities. Indians, Koreans, and Vietnamese are also among the largest ethnic Asian communities in the region. In the Panama canal zone there is also a Chinese minority; descendants of migrant workers who built the Panama Canal.

Europeans

Beginning in the late fifteenth century, large numbers of Iberian colonists settled in what became Latin America — Portuguese in Brazil and Spaniards elsewhere in the region — and at present most white Latin Americans are of Spanish or Portuguese origin. Iberians brought the Spanish and Portuguese languages, the Catholic faith, and many traditions.

Millions of Europeans have immigrated to Latin America since most countries gained independence in the 1810s and 1820s with most of the immigration occurring in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with the bulk of the immigrants settling in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Italians formed the largest group of immigrants, and next were Spaniards and Portuguese. Many others arrived such as Germans, Poles, Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, Irish, and Welsh. During the Second Mexican Empire, many more French, Belgians and Swiss settled in Mexico. Whites make up the vast majority of the population in Argentina, Uruguay and Southern Brazil. In absolute numbers, Brazil has the largest population of whites in Latin America, followed by Argentina and Mexico.

Latin American countries attracted European immigrants to work in agriculture, commerce and industry. Many Latin American governments encouraged immigrants from Europe to civilize the region. Despite their different origins, these immigrants integrated in the local societies and most of their descendants only speak Spanish or, in Brazil, Portuguese. For example, people of Italian descent make up half of Argentina's and Uruguay's population, but only a few of them are able to speak Italian. The only notable exceptions are some communities of Germans and Italians across Southern Brazil who still preserve their languages. Brazil has the biggest population of Italians outside of Italy; São Paulo city alone has more Italians than Rome, the most populous Italian city.

Immigration from the Middle East took place also since the 19th century and consisted largely of Christian Lebanese and Syrians. They have generally assimilated into the European-descended population.

Mestizos

Intermixing between Europeans and Amerindians began early and was extensive. The resulting people, known as mestizos, make up the majority of the population in half the countries of Latin America: Belize, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay and Peru. Mestizos additionally compose large minorities in nearly all the mainland countries.

The degree of Amerindian admixture may vary with social class. In Chile, for example, it is higher in the lower classes. Many in Latin America's middle class have about an equal amount of both ancestries.

Mulattoes

Mulattoes are biracial descendants of mixed European and African ancestry, mostly European settlers and African slaves during the colonial period. The vast majority of mulattoes are found in Brazil, Belize, Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Colombia. There is also a small presence of mulattoes in other Latin American countries.

Zambos

Slaves often ran away ( cimarrones) and were taken in by Amerindian villagers. Intermixing between Africans and Amerindians produced descendants known as zambos. This was especially prevalent in Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil.

In addition to the foregoing groups, Latin America also has millions of people of mixed African, Amerindian and European triracial ancestry, mostly in Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil but with a much smaller presence in a number of other countries.

Racial distribution

The following table shows the different racial groups and their percentages for all Latin American countries and territories.

Country	Population	White	Mestizo	Mulatto	Amerindian	Black	White and mestizo	Mixed	Other1
Argentina	40,301,927	97%							3%
Aruba	100,018							80%	20%
Belize	311,500		49%	25%	11%	6%			10%
Bolivia	9,119,152	15%	30%		55%
Brazil2	190,010,647	53.7%		38.5%		6.2%			1.6%
Chile	16,284,741				3%		95%		2%
Colombia	44,379,598	20%	58%	14%	1%	4%		3%
Costa Rica	4,133,884				1%	3%	94%		2%
Cuba3	11,394,043	65%				10%		25%
Dominican Republic	9,365,818	16%