The document summarizes key facts about Latin America: 1) Columbus' voyage in 1492 and Cabral's in 1500 led to European colonization, though indigenous peoples had inhabited the Americas for 20,000-30,000 years prior. 2) The Treaty of Tordesillas divided newly discovered lands between Portugal and Spain in 1494. 3) Mexico and the US share the world's most crossed border, while Cancun is Mexico's top tourist destination. Mexico also produces most of its oil offshore in the Gulf of Campeche. 4) NAFTA in 1994 aimed to increase trade between the US, Canada and Mexico but also made drug trafficking easier, with Colombia being the top cocaine producer

1. Metropolitan University Prague
Martin Kolmhofer
LATIN AMERICA

2. 1492 voyage of Christopher Columbus.
1500 voyage of Pedro Álvares Cabral
But: The Americas were inhabited by people already 20-30,0000 years ago.
(Aztecs, Mayans and Incas)

3. 1494 AD Treaty of Tordesillas - The Treaty of Tordesillas divided the newly
discovered lands outside Europe between Portugal and Spain. The Spanish
received all of the land to the West and the Portuguese to the East. This gave
Portugal Africa while Spain received all of the new world with the exception of
Brazil.

4. The Mexico–United States border is the most frequently crossed international
border in the world.

5. Cancún and the Yucatán Peninsula have become Mexico's top tourist destination.

6. PEMEX - Petróleos Mexicanos – most of Mexico’s crude oil is produced offshore
in the Bay of Campeche

7. A maquiladora is a factory that imports materials and equipment on a tariff-free
basis for assembly or manufacturing and then re-exports the assembled
product, usually back to the originating country.

8. Discussion:
Will border fence will stop illegal immigrants from crossing the border?

9. Drug cartels coordinate the production and distribution of cocaine, heroin and
marijuana.

10. The North American Free Trade Agreement (1994) was designed to allow
goods and services to flow more freely between the U.S., Canada and Mexico,
and it has worked. Unfortunately, many of the goods entering America from
Canada are illegal drugs, the trafficking of which was made easier by the trade
pact.

11. Colombia is the world's largest cocaine producer.

13. The first commercial drilling of petroleum in Venezuela took place after World War I
by British, Dutch and American multinational oil companies

14. Venezuela officially nationalized its oil industry in 1976. Much of the income
from the oil industry was used to build infrastructure.

15. OPEC (founded in 1960) has twelve member countries:
six in the Middle East, four in Africa, and two in South America.
OPEC is headquartered in Vienna, Austria.

16. Hugo Chavez came to power in Venezuela in 1998 and renamed the country the
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, as an reference to Simon Bolivar, who is
credited with the 19th century liberation of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador,
Panama, Peru, and Bolivia from Spanish colonial rule.

17. ARGENTINA:
1983 End of Military Dictatorship
2001 Economic Crisis

19. Massive European immigration in the 19th century (mainly Italian and Spanish,
focused on colonization and sponsored by the government)

22. Falkland war 1982:
What lies behind renewed tensions over the Falkland Islands?
Is this about oil or taking the focus away from other things e.g. economic
problems, internal problems?

23. Border Disputes between Argentina and Chile:
The most recent dispute was over the Southern Icefields, which contain the
second largest reserve of potable water in the world.

24. Bolovia: “Gas War” social movement regarding what to do with Bolivia's natural
gas reserves (Evo Morales)
War of the Pacific in the 1879s: Chile took over Bolivia's only access to the sea
(Bolivia has been landlocked ever since)

25. Brazil’s economy is the largest of the Latin American nations:
Fishery, (Offshore) Oil, Water Power, Agriculture

26. Over half the Brazilian population has some African ancestry. Africans were
transported to the country as slaves by the Portuguese. (sugar plantations )

27. In economics, BRIC is a grouping acronym that refers to
the countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China, which are all deemed to be at a
similar stage of newly advanced economic development.

28. MERCOSUR (customs union):
purpose is to promote free trade and the movement of goods, people, and
currency.

30. HISTORY OF POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC THOUGHT

31. FINANCIAL MARKETS: THE CITY OF LONDON

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