Colonialism In Latin America

There were initially two to ten million natives in the United States prior to European contact. Those numbers dwindled down drastically in the years that Europeans came and started colonizing. The Europeans came to explore the New World in search of land, spices, gold, God and glory. Among these colonists were the Spanish and they colonized most of the southwest of the United States. Evidence of their settlements can still be seen today in the missions scattered across the land. These missions were started with the purpose of converting the Native Americans to Christianity. Now, imagine living your entire life with a particular set of beliefs, based on your ancestors and culture, and a group of foreigners come and proclaim that your views are all wrong and that you must follow their beliefs for the salvation of your soul. This is exactly what the Spanish did to the Natives. The relationship between the two parties were strained and rife with tension due to the conversion of the natives and the constant abuse doled out by the Spanish. This subsequently led to the disintegration of native life and culture.

Unlike the slave traders who came before him, King Leopold managed to take possession of and exploit the indigenous people of Congo, their land, and their resources on an unprecedented scale. He obtained a network of valuable raw materials and millions free laborers to extract them. At the hands of King Leopold II’s workers, the people of Congo suffered horrific travesties. Not only did they suffer the loss of their land, the people of Congo were the victims of a hostile militant take over, who’s main purpose was to become a profitable service to the King’s ever-growing greed. His beloved pet project would later prove to be an efficient murder machine. In order to gather resources and labor for the King’s projects, workers acted mercilessly. They swindled land from local Congo tribes, held women hostage, and forced children into work.(109)(111)”(119). George Washington Williams best penned King Leopold II’s cruelty in his detailed documentation. His account contrasted the lies that King Leopold fed the public while simultaneously addressing the barbaric methods employed such as chain gangs, capturing women, forced laborers, and shooting for sport. (Pages 110-111) The result of this barbaric approach to harvest raw materials was the loss of people estimating to be half of the total population of Congo(page 233 )

What are the parallels between American foreign policy during the early 20th century in Latin America and the late 20th century in Asia?

When the Spanish and the Portuguese established the colonies in the Americas, not only did they bring their material culture of technologies, clothes, cuisines, architecture, crops, and animals but they also brought their intellectual traditions such as that of honor. The history of colonial Latin America gives many questions related to the understanding of honor. The culture of honor during this period of time was pivotal as it provided a set of values that organized society and individual lives. Legal codes, social gatherings, seating arrangements were all mixed in with cultural meanings, which helps define status within a system of honor. Honor is also seen within fiction produced from the colonial Latin American period with the production of work such as Don Juan Tenorio and Don Quixote. These dramatic works glorify the chivalric tradition of honor, romanticizing it and creating a flattering fiction that the elite of colonial Latin America found convenient to strive for. Literary critics and cultural historians have studied the structure honor code of this period closely and in this book it can also be seen that honor can be irrationally inflexible, cruel and especially oppressive toward those of lower class, “tainted” lineage and female gender during this time. In this book, The Faces of Honor: Sex, Shame, and Violence in Colonial Latin America, scholars Lyman L. Johnson and Sonya Lipsett Rivera take on the difficult but exciting task of trying to define the idea and

Cuban insurgents considered the victory theirs, but it was obvious it was the Americans. Even the British correspondents who had once derided their American cousins esteemed differently. Spanish forces consolidated and resisted at Fort Canosa, then an American siege of the city happened, which was aided by Cuban forces. A much deadlier enemy came upon the Americans; malaria and yellow fever, which caused more deaths than Spanish bullets. Despite the Spaniards’ advantage in numbers and weaponry, because of the deaths of the disease, American forces pushed inland. The Spanish fleet only lasted hours on July 3.

The Belgians imperialized Congo to exploit their natural resources to make a profit. King Leopold II of Belgium imperialized Congo with his army, known as the “The Forced Publique” in 1885, despite Leopold having never gone to the Congo himself. Belgian’s imperialism was set with the goal in mind of exploiting Congo’s enormous supply of ivory. By the 1890’s King Leopold controlled the vast majority of Belgium. Over time, “the world did not lose its desire for ivory, but by the late 1890’s wild rubber had far surpassed it as the main source of revenue from the Congo.”(159). Leopold did not care about the Congolese or their land, and in fact was so aggressive with using Congo’s rubber plants, and free labor that Alexandre Delcommune, a Congolese business man, predicted that in ten years if Leopold was still in power, “[people]

“To Europeans, Africans were inferior beings: Lazy, uncivilized, little better than animals... In any system of terror, the functionaries must first of all see the victims as less than human, and Victorian ideals about race provided such a foundation” (Hochschild 121). The society in which King Leopold II lived shaped his view that the people of Africa were inferior, that their lives were significant, and this idea began to spread to most of Europe. This allowed the Belgian king to focus on his main purpose of colonizing the Congo: money. Despite his portrayal that his main motivation for colonizing the Congo was not profit, King Leopold was definitely motivated by money, and and because of this motivation he turned a blind eye to what was happening in

Thesis Statement: South America should be colonized by America because it can help the nation grow, and benefit America's economy in the long run. Body Paragraph #1 Topic Sentence: South America should colonized because it can help grow South America’s nation. Supporting Evidence #1: According to Rand McNally, “humanitarian efforts in some colonies improved sanitation and provided hospitals and schools” (McNally, n.d.). Explanation: This proves that if a nation were to colonize with South America, they would be able to help provide healthy care within all countries.

In a patriarchal society such as colonial Latin America, women were considered second class citizens. No matter their class or ethnicity, all women experienced the social and cultural limitations that are subjected to them by this patriarchal society. Women had limited access to education, women are used to satisfy men’s personal desires and legal systems neglected women’s court rights while heavily advocating men’s. However, not all women are subjected to the same limitations because of the difference in one’s economic status and ethnic identity. Nonetheless, women still found a way to carve out a space for themselves in attempt to overcome these regulations set by a patriarchal society.

Imperialism and then colonialism opened the floodgates that are troubled race relations, racism, and misguided societal values. Race has played a vital role in how Americans view each other, and themselves, and the experiences that they have. We constantly hear about institutionalized racism, the school-to-prison pipeline and police brutality on the news. The topic of race has such an enormous presence in our society that it simply cannot be ignored. But what is rarely talked about is how these conditions are incredibly similar to those that people in Latin America have to endure as well. Racism does not end at the borders of the United States, and in fact, they only seem to get worse in countries that are less developed.

Over the course of human history, many believe that the “Congo Free State”, which lasted from the 1880s to the early 1900s, was one of the worst colonial states in the age of Imperialism and was one of the worst humanitarian disasters over time. Brutal methods of collecting rubber, which led to the deaths of countless Africans along with Europeans, as well as a lack of concern from the Belgian government aside from the King, combined to create the most potent example of the evils of colonialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century’s. The Congo colonial experience, first as the Congo Free State then later as Belgian Congo, was harmful to that region of Africa both then and now because of the lack of Belgian and International

In the 50 years after gaining independence, European influence played an essential role in the growth of Latin America. Latin American elites managed to open free-trade among other countries such as the United States and Great Britain. This influx of trade expedited the Industrial Revolution allowing South America to trade with other countries more efficiently, thus, marking the start of Neo-Colonialism. Neo-Colonialism is defined as “the economic and political policies by which a great power indirectly maintains its influence over other areas or people” (Merriam-Webster). In the essay “Born in Blood & Fire” written by John Charles Chasteen, he describes how Europe managed to greatly influence the economy and political growth allowing

Because the Indians and Spanish lived in different areas in Latin America, the Indian culture and society did not change significantly. Or did there society change?

Through the lens of post colonialism I will focus on that actions that took place in Latin America. Through my research I am looking to find advice to prove my ideology that the actions that took place between the Spanish conquering of the Aztec and Mayan had a long term effect not just on the people its self but in form on new generations being doctorate in the way they conduct themselves through religion, education, and cultural heritage. Post colonialism had happen all over the world. It happens in many countries but the location that I choose was Latin America the Aztecs and the Mayans and how the Spanish conquistadors went to conquer new territory. The conquistadors went to steal everything from Meso-

From the end of the nineteenth century until the attainment of independence in the early 1960s, the countries of East Africa were under the colonial administration of European empires. After decades of foreign rule which saw unparalleled transformations within society, the post-colonial states that emerged have been blighted by ethnic conflict. It has been argued that the beliefs of British, Belgian and German administrators led them to completely reorganise the societies they governed based on a fictitious ‘tribal’ model, and in the process they invented ethnicity. There is a great deal of debate on this matter, though, and its continued relevance to contemporary politics only makes it more vigorous.