1. Let’s Review Latin America Geography Ancient History Middle History Modern History Vocab/People to Know

2. Geography Fertile soil & good climate = great crops Andes Mts. = spine of South America Areas of rainforest run along equator Amazon river = large w/ many cataracts Diverse land makes for isolation of people

3. Ancient History Maya = 1 st civilization; lived in southern Mexico; violent; disappeared somehow; calendar Aztec = lived in central Mexico; built great city of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) an island in a lake; built chinampas for farming; human sacrifices great advances in math, science, medicine Incas = lived in Peru, in the Andes, built Machu Picchu, advances in math, science, medicine, had blood rituals & human sacrifices Spanish conquistadors wipe out these tribes

4. Middle History 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue = Spanish conquer from Florida to Peru Hernan Cortez destroys the Aztecs & their chief Montezuma w/ disease, guns & technology Francisco Pizarro destroys the Incas & their chief w/ disease, guns & technology Spanish set up strict social system = peninsulares, creoles, mestizos, indians Spanish make everyone ‘Spanish’= rule for 300yrs. Bring Christianity, language, culture African slaves begin to be imported to replace the dying indian population

5. Pre - Modern History Nationalism & Independence movements spread throughout Latin America Simon Bolivar=freed Columbia&Venezuela Jose San Martin=freed Chile, Peru, Bolivia Pancho Villa = Mexican Independence Toussaint L’Ouverture = ex-slave, frees Haiti Dollar $ Diplomacy from the U.S. = 1912- 1934, American companies invest/build factories in Latin America so that they could send troops to protect interests

6. Modern History 1959 Cuba goes Communist = Fidel Castro overthrows gov’t. & still in charge! 1979 Sandinistas in Nicaragua = kicks out U.S. supported dictator with $ from Soviets U.S. supports the Contras (vs. Sandinistas) with weapons, medicine, food, clothing 1979 El Salvador = Communist guerrillas overthrow the wealthy landowner gov’t 1990 U.S. invades Panama = Gen. Manuel Noriega was dictator & drug dealer, adios! 1995 Mexico gets 12.5 billion loan from the U.S. Most Nations have these problems = poverty, gov’t corruption, drug trafficking, economic crisis, military threats of revolt

7. Vocab/People to Know Dollar Diplomacy, NAFTA Christianity, corruption, crazy military dictatorships Peninsulare, Creoles, social triangle Mayas, Incas, Aztecs (Montezuma) Fidel Castro & Bay of Pigs, missle crisis Columbus, Cortez, Pizarro Bolivar, San Martin, L’Ouverture, Villa Noriega, Sandinistas, Contras Liberation Theology, church aids the poor One crop economy