Latin America:

Latin America

Area	21,069,501 km²
Population	569 million^[1]
Countries	21
Dependencies	10
GDP	$3.33 Trillion (exchange rate) $5.62 Trillion (purchasing power parity)
Languages	Spanish, Portuguese, French, Quechua, Aymara, Nahuatl, Mayan languages, Guaraní, English, Haitian Creole, Papiamentu, Dutch, and many others
Time Zones	UTC-2 (Brazil) to UTC-8 (Mexico)
Largest Metropolitan Areas^[2]	1. Mexico City 2. São Paulo 3. Buenos Aires 4. Rio de Janeiro 5.Bogotá 6. Lima 7. Belo Horizonte 8. Santiago 9. Caracas 10. Guadalajara

Definition

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 predominant, 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, 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.

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. The earliest settlements in the Americas are of the Las Vegas Culture^{[citation needed]} from about 8000 BC and 4600 BC, a sedentary group from the coast of Ecuador, the forefathers of the more known Valdivia culture, of the same era. Some groups formed more 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. Intermixing 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).

Demographics

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 are the largest single group, and they and people of part-European ancestry combine for approximately 80% of the population.^[1]

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 two countries: Bolivia and Peru. In both Ecuador and Guatemala, Amerindians are large minorities comprising two–fifths of the population, while the next largest minority is in Mexico, with more than one–sixth the population. Most of the remaining countries have Amerindian minorities, in every case making up one–tenth or less of the population. In many countries, people of mixed Amerindian and European ancestry make up the majority of the population (see Mestizo).

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 and Chinese ancestry and reside mainly in Brazil and Peru. Brazil is home to the largest ethnic Japanese community outside of Japan itself, numbering 1.5 million. Peru has one of the largest Chinese communites in the world with nearly 1 million Peruvians being of Chinese ancestry. The Japanese community also maintains a strong presence in Peru, and a past President and a number of politicians are of Japanese descent in Peru.^[6] 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.

Blacks or 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. Today, people identified as black compose a majority in Haiti, significant minorities in the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Brazil, Colombia, Belize, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Panama and Puerto Rico, and small minorities in Guatemala, Honduras and Peru.

Europeans, Whites, or Caucasians

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.

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.^[14] 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 relatively small percentages of them are able to speak Italian. However, there are some communities of Germans and Italians across Southern Brazil which still preserve their languages. Brazil has the biggest population of Italians outside of Italy;^[15]^[16] São Paulo city alone has more Italians than Rome, the most populous Italian city.^[17]^[18]

Immigration from the Middle East took place also since the 19th century and consisted largely of Christian Lebanese, Syrians, and Palestinians. 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 a third of the countries of Latin America: Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Paraguay. Mestizos additionally compose large minorities in nearly all the mainland countries.

Mulattoes

Mulattoes are biracial descendants of mixed European and African ancestry, mostly descended from Spanish and Portuguese settlers and African slaves during the colonial period. The vast majority of mulattoes are found in Brazil; Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Colombia are the other countries with large numbers of mulattoes.^[1] There is also a small presence of mulattoes in other Latin American countries.^[1]

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.^[19]

Language

Spanish is the predominant language in the majority of Latin American countries. Portuguese is spoken primarily in Brazil, the most populous country in the region. French is spoken in some countries of the Caribbean, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and French Guiana and Haiti. Dutch is the official language of some Caribbean islands and in Suriname on the continent; however, as Dutch is a Germanic language, these territories are not considered part of Latin America.