History Of Latin America
Latin America refers to countries in the Americas where Romance (Latin-derived) languages are spoken. This definition, however, is not meant to include Canada, in spite of its large French-speaking population.
Latin American countries generally lie south of the United States. By extension, some writers and commentators, particularly in the United States, apply the term to the whole region south of the United States, including the non-Romance-speaking countries such as Suriname, Jamaica, Belize, and Guyana, due to similar economic, political and social histories and present-day conditions.
Before the arrival of Europeans in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the region was home to many indigenous peoples, many of which had advanced civilizations, most notably, the Aztec, Inca and Maya. By the end of the sixteenth century, large areas of what would become Latin America were colonized by European settlers, primarily from Spain, Portugal and to a lesser extent, France and the Netherlands (in Brazil).
In the early nineteenth century most of the region attained its independence, giving rise to new countries, although a few, small colonies remain.
Read more about History Of Latin America: Origin of The Term and Definition, The Pre-Columbian Period, Colonialism, Nineteenth-century Revolutions: The Postcolonial Era
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“Latin America is very fond of the word “hope.” We like to be called the “continent of hope.” Candidates for deputy, senator, president, call themselves “candidates of hope.” This hope is really something like a promise of heaven, an IOU whose payment is always being put off. It is put off until the next legislative campaign, until next year, until the next century.”
—Pablo Neruda (1904–1973)
“The history of a soldier’s wound beguiles the pain of it.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“History is the present. That’s why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.”
—E.L. (Edgar Lawrence)
“But these young scholars, who invade our hills,
Bold as the engineer who fells the wood,
And travelling often in the cut he makes,
Love not the flower they pluck, and know it not
And all their botany is Latin names.
The old men studied magic in the flowers.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I can never suppose this country so far lost to all ideas of self-importance as to be willing to grant America independence; if that could ever be adopted I shall despair of this country being ever preserved from a state of inferiority and consequently falling into a very low class among the European States.”
—George III (1738–1820)