history of Latin America

Table of Contents

Introduction
The background
- The indigenous world and the word “Indian”
- Types of Western Hemisphere societies
  - Sedentary peoples
  - Semisedentary peoples
  - Nonsedentary peoples
- The Iberians
  - Cities
  - Family
  - Ethnic diversity and its results
  - The overseas tradition
Early Latin America
- Spanish America
  - The Caribbean phase
    - The city
    - Indians and Spaniards
    - A new Spanish subculture
  - Conquest in the central mainland areas
    - Conquest of Mexico
    - Conquest of Peru
  - Conquest society in the central mainland areas
    - The central-area encomienda
    - Artisans
    - Spanish women
    - Africans
    - Indians among Spaniards
    - Commerce
    - Mining
    - Institutional, legal, and intellectual developments
    - Trunk lines
  - Postconquest indigenous society
  - The central areas in the mature period
  - The Spanish fringe
- Brazil
  - The early period
  - The sugar age
  - The south
- Spanish America in the age of the Bourbons
  - Economy and society
  - Transformation of the east coast
    - Argentina
    - Venezuela
    - The Caribbean islands
  - The Bourbon reforms
- Brazil after 1700
- Preindependence phenomena
The independence of Latin America
The wars of independence, 1808–26
- Spanish America
  - The southern movement in South America
  - The north and the culmination of independence
  - Mexico and Central America
- Brazil
Building new nations, 1826–50
- Political models and the search for authority
  - Constitutions
  - Disorder and caudillismo
- Economic obstacles
- Social change
  - Mobility and hierarchy
  - Social institutions
The new order, 1850–1910
- Political and economic transitions, 1850–70
- The liberal oligarchic age, 1870–1910
  - Export economies
  - Capitalism and social transitions
  - Oligarchies in power
New order emerging, 1910–45
- Economic and social developments
  - World war and world trade
  - The emerging force of nationalism
  - Population and social change
- Challenges to the political order
  - The Mexican Revolution
  - Broadening of political participation
  - Expanding role of the state
  - Socialism, communism, fascism
  - Good Neighbor Policy and World War II
Latin America since the mid-20th century
- The postwar world, 1945–80
  - Economic agenda and patterns of growth
  - Developments in social policy
  - The United States and Latin America in the Cold War era
  - Impact of the Cuban Revolution
  - Political alternatives
    - Movement toward democracy
    - The advent of populism
    - Christian Democracy
    - Bureaucratic authoritarianism
- Latin America at the end of the 20th century
  - Debt crisis
  - Return to democracy
  - A shift to neoliberalism
  - Religious trends
  - A changing society

References & Edit History Related Topics

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Spanish viceroyalties and Portuguese territories in the Americas, 1780

South America's new transportaion projects.

For Students

Latin America summary

history of Latin America

Also known as: Hispanic America, Iberoamerica

Written by Roger A. Kittleson, David Bushnell•All

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Jan 21, 2025 • Article History

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history of Latin America, history of the region from the pre-Columbian period and including colonization by the Spanish and Portuguese beginning in the 15th century, the 19th-century wars of independence, and developments to the end of the 20th century. Latin America is generally understood to consist of the entire continent of South America in addition to Mexico, Central America, and the islands of the Caribbean whose inhabitants speak a Romance language. The peoples of this large area shared the experience of conquest and colonization by the Spaniards and Portuguese from the late 15th through the 18th century as well as ...(100 of 38230 words)

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