World Geography / Unit 6: Latin America
6.5 History and Culture
Notes
- Great Indigenous civilizations: the Maya (Central America), Aztec (central Mexico) and Inca (Andes, capital Cusco).
- Spain and Portugal conquered the region from the 1500s. The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) divided newly found lands between them, which is why Brazil speaks Portuguese.
- Enslaved Africans were brought, especially to Brazil and the Caribbean. Today many people are mestizo (mixed Indigenous and European ancestry) or of African descent.
- Most countries won independence in the early 1800s, often led by figures such as Simón Bolívar. Haiti became independent in 1804.
- Roman Catholicism is the main religion. Music, festivals and food blend Indigenous, European and African traditions.
Practice
The Inca civilization was centered in which region?
The Inca Empire stretched along the Andes with its capital at Cusco.
Why is Portuguese spoken in Brazil while Spanish is spoken in most of the rest of South America?
The Treaty of Tordesillas and later settlement gave Portugal Brazil.
A person of mixed Indigenous and European ancestry is called
Mestizo is the term for this ancestry.
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