Latin America Starting From the Very Beginning Essay

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Latin America

Starting from the very beginning of the Colonial Era, Latin America has been dominated politically, economically, socially and even physically by European powers. Spain and Portugal are famous for their conquest into this region of the world, but other European countries such as England, France and the Netherlands also had their hand in essentially taking over and reshaping Latin America. There is an extensive and abundant amount of published research done on this subject and the historiography of Latin America and the account of its past runs deep and wide.

What this short essay hopes to accomplish is to evaluate and reflect on the reported history of the Latin American regions, specifically focusing on the readings and lectures from this semester. This essay will also discuss in particular John Charles Chasteen's claim from his book, Born in Blood & Fire: A Concise History of Latin America, that "non-whites have generally not done well in Latin America."

Latin America, because of European powers was turned upside down. Large populations were killed off, its culture, customs and histories wiped clean. Everything that was known, everything that was unique and native to the land ended because of European conquests. Latin America, starting in the late 1400s and continuing on still today has been deeply influenced and characterized by European powers.

The Colonial Era in Latin American history is often referred to and considered by many to be the most seminal or formative time period for the region.

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It was the Colonial Era that most significantly impacted and shaped Latin America. One of the most obvious effects that the Colonial Era had on Latin America and its people was the mass killings that occurred through battles, and more specifically, exposure to an assortment of European diseases that were new to the region. Smallpox and new strains of influenza were the main culprits, the actual number of natives killed as a result of epidemic disease has been debated academically for years, but there is no doubt that that number is in the millions. Anywhere from 70 to 90% of the native Latin American population was killed off during the Colonial Era. The populations across the region went down with disease, literally. Their immune systems were not equipped to face these new diseases.

Sickness however was not the only thing natives of Latin America were not prepared to face. Another portion of the populations of Latin America were killed off in the bloody conquests that raged across the villages and kingdoms. European weaponry, with artillery and guns were far more superior to the weapons used by the natives. These European conquests had a toll not only on the native populations of Latin America directly on the battlefield but these conquest also devastated the food supply and caused great famine across the region adding to the depopulation as well.

With populations devastated, kingdoms and social hierarchies tumbled and European….....

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