Par. 9 (in het Engels)

§9 Latin America, a region in the picture.

Latin America stretches from 32º NL (border between Mexico and the US) to 55º SL (Tierradel Fuego or the land of Fire).
In Latin America there is a Great variety of landscapes and natural zones. There are 3 different types of landscapes in Latin America as far as relief is concerned
1. Andes Mountain Range. (Highest 7000m)
2. Plateaus and Highland. (Highlands of Brazil, highlands of Guyana,
Plateau of Patagonia)
3. River drainage basins. (Amazon area.) There are three different coastal plains:
• The Orinoco
• The Amazon (largest)
• The Paraná Delta

The original inhabitants of Latin America were the Indians.
It was a sparsely populated continent. Urbanization and a denser population were only found in those areas where major cultures were developed. (Incas and Aztecs.) The children of an Indian and a blank immigrant are known as Mestizos.

Soon after Latin America was discovered, the continent was divided into two areas. The land to the west of 50º WL was given to Spain (in the Tordesillas Treaty.) The land to the east of 50º WL was given to the Portuguese people.
The Spanish found large amounts of gold and silver, and they had Indians to work there. The centre of the urban cities contained the ‘Plaza Mayor’ (a large city square) where the cathedral and public buildings were built. The rest looked like a ‘chessboard pattern’ (square blocks of houses and streets).
The Spanish sent out missionaries to convert the Indians.
Much land was stolen from the Indians and given to the Spanish. This resulted in enormous farms: the latifundia. That still exists. The rest of the farming population must either survive on very small farms (the Minifundia) or they have no land at all.
The Portuguese were less fortunate not to find many precious metals in their part of Latin America. There were fewer Indians who could be put to work as labourers. They extended their land via the Amazon River until far beyond the agreed border of 50º WL.
They farmed sugar and coffee a lot. There were not so many immigrants in the colonial age. However, immigration by Europeans increased in the nineteenth century, and was aimed mainly at Argentina, South Brasil and Uruguay. In order to put an end to the shortage of labour, they imported large numbers of slaves from Africa.
Children who have one white and one black parent are called ‘Mulattos’.