1. Ten Important Events

2.  Americas belonged to Portugal when Columbus landed there  Spain and Portugal then both claimed the land  Pope ended up splitting S. America giving Brazil to Portugal and the rest to Spain  This provided the foundation for the demographics of South America

3.  1519-1533  New world was a valuable resource  Aztecs in Mexico and Incas in Peru stood in their way  Spanish Conquistadors Cortes in Mexico and Pizarro in Peru destroyed these empires

4.  1806-1898  Most of Latin America claimed independence from Spain in 1810  1825 Mexico, most of Central America and South America were free from outside rule  Spanish rule ended for good in 1898 when they lost the final colonies to U.S in Spanish American War.

5.  Still issues over Mexico losing Texas  Americans win this war and invade Mexico City  The Alamo was a big stand for the Americans  Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo gives Americans California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado, AZ, New Mexico and Wyoming to the U.S.

6.  1881-1893 and 1904-1914  This engineering marvel changed worldwide shipping

7.  Peasants against a wealthy class  Years of bloody conflicts  Consequence of the revolution land reform took place and a new political party rose out of this that stayed in power until the 1990’s.

8.  Fidel Castro and his brother Raul and a band of followers went after the govt. led by Batista  They wanted economic equality for all  They ran Batista out of the country and set up a communist government with ties to the Soviet Union.  Castro has been a thorn in the U.S side for years.

9.  Southern part of S. America under conservative type leadership.  Many people rebelled and planned a secret operation to get people out of office.  Thousands in leadership positions were either silenced or killed.  This led to no trust in the government.  Many people behind this sinister plot were brought to justice, but many were never caught.