History of South America
While perhaps the last continent--except
Antarctica to be inhabited by humans, the
history of South America spans the full range of human cultural and civilizational forms. While millennia of independent development were interrupted by the Spanish and Portuguese colonization drive of the 16th Century and the demographic collapse that followed, the continent's
mestizo and indigenous cultures remain quite distinct from those of their colonizers. Through the trans-Atlantic
slave trade, South America (especially
Brazil) became the home of millions of people in the
African diaspora. The tensions between colonial countries in Europe, indigenous peoples and escaped slaves shaped South America from the 16th through the 19th Centuries.
South America is thought to have been first inhabited by people crossing the
Bering Land Bridge, now the
Bering strait. Over the course of millennia, people spread to all parts of the continent. By the first millennium
CE, South America's vast rainforests, mountains, plains and coasts were the home of tens of millions of people.Some groups formed permanent settlements. Among those groups were the Chibchas (or "Muiscas" or "Muyscas") and the Tairona. The Chibchas of Colombia, the Quechuas of Peru and the Aymaras of Bolivia were the 3 most important sedentary Indian groups in South America. In the last two thousand years there may have been contact with
Polynesians across the South
Pacific Ocean, as shown by the spread of the
sweet potato through some areas of the Pacific, but there is no genetic legacy of human contact.
Chibchas
The
Chibcha linguistic communities were the most numerous, the most territorially extended and the most socio-economically developed of the Pre-Hispanic Colombians. By the 3rd century, the Chibchas had established their civilization in the northern Andes. At one point, the Chibchas occupied part of what is now Panama, and the high plains of the Eastern Sierra of Colombia. The areas that they occupied were the Departments of Santander (North and South), Boyacá and Cundinamarca, which were also the areas where the first farms and first industries were developed, and where the independence movement originated. They are currently the richest areas in Colombia. They represented the most populous zone between the Mexican and Inca empires. Next to the Quechua of Peru and the Aymara in Bolivia, the Chibchas of the eastern and north-eastern Highlands of Colombia were the most striking of the sedentary indigenous peoples in South America.In the Oriental Andes, the Chibchas were composed of several tribes, who spoke the same language (Chibchan). Among them: Muiscas, Guanes, Laches and Chitareros.
Amazon
Some 5 to 7 million people lived in the Amazon region, divided between comparatively dense coastal settlements and more nomadic inland dwellers. The latter lived on a complex combination of swiddlen agriculture, alteration of the forest ecosystem, and hunting and gathering.
[The influence of human alteration has been generally underestimated, reports Darna L. Dufour: "Much of what has been considered natural forest in Amazonia is probably the result of hundreds of years of human use and management." "Use of Tropical Rainforests by Native Amazonians," BioScience 40, no. 9 (October 1990):658. For an example of how such peoples integrated planting into their nomadic lifestyles, see Rival, Laura, 1993. "The Growth of Family Trees: Understanding Huaorani Perceptions of the Forest," Man 28(4):635-652.]Norte Chico
On the northern coast of present-day Peru,
Norte Chico was a cluster of large-scale urban settlements emerged around 3000 BCE, contemporary with urbanism's rise in
Mesopotamia.
Chavín
The
Chavín, a South American preliterate civilization, established a trade network and developed agriculture by 900 BCE, according to some estimates and archeological finds. Artifacts were found at a site called Chavín in modern
Peru at an elevation of 3,177 meters. Chavín civilization spanned 900 BC to 300 BCE.
Moche
The
Moche thrived on the north coast of Peru 2000-1500 years ago. The heritage of the Moche comes down to us through their elaborate burials, recently excavated by UCLA's Christopher Donnan in association with the National Geographic Society.Skilled artisans, the Moche were a technologically advanced people who traded with faraway peoples, like the
Maya. Almost everything we know about the Moche comes from their ceramic pottery with carvings of their daily lives. We know from these records that they practiced human sacrifice, had blood-drinking rituals, and that their religion incorporated non-procreative sexual practices (such as fellatio).
Inca
Holding their capital at the great puma-shaped city of
Cusco, the
Inca civilization dominated the Andes region from
1438 to
1533. Known as
Tawantin suyu, or "the land of the four regions," in
Quechua, the Inca civilization was highly distinct and developed. Inca rule extended to nearly a hundred linguistic or ethnic communities, some 9 to 14 million people connected by a 25,000 kilometer
road system. Cities were built with precise, unmatched stonework, constructed over many levels of mountain terrain.
Terrace farming was a useful form of agriculture. There is evidence of excellent metalwork and even successful
brain surgery in Inca civilization.
Before the arrival of Europeans, an estimated 30 million people lived in South America.
In
1494, Portugal and Spain, the two great maritime powers of that time, on the expectation of new lands being discovered in the west, signed the
Treaty of Tordesilhas, by which they agreed that all the land outside
Europe should be an exclusive
duopoly between the two countries. The Treaty established an imaginary line along a north-south
meridian 370
leagues west of
Cape Verde Islands, roughly 46° 37' W. In terms of the treaty, all land to the west of the line (which is now known to comprehend most of the South American soil), would belong to Spain, and all land to the east, to Portugal. As accurate measurements of
longitude were impossible by that time, the line was not strictly enforced, resulting in a
Portuguese expansion of Brazil across the meridian.
Beginning in the
1530s, the people and natural resources of South America were repeatedly exploited by foreign
conquistadors, first from
Spain and later from
Portugal. These competing colonial nations claimed the land and resources as their own and divided it into colonies.
European diseases (
smallpox,
influenza,
measles and
typhus) to which the native populations had no resistance and cruel systems of forced labor (such as the infamous
encomiendas and mining industry's
mita) decimated the American population under Spanish control. After this, African
slaves, who had developed immunities to these diseases, were quickly brought in to replace them.
The Spaniards were committed to converting their American subjects to Christianity and were quick to purge any native cultural practices that hindered this end. However, most initial attempts at this were only partially successful, as American groups simply blended Catholicism with their traditional beliefs. The Spaniards did not impose their language to the degree they did their religion. In fact, the missionary work of the
Catholic Church in
Quechua,
Nahuatl, and
Guarani actually contributed to the expansion of these American languages, equipping them with writing systems.
Eventually the natives and the Spaniards interbred, forming a
Mestizo class (or race). Mestizos and the original Americans were often forced to pay unfair taxes to the Spanish government and were punished harshly for disobeying their laws. Many native artworks were considered pagan idols and destroyed by Spanish explorers. This included a great number gold and silver sculptures, which were melted down before transport to Europe.
|
Countries in the Americas by date of independence |
The Spanish colonies won their independence in the first quarter of the
19th century, in the
South American Wars of Independence.
Simón Bolívar and
José de San Martín led their independence struggle. Although Bolivar attempted to keep the Spanish-speaking parts of the continent politically unified, they rapidly became independent of one another as well, and several further wars were fought, such as the
War of the Triple Alliance and the
War of the Pacific. In the Portuguese colony
Dom Pedro I (also Pedro IV of Portugal), son of the Portuguese
king Dom João VI, proclaimed the country's independence in
1822 and became Brazil's first
Emperor. This was peacefully accepted by the crown in Portugal, upon compensation.
A few countries did not gain independence until the
20th century:
*
Guyana, from the
United Kingdom, in 1966.
*
Suriname, from the
Dutch control, in 1975
*
Trinidad and Tobago, from the
United Kingdom, in 1962
French Guiana remains an overseas
département of
France.
The continent, like many others, became a battlefield of the
Cold War in the late 20th century. The government of
Chile was overthrown in the early
1970s, as a late (and peculiar) development of the
U.S. Monroe Doctrine. Throughout the
1980s and
1990s,
Peru suffered from internal conflicts (see
Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and
Shining Path). Other revolutions and military dictatorships have been common.
International indebtedness became a notable problem, as most recently illustrated by
Argentina's default in the early
21st century.
*
History of the Americas*
History of Latin America*
History of Central America*
Gran Colombia*
Peru-Bolivian Confederacy
