50
46
45
47
Exam 1
42
40
Number with score
35
30
25
19
20
15
9
10
5
2
0
100%
90%s (116-124)
80 %s (11270%s (11-92)
115)
Scores
60%s (88-80)
<60% (76 & <)
© T. M. Whitmore
Today
• The Columbian “encounter”
continued
• Second Pillar of Latin American
societies:
Spanish and Portuguese
colonialism
© T. M. Whitmore
Last Time -- QUESTIONS?
• Latin America & the Caribbean
Very Diverse Physical
environment
• First Pillar of Latin American
societies
Legacies of Indigenous (preColumbian) peoples
© T. M. Whitmore
Amerindian contributions to global
agriculture I
• Some major Foods:
Maize (corn)
Beans (lima, green, black, pinto, etc.)
Peanuts
Potatoes (they are NOT Irish!)
Squashes (including pumpkin)
Sweet potatoes (what are incorrectly
called yams)
Chilies
Vanilla
Cacao (Chocolate - that staff of life)
© T. M. Whitmore
Pecan
Amerindian contributions to global
agriculture II
• Foods:
Papaya
Cashew
Manioc (or cassava, yuca - you may
know it as tapioca)
Avocado
Tomatoes (what did the Italians do
before 1492?)
Pineapple
Guava
and many, many others (especially
© T. M. Whitmore
fruits)
Amerindian contributions to
agriculture III
• Non-foods
Cotton (all commercial types)
Tobacco
Rubber (latex)
Coca (source of cocaine)
Indigo (blue jeans dye)
Hemp/sisal
© T. M. Whitmore
Amerindian contributions to
agriculture IV
• Animals (only a few of importance)
Guinea pig
Llama
Alpaca
Turkey
and very few others
• About 1/3 of the world’s total
agricultural crops are Amerindian in
origin
© T. M. Whitmore
Pillar # 2: Legacies of Spanish
and Portuguese colonialism
• Conquest of Latin America
• Amerindian population collapse
• Colonial economic systems in Latin
America
• Other legacies of colonialism in
Latin America
© T. M. Whitmore
Conquest of Latin America
• Columbus - 1492 (+ 3 other voyages)
• 1519 Cortés left Cuba to conquer
Aztec state
• Pizarro arrived on Peru coast 1527
and found Inka in civil war =>
relatively easy conquest in 4 years
• Portuguese conquest confined to
Brazil after its “discovery” in 1500
=> Brazil speaks Portuguese while
most of LA speaks Spanish
© T. M. Whitmore
Amerindian population collapse
• Caused primarily by infectious
disease brought by Europeans, their
African slaves, and animals
• Amerindians never exposed to
common Old World diseases such
as: smallpox, typhus, plague, severe
influenza, measles, malaria, yellow
fever, and many others
1st exposure infected everyone
(called virgin soil diseases)
© T. M. Whitmore
Consequences for Amerindians
• Pre-Columbian population of Latin
America ~ 50-60 m
• Horrifying scale of loss
About 90% of Amerindian pop
died in 100-150 yrs
Compare with European Black
Death –it killed 25 - 35% in
Europe over 100 yrs in 1300s
• Nadir (minimum) population ~ 5 m!
• Contemporary population ~ 40 m
© T. M. Whitmore
Amerindian Population Collapse
© T. M. Whitmore
© T. M. Whitmore
AMERINDIAN DEPOPULATION
PRE-COLUMBIAN
POPULATION (millions)
NADIR
POPULATION (millions)
CURRENT
POP (millions)
North
America
3-4
0.25
th
19th
C
2-3
Mexico
17
2
th
17th
C
11
Central
America
5-6
0.5
th
17th
C
6-7
Caribbean
3
virtually extinct
th
16th
C
0
Andes
14 - 15
1.5 - 2
th
17th
C
17
Lowland South
America
9
2
th
17th
C (?)
2
TOTALS
MID 50s
< 10
NEAR 40
REGION
© T. M. Whitmore
Amerindian & Mestizo Populations
• European men and Amerindian
women produced mestizos
• Mestizos are a majority in most of
Spanish-speaking Latin America
• Large minorities of pop speak
Amerindian languages in: Mexico,
Guatemala, Bolivia, Peru
E.g., new president of Bolivia
speaks Aymara
© T. M. Whitmore
Colonial Economics in LA
• Colonial plantation style economies
(mostly in Brazil and Caribbean)
• Colonial hacienda economies (mostly
in mainland Spanish Latin America)
• Third colonial economic mainstay:
Mining
• Economic legacies of Colonialism in
Latin America
© T. M. Whitmore
•
•
•
•
Plantation style economies:
Brazil and Caribbean sugar cane
Sugar cane needs: lots of land, quality
soils, cheap labor, lots of fuel, and
location near transport
Labor needs met 1st by Amerindian slaves
then by Africans transported as slaves
Sugar dominated by Brazil from 1500 –
1700
After 1700 N Europeans (French, British,
Dutch, Danish) set up sugar on their
possessions in the Caribbean (Jamaica &
© T. M. Whitmore
Barbados, Martinique & Haiti, etc)
Consequences of the sugar
economy
• Largest forced migration in history
Current racial makeup reflects
this migration; Brazil and
Caribbean have populations with
African heritage dominant
• Legacy of environmental damage
• Establishment of highly unequal land
tenure (ownership), wealth, and
social relations that persist to this
day
© T. M. Whitmore
© T. M. Whitmore
Slavery In The Americas 1492- 1880
Brazil
~ 4.3 million
Spanish America
50% To Cuba (900 K)
20% To Mexico (360 K)
10% To Venezuela (180 K)
20% To Other
~ 1.8 million
French America
Mostly To Martinique & Haiti
~ 1.7 million
English America
40% To Jamaica (1.2 M)
22% To North America (640 K)
20% To Barbados (580 K)
13% Other Caribbean (377 K)
~ 2.9 million
Totals are approximate and
probably are underestimates.
(nearly 5 m to small Caribbean
islands)
~ 10.7 million
© T. M. Whitmore
Sugar & Slaves
1500s – 1700s
© T. M. Whitmore
Sugar & Slaves in the Caribbean
© T. M. Whitmore
Colonial Plantation Economies –
characteristics persist in L.A. today
• Export of cash crops
• Poorly paid labor
• Foreign owned
• Vast gulf between rich and poor
(especially for land)
• Few local economic multipliers
© T. M. Whitmore
2nd Colonial Mainstay - Haciendas
• Colonial Spanish Latin America
• Haciendas are also a type of
latifundia (vast estates) with very
few owners of mostly European
heritage; often underused
• Most of the labor done by
Amerindian and Mestizo peasant
population
• Importance of cattle
© T. M. Whitmore
3rd colonial economic mainstay: Mining
• Initially gold (but small amounts except
•
•
•
for 1700s in Minas Gerais, Brazil)
Silver the most valuable
Huge strikes in Mexico, Peru, and
Bolivia
Especially Potosí (largest silver strike
in history)
Mine labor mostly Amerindian or peasant
(poorly paid or forced)
So much silver that it transformed
European economy for 100s of yrs© T. M. Whitmore
Potosí
Minas Gerais
Mining
Mexican colonial
silver strikes
Economic legacies of Colonialism I
• Very uneven distribution of land
ownership due to hacienda and
plantation economies
• Extractive economy (e.g., mining &
agriculture) organized to enrich
“foreign” (or mother) countries
• Huge quantities of wealth removed
from Latin America to enrich
Europe
© T. M. Whitmore
Economic legacies of Colonialism II
• Mercantile theories of trade led to
colonies that were isolated from
each other and connected only with
mother country
Subsequently this led to isolated
independent states
• Tradition of exploited labor and
vast wealth in the hands of very few
© T. M. Whitmore
Urban wealth contrasts in L.A.
© W.H. Freeman & Co.
Other Legacies of Colonialism I
• Languages:
~ 360 m Spanish speakers
So many that Spanish is now the
2nd (or 3rd or 4th) most spoken
language in the world
Can you guess what is #1?
~ 190 m Portuguese speakers
Only ~ 10 m in Portugal
© T. M. Whitmore
Latin America has ~360 million Spanish speakers and
~190 million Portuguese speakers.
The Mesoamerican highlands and the Andes continue
to have the largest indigenous populations.
© T. M. Whitmore
Other Legacies of Colonialism I
Diverse Populations
• Majority in Latin America are either
mestizo or mulatto or other mixed
race
• Large Amerindian populations
(perhaps 40+ m overall)
Guatemala: 40 - 50%
Mexico: 10 - 20%
Bolivia: 40 - 60%
Peru: ~ 45%
Ecuador: ~ 25%
© T. M. Whitmore
Other Legacies of Colonialism II
Diverse Populations
• Large African origin populations
(> 100 m overall)
Haiti: 95%
Jamaica: 75%
Dominican Republic
Brazil: 40%+
Belize and the smaller islands
of the Caribbean
© T. M. Whitmore
Contemporary Cultural Diversity
• Survival of indigenous peoples in
•
•
•
•
highlands and rainforests.
Primarily European in Costa Rica and
Southern cone countries (immigration in
1800’s).
Majority are mestizo, of mixed
indigenous and European descent.
Large Afro-latin populations, particularly
in former slave-holding countries.
Small East Asian and South Asian
© T. M. Whitmore
populations.
Haiti and Jamaica are majority black, and many other
Caribbean states have large black populations. The Garifuna
people (pink shade) are of indigenous-African descent.
Amerindian
Mestizo
African Heritage
European
Heritage
Note that only Costa Ricans are predominately of European descent in Central America.
African Heritage
>40% of Brazilians are
also fully or partially of
African descent.
Only the Southern
Cone countries and
southeastern Brazil are
predominantly
European.
Amerindian
European
Heritage
Other Legacies of Colonialism III
• Religious preferences: ~ 80% claim
to be Roman Catholic (>90% in some
countries)
But Evangelical Protestants
gaining
• Highly urban (~ 75%)
• Legacy of exploitation of
Amerindians and Afro-Americans
• Extractive economy and environment
and resources degradation
© T. M. Whitmore
Most Latin
Americans are
Catholic but many
are influenced by
other traditions,
and evangelical
faiths are
growing.