Effects Of Colonialism In Latin America

Colonialism’s scars in Latin America “The developed-developing relationship in many ways replaces the colonizer-colonized relationship. The idea of development is a way for rich countries to control and exploit the poor” (Silver, 2015). This describes what colonialism meant for Latin American countries when Spaniards came to “trade” with indigenous communities in the so called, ‘New World’. In the 1500’s when Iberians’ realized they were in an “undiscovered” land, they started to take control of lands, destroy native civilizations and introduce slavery. In this paper, I will point out the most significant effects of colonialism in Latin America, It’s been more than five centuries since the first settler arrived to Caribbean islands, but the

When we think about racism we automatically think about the Whites and Blacks in the U.S. However, racism exists throughout the Americas. In many parts of Central and South America, racism is a very present force. This ethnic rivalry initiate with the Casta system; a system used by colonizers to categorize races into different groups in Latin American during the colonial period. This system was also used to segregate people from economical and political stature. Some of these categories were: peninsulares (Spaniards and other whites from Europe), Criollos (Spaniards and other whites born in America), indios (indigenous peoples of the Americas), mestizos ( mixed indios and white), cholos ( indios with some mestizo), mulatos (mixed African and white), zambos (mixed African and indios) and negros (Africans). In this system, peninsulares and/or people with European backround were the wealthiest and with high positions within governments, while Africans or indigenous people, or dark skin, generally were related to poverty and inferiority. Latin America has had its share of violent racism through the years: The Argentines virtually exterminated their Indians, and even in Brazil, the most racially integrated country, the black population still faces prejudice and hurdles to power. This pattern of European discriminations is still present today, from the social to the political, education, labor, cultural and public health sectors. In country such as Colombia, Afro-Colombian people are, in many occasions, victims of political violence. In other countries such as in mine, Panama, judicial and police systems seem to provide equal protection to blacks, but the real situation is that most of the time these people are more severely punished. Also, still in some countries of the region, indigenous are treated differently, as less educated and incapable of dealing