A powerpoint presentation that gives some information about the South and Central America, the ethnic groups and the colonization and how does it influenced in the continent.
2. Central and South
America
Central America is a narrow bridge of land linking
Mexico in the north to South America in the south. A
string of mountains runs down its length, capped by
volcanoes. South America is the fourth largest
continent. It contains a range of very different
landscapes. About 60% of the continent is covered in
vast, grassy plains.
3. Peoples of Central and South America
The language, history and culture of Central and South America were
influenced with colonization. Until 1492, when Christopher Columbus first
landed in the Bahamas, the continent was inhabited by native peoples.
After that time, European people arrived from Spain and Portugal, and
huge numbers of Africans were imported as slaves, especially to the
Caribbean and Brazil. Also, english, french and dutch people went to South
America. As a of result, the population of the continent today is a
combination of these different ethnic groups.
Spanish and Portuguese are the language spoken in these continents.
Portuguese is spoke in Brazil, and in the rest of the countries, Spanish is
their language.
4. Ethnic Groups of Central and South
America
Native Indians, who can trace their history back to people living in Central
and South America before the europeans arrived, today make up just 2%
of the continents population today. The next largest group are people of
African descent, the greatest number of whom are today found in Brazil
and in Caribbean. In most countries, the largest group of people is of mixed
European and native Indian descent, known as mestizos
5. Native Peoples
Within a hundred years of the Spanish arrival in South America, as much as
90% of the native population had died, mainly from disease brought by
Europeans, such as smallpox and measles, against which the native peoples
had no natural immunity. Today, native Indians make up a very small minority,
except in Guatemala, where Mayan people still inhabit the highlands in large
numbers, and in the Andean ranges of Bolivia, where descendants of the Incas
Live.
