hey everyone this video is going to

review the history of Latin America all

the way from the beginning of the course

to the end now my guess is that you've

been studying world history all year

long and perhaps the AP test is right

around the corner if you're anything

like my students you've whipped around

the world in different units that you

went through chronologically never

really staying in one spot for long and

are kind of left scrambling to connect

all the dots but if you're feeling all

mixed up I'm here to help you piece

together the story of Latin America in

this one single video now if you take a

look at this fancy College Board map

you'll notice that Latin America is

labeled and it includes Mexico Central

America South America and as it says

over here the Caribbean when we start

our course in the year 1200 to 1450

there are two empires in the Americas

that you must know the Aztec and the

Inca until this point there was no

connection between the American

civilizations and afro-eurasia no Tech

existed to cross the ocean so there was

no trading of goods or or religions or

diseases or languages now the Aztecs

were located in modern day Mexico

centered around the city of tenochila

near the modern-day city of Mexico City

they conquered much of mesoamerica or

Middle America Mexico and created

tribute States very similar to the

Chinese diocese did they divided up

their empire into different provinces

where they then moved different Warriors

and their families to assert their

dominance over these conquered lands

they also use human sacrifice to

legitimize their Rule and utilize

different agricultural Innovations like

chanampus to adapt to their local

geography remember more food more people

and a more stable Society plus they were

able to trade goods throughout their

empire that they had developed as well

as using that tribute system to trade

goods now the Inca were located in

modern day Peru and that really

stretched into Ecuador and Chile as well

in South America they created a large

land-based empire by conquering their

neighbors and creating tribute States

they used a labor system known as the

Mita which was like this mandatory

public service of the Incan people I

think kind of like a required community

service the government used this labor

system then to build this elaborate Road

system throughout the Andes mountains

and created a more unified State they

also legitimized the rule through

religion which was the worship of a sun

god known as inti along with a Pantheon

of other gods they too capitalized on

their local geography to develop the

vertical Economy based upon Goods at

different kind of altitudes in the Andes

along with this Advanced terrorist

system to grow a variety of cops like

potatoes and mace now things will

drastically shift as we go into the next

historical period of our course the

years 1450 to 1750 the era of large

land-based Empires and these new

European Maritime Empires now obviously

the turning point was the rise of the

European exploration and the discovery

of the Americas which was unknown to

them plus there is a lot of the College

boards learning objectives that are tied

to this time period so buckle up

there is a lot of information in this

period that you need to know Spain had

recently been unified under Ferdinand

and Isabel and they sponsored Columbus

as he tried to find another way to the

Indian Ocean spice Network due to the

explosion of new technologies like the

caravel ship and the flout and these

technologies that they built on like the

compass and the astrolabe Europeans were

successful as they use these new

technologies that enabled them to find

new lands more explorers and conquerors

known as conquistadors followed to this

new world

to them now most famously we learned

about Hernan Cortez who sailed towards

Mexico and conquered the Aztecs in 1521

and then Francisco Pizarro who conquered

the Incas in 1533 this starts the

overarching maritime Empire we know

today as the Spanish Empire but why were

such a small number of Europeans able to

bring the downfall of these large large

Empires like the Aztec and the Inca

using Gerald Diamond's famous argument

they were able to do this because of

Guns Germs and Steel due to the

domestication of animals and agriculture

thousands of years prior

agriculturalists from the old world

allowed for specialization of Labor they

were able to develop new technologies

like Metallurgy and gunpowder which came

from China Europeans were able to access

and build on these Technologies in a

more recent time period so they had

stronger weapons and swords made from

steel and guns and gunpowder and were

immune to all the diseases because they

were around these Farm animals for

Generations upon Generations meanwhile

the people in the Americas did not have

these Technologies which allowed a small

number of Europeans to devastate these

existing land-based Empires like the

Inca and the Aztecs and this is how they

established their Maritime Empire Guns

Germs and Steel how were they able to

maintain that rule especially across an

ocean

Spain will utilize the vice royalty

system which was a political

bureaucratic institution created by the

Spanish monarchy in the 15th century for

ruling its overseas territories the most

famous being the vice royalty of New

Spain and Mexico established by dartez

and the vice royalty that was

established then by Pizarro in Peru now

each Vice royalty was governed by a

Viceroy or a governor who would then

report back to the crown

viceroy's aided in the conversion of the

native population to Christianity most

specifically Roman Catholicism and

oversaw an Economy based entirely mostly

on mining and ranching audience yes were

just another part of the bureaucratic

system that oversaw the administration

of justice where there was a judge or a

lawyer who could voice the concerns of

the people uh back to the crown you'll

notice that large governments yet again

maintain control through a bureaucratic

system now unfortunately if we Trace

Roots back to why Spain established the

vice royalty in the first place it

probably goes back to the ideas of God

gold and Glory new developed a colonial

economies in the Americas largely were

dependent on agriculture they used the

existing labor systems like the

inconmita and they introduced new labor

systems including Channel slavery

including indentured servitude the

encomienda and the Hacienda systems now

Spain was interested in building the

wealth of the crown and they did this

through coerced or forced labor now the

first system that you need to know was

known as the encomienda now a Spanish

encomendero or land owner was granted a

number of native laborers who would pay

tribute to him in exchange for food and

shelter much like we saw in Europe where

serfs worked in the kind of Lord's

minorial system but in the Americas this

coercive system was wildly brutal the

Hacienda system arose when landowners

developed agriculture on their lands

with crops like wheat or sugar and they

forced these natives to work in their

fields most conquistadors were men and

had children with the native women as

the years passed many missionaries like

bartolome De Las Casas who wrote about

how brutal these systems were and some

changes were developed like the

repartamento system which shifted to

more of a tribute labor system where

natives retained their freedom and

autonomy

minus the part where they still were

required to work now while many

conquistadors were driven by their hot

pursuit of gold what they really found

in the Americas was silver specifically

in Mexico and in Peru at this time

European powers were driven by

mercantilism an economic system that

drove Nations to obtain wealth in their

National treasury through high tariffs

and obtaining Goods by establishing

their colonies and their goal was to get

as much silver as they could another

part of this mercantilist thought was

that a colonizing country needed to

export more than it imported Spain

utilized their empire to produce

agricultural products and Export them to

many different areas around the world

and make a lot of money and then build

up their foreign trade now before we get

too many steps ahead I want to zoom out

and give you a little bit of a bird's

eye view of what is happening here

because of the Collision of the new

world the Americas which was not new and

the old world and when we say that we're

talking about afroy Asia specifically

Europe in this place but this Collision

of these two worlds old and new brought

a Floodgate Of effects and consequences

known as the Colombian Exchange named

after Columbus from the bird's eye view

you will see that a massive exchange of

goods specifically plants and animals

Europeans had never experienced food

like they had seen in the Americas

potatoes tomatoes peppers avocados corn

and beans they all originated in the

Americas they would bring these

delightful Foods back to Europe where

they could grow because of similar

latitudes Europeans also brought foods

to the Americas over time like coffee

and sugar and grapes and bananas and

citrus the real diet changing part of

the exchange would really be animals as

they kind of exchanged European animals

and brought them to the Americas the

only domesticated animal in the Americas

was the alpaca and the turkey however

Europeans brought cows and pigs and

horses and chickens the pigs were

especially helpful because they bred

very quickly and expanded the food

supply in the Americas horses and oxen

helped bring more land under cultivation

Plus grains like wheat and rye and oats

were brought to the Americas to be

farmed and grown yet the Colombian

Exchange also brought diseases to the

Americas as they had no natural

immunities to the old world diseases

because they had not been around

Agriculture and animals for those houses

of years people in the Americas never

really lived closely domesticated

animals and many of the diseases came

from contact with animals smallpox and

measles malaria and chickenpox yellow

fever were among the deadly diseases

that were transferred to the new world

the Americas the most deadly beings

smallpox the smallpox epidemics caused

the largest death tolls among indigenous

Americans killing more people than any

war or the Black Death epidemic the

Columbian Exchange will exchange goods

animals and disease which will cause

massive population loss in the short

term however over the long term The

Exchange will actually increase

population

mostly in the old world of Africa Europe

and Asia because they brought these

crops back with them which then more

food more people Europeans also

established new cash crop Industries in

the new world the Americas sugar and

tobacco and cotton were successful in

the American climates this will also

bring the negative realities of forced

labor from the indigenous Americans at

that time we are cruising up here at the

bird's eye view let's connect the dots

of how disease that devastated the

native populations in the Americas will

lead to a labor shortage which then will

lead to the unfortunate and terrible

beginnings of the Atlantic slave trade

where Africans will be trafficked to the

new world to work largely on those

agricultural plantations

now this is true in both the Spanish

Empire but also the Portuguese Empire as

the Portuguese in Spanish were the early

leaders and Maritime Empires they will

reach an agreement known as the Treaty

of tortoises to clear up the land

disputes in the new world the Spanish

did control much of mesoamerica along

with much of South America with the

exception of Brazil which rested in the

Portuguese hands they will establish a

brutal Colonial regime based around the

sugar industry in Brazil

now due to all of this there are some

major gender and family restructuring

that has occurred and this topic usually

ends up on the AP test for example it

disrupted family organizations as

families were often separated and many

more men than women were being taken

captive polygamy having more than one

wife became more common most

significantly we will see how this leads

to Major demographic changes the makeup

of the population in Latin America

looked a lot less native and in many

ways a lot more African due to the slave

trade additionally we are going to see

some major mixing of African American

European cultures and the people with

all the parties contributing really to

this cultural synthesis the mixing of

ethnic groups resulted in new groups of

multi-racial people such as mestizos who

were partially native and partially

European or mulattos who were partially

African and European this Division and

hierarchy became quite extensive as

political rights and power based on race

really kind of became systemized that

period was a doozy and this brings us to

our next period of time 1750 to 1900

this is the era of revolutions the

Industrial Revolution and imperialism

and the biggest of those major shifts in

Latin America will be the revolutions

that will lead to Independence for most

in this region in all of them many of

them are shaped by Enlightenment thought

and the ideas of freedom and how the

government serves and represents the

people not an absolute ruler or King

especially an absolute ruler that's

across the ocean now the first major

political revolution in Latin America

which includes the Caribbean was in

Haiti the Haitian revolution was similar

to the American Revolution and that it

was a colony that was trying to break

free from their colonial overlords in

this case it was France not Spain but

France was their colonial mother country

let's break down this revolution because

it's pretty epic there were clear

tensions between the social classes in

Haiti there were white plantation owners

but there's also this wealthy-free mixed

race citizens known as mulattos they're

also petite blocks or poor whites in

Haiti and a very large enslaved

population who are the byproduct of the

Atlantic slave trade just to give you

some numbers the colonial white

population was about 40 000 mulattos and

free blacks was 28 000 and enslaved

Africans was about almost half a million

people

due to this there are various voices who

wanted Freedom or increased rights and

all four of those groups really wanted

that people are saying to Ming the name

of the colony at the time were very much

inspired by both the French and the

American Revolutions now the Haitian

revolution was different though from the

American Revolution and who was leading

the church in Haiti's story it began as

a slave revolt and will result in the

elimination of slavery there and

established the Republic of Haiti now

Toussaint louverture is the guy that you

must remember for his leadership he was

enslaved but later was part of the free

black population he eventually joined

the Revolt that was started by enslaved

Africans and fought for an independent

Haiti now this revolution is complex as

it is constantly impacted by events that

are happening simultaneously in the

French Revolution back in Europe

eventually Napoleon takes control and

there's this huge fear of him

reinstating slavery in Haiti as a major

Money Maker for France was selling sugar

and coffee from Haiti now they forced to

sign to France under duress but the

revolution continued eventually in 1804

they broke free of France and became a

free republic

unfortunately the French required

ridiculous Indemnity payments for the

loss of Revenue and financially

independent Haiti was never able to

fully Thrive once they were free from

their colonial chains Central and South

America also had other revolutions known

under this umbrella term as the Latin

American Revolutions that will create

independent states there and and Spanish

and Portuguese colonial rule the unique

part of these revolutions or who led the

fight Creoles led the fight for

independence in much of Latin America

remember those Creoles where Europeans

who were born in the Americas they never

knew of life in Europe they were

definitely white dudes in South America

Creole named Simon Bolivar was greatly

impacted by the American Revolution and

also wanted to create a Confederacy of

states in in South America in fact

bolivar's letter from Jamaica isn't just

even a lustrative example it's literally

something that you need to be familiar

with in the course it's clearly driven

by the enlightenment thought which he

wrote while he was in Jamaica fleeing

from Spanish royalist Fighters where he

was unsuccessful in Venezuela from kind

of fighting against their Rule and

finding freedom for Venezuela he calls

for Independence limited governments

checks imbalance the whole Enlightenment

dreamless now while that didn't happen

he helped the states of Venezuela

Bolivia Colombia Ecuador Peru and Panama

all established independence from the

Spanish Empire he was known as The

Liberator and he's someone that you must

know about

now Mexico is another very interesting

story they achieved independence from

their Spanish colonizers in 1821 but it

wasn't all rosy as many Creoles

continued to have more power and Native

Mexicans were denied rights it's

important to remember that the other

Revolution that was shaping the world at

this time was the Industrial one however

Latin America in its newly independent

state did not industrialize like

elsewhere did like the us or Europe

partially because of the political

unrest of these movements along with the

wildly socially divided cultures where

Europeans I mean Creoles were the ones

who were leading the revolutions and

gaining power and they were still very

white quite frankly they didn't jump on

the industrial bandwagon at this time

what they did focus on was exporting raw

materials to these industrialized

countries so silver was still being

exported from Mexico Copper from Chile

rubber from the Amazon beef from

Argentina ranches coffee from Guatemala

in Brazil bananas in Central America and

dare we not forget bird poop

the academic term for that would be

guano but it was used as fertilizer and

so they became focused on export

Industries now there's still a lot of

foreign investment in Central and South

America which looked different from the

imperialism that was occurring in Africa

and Asia during this time

however the economic benefits that were

being reaped did not really help the

general population in the Americas in

many ways Latin America became

economically dependent on foreign

investors

and in some ways really just indirect

imperialism in fact there's a term known

as banana Republics not to be confused

with the store in the mall a Banana

Republic refers to a small country who

is dependent on the export of one

Cropper good like bananas and their

economy is largely based on foreign

capital or money that is looking to buy

that good when countries become very

interested in a country's good for their

benefit not for the countries

we find that that's really just

imperialism and in the case of Great

Britain they invested tons of money in

Buenos Aires Argentina yes the city

wanted to export their goods but they

really relied on that foreign capital

and money to make it happen now all this

is actually linked to another major

theme of the era of 1750-1900 and that's

these major migrations that are

happening around the globe over 2

million Italians actually migrated to

Argentina to work between 1870 and 1960

in fact their constitution

encouraged immigration by Europeans so

long as they came to cultivate the soil

improve their industrial businesses or

help teach art and Sciences people came

and they helped with those cattle

ranches and helped develop Argentina now

the effects of these migrations created

Italian ethnic enclaves in Argentina

it's why Argentinian food and Italian

foods have this unique syncretic blend

all shaped by these migrations in

history and and as we shift into the

final time period of this course in 1900

to present we know this area is shaped

by the world wars the Cold War and

globalization

7.1 discusses shifting power and Mexico

is a prime example of that Mexico was

under the control of dictator porfiro

Dias after they achieved independence

from the Spanish

97 of the land was controlled by one

percent of the people and many Mexicans

were landless peasants all of these

factors led to the Mexican Revolution of

1910 that lasted through 1920. this

Revolution was led by Pancho Villa and

Zapata which was successful in 1917 to

overthrow the dictator and establish a

constitutional republic in Mexico now

World War One started in Europe in 1914

and despite it being a World War you're

not going to see a ton of this on your

AP test in this region of Latin America

much of this region was trying to stay

neutral during World War One as their

growing national identity was being

solidified in these newer Nations now

the closest connection for sure that you

would find is the Zimmerman Telegram

remember this was a German proposal to

create an alliance with Mexico to help

them recover territory they lost to the

United States if the United States were

to enter the Great War there was a

secret message that the British

intercepted and it did shape the United

States joining the war along with the

sinking of the lusitanium now once the

war was over though the global economic

crash that occurred impacted those

export Industries in Latin America

consumer demand decreased greatly loans

defaulted a fear of foreign investment

and the prices of goods had huge impacts

on pretty much all Latin American

countries World War II only further

caused Panic as the region depended on

European investment capital and there

was a lot of fighting going on there

yet another example of foreign

investment was the Panama Canal it

started with France but it was really

built by the United States which

connected the Atlantic and the Pacific

Ocean and it was Monumental in the

shipping industry but the 50-mile canal

was a key factor during World War II

strategically Panama was the most

important Latin American Nation for the

allies during World War II because of

that link between the Atlantic and the

Pacific Oceans was vital to both

Commerce and defense Brazil was the only

country to send troops to the European

theater of World War II and Mexico set a

Fighter Squadron of 300 volunteers to

the Pacific things actually really got

to be heated up during

the cold war after World War II was over

as the Rivalry between the United States

and the Soviet Union emerged the

ideological debate greatly impacted

Latin America with the economic issues

caused by colonization and then indirect

imperialism driven by these

export-dependent economies many

countries in Latin America wanted

stronger government involvement in their

economies socialism was appealing to

some Latin American regimes and

populations which was not okay in the

eyes of the United States

and so the United States the CIA got

just a little busy in this region during

this time period in 1954 the U.S

intervened in Guatemala to overthrow a

leftist regime that the United States

said was Communist when Fidel Castro led

a successful Cuban Revolution and Cuba

became openly Communists and an ally of

the Soviet Union

the United States attempted to overthrow

Castro covertly

which failed with the Bay of Pigs

invasion it led to the Cuban Missile

Crisis and potential nuclear war the

United States and the CIA were just

really super busy in Latin America

during the Cold War era there was Chile

Where General Augusto Pinochet overthrew

the democratically elected but Marxist

Salvador londe in an attempt to save the

country from communism once in power

Pinochet banned communist parties

and had his supporters Exile tortured

and killed

he was super repressive

but not communist

then there was Nicaragua the sandinisas

came to control in 1979 after

overthrowing a dictator

however the Marxist leanings that they

had the United States opposed the new

government from the start U.S president

Ronald Reagan gave his approval for a

covert U.S support of the so-called

contra's anti-sandanista Rebels based in

mostly Honduras and Costa Rica which

created unrest in Nicaragua

there are more stories and more CIA

involvement but the cold war had a huge

impact in Latin America and worldwide as

the United States and the Soviet Union

had this ideological tension that

continued Mexico's economy was improving

in the 1930s through the 1970s as they

nationalized their oil industry

nationalized swirl it it's always very

dangerous during the Cold War era what

nationalization does is it angers

foreign investors but what it does is it

allows that the Mexican Government to

benefit from their oil in their soil and

in their ground instead of having

foreign investors benefit from it if you

travel to Mexico or if you live there

say hey in the conference but you would

know that pemex gas stations are all

around and they are the second largest

state-owned oil company in the world and

let's give a little more time for Mexico

Mexico and the United States are another

example of a more globalized and

connected world as we see the creation

of NAFTA the North American Free Trade

Agreement which is an illustrative

example of regional trade agreements

NAFTA took away trade barriers between

Mexico the United States and Canada it

decreased the cost of consumer goods

made countries involved a significant

amount of money from the U.S perspective

some manufacturing jobs went to Mexico

specifically in the car industry however

one of the other effects of NAFTA was

the development of jobs in Mexico which

then decreased immigration to the United

States as more Mexicans could find jobs

locally also globalized culture can be

seen as how prominent football

oh we're soccer as we call it in the

United States is throughout Latin

America in fact the first World Cup was

in Uruguay Latin American continued to

dominate if you look at the FIFA winners

throughout history you're going to see

Brazil Uruguay and Argentina on that

list more than once in fact Brazil has

the most Fifa World Cup titles with that

I hope that helped you review Latin

American history from the beginning of

course all the way to the end so let's

review this whole thing fast from the

top in the one minute recap a second

Incas were great civilizations they were

before the Europeans sailed the ocean

blue they used tribute system

agricultural Innovations very large

Empires the Spanish conquer both due to

their Guns Germs and Steel the Spanish

set up the vice royalty system the

encomienda was a labor system where

indigenous people were forced to work on

farms oppressive abusive and De Las

Casas called it out some changes

happened with the repartamento system

however due to the spread of diseases

like the Colombian Sage that brought

along devastated populations there was

the rise of the Atlantic slave trade and

a whole lot of syncretic beliefs in

culture and a very complicated social

hierarchy peninsularized Creoles

mestizos mulattos enslaved individuals

and lots of subclasses this led to

Revolutions but often by the Creoles not

the native populations except for Haiti

which started with the slave revolt and

ended with a free black Republic don't

forget about Simone Bolivar he's the

Liberator despite the Industrial

Revolution Latin America was more export

dependent foreign investment led to

indirect imperialism less involved in

World War one and World War II than

other regions but was super hot during

the Cold War can't forget about the

World Cup and of course NAFTA what's

next only time will tell I sure hope

that was helpful in connecting the dots

and you don't feel so all mixed up and

don't know what to do feel free to leave

me a comment below about anything that

you think I missed that you learned

about in Latin America subscribe to the

channel and click the Bell to be

notified for the rest of the series as

it comes out I hope you learned about

yesterday better understand today so we

can all write a better tomorrow keep

setting check out the rest of these

videos you can do this and good luck as

you go on and we're going to see you

next time