Regions of the World Series:
Latin America, Part 1
Segment description
Sampler –Regions of the World Series
Latin America, Part 1:
4’-17” (79’ lecture)
Although lacking machines or animals to move materials,
why is it believed that pre-Colombian Mayans from
200-900 A.D. built their pyramids without knowledge
of Egyptian pyramids?
play sampler
Pre-Columbia Era.
1
Native Americans. About 11,000 years
ago they came from Siberia over a land
bridge and eventually migrated throughout
both continents to the tip of South
America. Their remarkable history, mostly of
victimization, dates back much before
Columbus. There is a tendency to
romanticize them, but they have the qualities
and faults common to all human experience.
2
Mayan Civilization. Their written history
starts in 400 BC, deciphered just recently,
and tells only about their ruling class, nothing
about the lower class. They lack metal,
simple machines, the wheel, sail, and work
animals, yet they have cities requiring
surplus food supply, create irrigation systems
and build pyramids for their kings,
independent from Egypt's. They also have
the concept of the calendar, and
mathematics. Their civilization peaks
between 200-700 AD. Their decline is partly
due to limited nutrition, with corn as their
staple, and are further debilitated by ruinous
warfare within a divided kingdom, long
before arrival of the Europeans.
3
Incan Civilization. Located in what is now
Peru, it formerly occupies half of South
America. An amazing degree of
development though they have no writing, no
art, using only human muscle power to build
cities high in the Andes. Their buildings of
stones are fitted perfectly without
mortar. They create terraced farming,
Regions of the World Series:
Latin America, Part 1
Segment description
irrigation, build bridges of grass able to bear
great weight. They know the art of
mummification. They successfully practice
brain surgery. The wonder of images
hundreds of feet in size on the ground which
can be scanned from the air. They are a
conquering empire, yet are conquered by
Pizarro from Spain with a small army.
Europe In the New World
4
Arrival of Columbus. He never knows
where he is geographically. He destroys
native populations in brutal manner. His
voyage opens travel to the New World,
changing it forever, a disaster to Native
Americans while a gain for Europeans. By
the end of the 1500s 90% of native
population is wiped out, with intentionality
added to lack of resistance to newly
introduced diseases.
5
The slave trade. Resistance to slavery by
Native Americans leads to the Atlantic slave
trade from Africa, with Brazil as the heart of
it, controlled by Portugal. European demand
for sugar. The debate about the difference
between the Catholic versus the Protestant
view of slavery and treatment of African
slaves in North America compared to South
America, and the factors involved. The need
not to idealize Native Americans who have
class differences among them related to
color. The rise of commercial agriculture and
the further growth of slavery.
The 19th Century
6
The end of slavery. At the beginning of the
19th century the Spanish and Portuguese
empires decline and the ideals of the French
Revolution carries over to Latin America,
leading to establishment of republics in
Brazil and Argentina. Public education
improves but most economic and social
structures remain in place with classes and
exploitation of the lower classes. Some land
reform but question of control results in a
native aristocracy.
Regions of the World Series:
Latin America, Part 1
Segment description
7
Political change 1820-1870. The strong
man in military office comes to power,
accompanied by much violence. The
distorted undiversified economy is vulnerable
to fluctuations of European market for these
1 or 2 products. The life of women improves,
the church declines. Continued struggles
between reform and business interests in
Latin American countries.
9
Cuba. Prelude to Spanish-American War in
1898 is U.S. ultimatum to Spain to bring
economic order to Cuba by either giving it
independence or by crushing its revolt, or
U.S. will solve it. The is the beginning of the
U.S. Empire. After the war, Cuba is
nominally independent but the U.S. calls the
economic shots.