1. CENTRAL AMERICA and the CARIBBEAN ISLANDS

2. Isthmus – a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas

3. Central America: History
1st : Native Americans (Mayan & Aztecs)
2nd : Spain’s colonization (300 yrs)
3rd : Independence from Spain (1800s)

4. Conquistadors: men from Spain who conquered “New World”
Cortez --- great explorer or villain?

5. PANAMA CANAL
cuts through Panama
IMPORTANT FOR WORLD TRADE

6. Panama Canal
Connects Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, allows ships to pass through Panama, saving time and money

7. Central America: Economy
2/3 of Central Americans = poor laborers
Main Exports: cash crops (ex. Coffee, bananas)
Lots of subsistence farming

8. The two forms of farming that make up the base of Central America’s economies are
Slash and Burn
Terraced Farming

9. Terraced farming - technique for growing crops on a mountainside or hilltop. The Incas and the Aztecs practiced this.

10. Central America: Recent History
---Dictators and the rich controlled Central America
---Government fights their own farmers and poor people
---Now, more democracy, but the rich still own most land
Victims of government backed death squads in El Salvador , 1980s

11. Another name for the islands in the Caribbean Sea is the
West Indies

12. The Caribbean music created by enslaved Africans which uses the strong rhythms of steel drums is called
Calypso

13. The largest island in the Caribbean is
Cuba

14. Communist dictatorship
Cuba’s government is a
Communist dictatorship

15. Raul Castro takes over from his brother Fidel

16. Puerto Rico became part of the U.S.A. in
1898