Westernization - Consequences

Consequences

Due to the colonisation of the Americas and Oceania by Europeans, the cultural, ethnic and linguistic make-up of the Americas and Oceania has been changed. This is most visible in settler colonies such as the United States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where the traditional indigenous population has been overtaken demographically by non-indigenous settlers. This demographic takeover in settler countries has often resulted in the linguistic, social, and cultural marginalisation of indigenous people. However, even in countries where large populations of indigenous people remain or the indigenous peoples have mixed (mestizo) considerably with European settlers, such as Bolivia, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Ecuador, marginalisation still exists. But continued immigration to Chile and eventual "white" majority regions like Costa Rica made these cultures have a castizo or a more Europeanized-mestizo background.

Due to colonisation and European immigration, the prevalent native languages in the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, Northern Asia and part of South Africa and Central Asia, are now usually European languages or creoles based on them:

• English (United States and Canada without French-speaking Quebec)
• English - Australia and New Zealand or English along with English-based creole languages (Jamaica and most of the West Indies, Guyana).
• French (Quebec, New Brunswick and parts of Ontario in Canada and Saint Pierre and Miquelon), French along with French-based creole languages, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Saint-Barthelemy).
• Spanish (the rest of Latin America (although in Paraguay most people are bilingual with Guarani and there are more Guarani speakers than Spanish speakers).
• Portuguese (Brazil).
• Russian - (Northern Asia and parts of Central Asia).
• Dutch along with creole languages (Suriname, Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles) flakes.
• Afrikaans along with English (parts of South Africa).

Many indigenous languages are on the verge of becoming extinct. However, some settler countries have gone to lengths to preserve indigenous languages, for example, in New Zealand the Māori language is the second official language.