1.
Americas
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The Americas, also collectively called America, encompass the totality of the continents of North America and South America. Together they make up most of the land in Earths western hemisphere, along with their associated islands, they cover 8% of Earths total surface area and 28. 4% of its land area. The topography is dominated by the American Cordillera, a chain of mountains that runs the length of the west coast. The flatter eastern side of the Americas is dominated by river basins, such as the Amazon, St. Lawrence River / Great Lakes basin, Mississippi. Humans first settled the Americas from Asia between 42,000 and 17,000 years ago, a second migration of Na-Dene speakers followed later from Asia. The subsequent migration of the Inuit into the neoarctic around 3500 BCE completed what is regarded as the settlement by the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The first known European settlement in the Americas was by the Norse explorer Leif Ericson, however, the colonization never became permanent and was later abandoned. The voyages of Christopher Columbus from 1492 to 1502 resulted in permanent contact with European powers, diseases introduced from Europe and Africa devastated the indigenous peoples, and the European powers colonized the Americas. Mass emigration from Europe, including numbers of indentured servants. Decolonization of the Americas began with the American Revolution in 1776, the population is over 1 billion, with over 65% of them living in one of the three most populous countries. As of the beginning of the 2010s, the most populous urban agglomerations are Mexico City, New York, Sao Paulo, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, all of them megacities. The name America was first recorded in 1507 in the Cosmographiae Introductio, apparently written by Matthias Ringmann and it first applied to both North and South America by Gerardus Mercator in 1538. Amerigen means land of Amerigo and derives from Amerigo and gen, America accorded with the feminine names of Asia, Africa, and Europa. When conceived as a continent, the form is generally the continent of America in the singular. However, without a context, singular America in English commonly refers to the United States of America. In some countries of the world, America is considered a continent encompassing the North America and South America subcontinents, the first inhabitants migrated into the Americas from Asia. Habitation sites are known in Alaska and the Yukon from at least 20,000 years ago, beyond that, the specifics of the Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and routes traveled, are subject to ongoing research and discussion. Widespread habitation of the Americas occurred during the glacial maximum
2.
Haitian Revolution
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The Haitian Revolution, was a successful anti-slavery and anti-colonial insurrection that took place in the former French colony of Saint-Domingue that lasted from 1791 until 1804. It affected the institution of slavery throughout the Americas, self-liberated slaves destroyed slavery at home, fought to preserve their freedom, and with the collaboration of mulattoes, founded the sovereign state of Haiti. It led to the greatest slave uprising since Spartacuss unsuccessful revolt against the Roman Republic nearly 1,900 years prior, the Haitian Revolution was the only slave uprising that led to the founding of a state free from slavery and ruled by non-whites and former captives. With the increasing number of Haitian Revolutionary Studies in the last few decades, the legacy of the Revolution was that it challenged long-held beliefs about black inferiority and of the enslaved persons capacity to achieve and maintain freedom. The rebels organizational capacity and tenacity under pressure became the source of stories that shocked and frightened slave owners, while acknowledging the cross-influences, most contemporary historians distinguish the Haitian Revolution from the French Revolution. Some even separate it from the mulattoes earlier armed conflicts, which at first sought political rights for themselves and these scholars show that if the agency of the enslaved blacks becomes the focus of studies, the Revolutions opening and closing dates are certain. From this premise, the narrative began with the enslaved blacks bid for freedom through armed struggle and concluded with their victory over slaving powers, in April 1791, a massive black insurgency turned violently against the plantation system, setting a precedent of resistance to racial slavery. In cooperation with their former rivals, blacks ended the Revolution in November 1803 when they decidedly defeated the French army at the Battle of Vertières. The chief concern flutters around the question if the victorious Haitians were intrinsically revolutionary force, one thing is sure, Haiti became an independent country on January 1,1804, when the council of generals chose Jean-Jacques Dessalines to assume the office of governor-general. One of the states first significant documents was Dessaliness Liberty or Death speech, in it, the new head of state made the case for the new nations coherent objective, the permanent abolition of slavery in Haiti. An independent government was created in Haiti, but the society remained deeply affected by patterns established under French colonial rule. Many of them had used their capital to acquire wealth. Some had identified more with the French colonists than the slaves, mulatto domination of politics and economics after the revolution created another two-caste society, as most Haitians were rural subsistence farmers. Much of the Caribbean economic development was contingent to Europeans demand for sugar, Saint Domingue also had extensive coffee, cocoa, and indigo plantations, but these were smaller and less profitable than the wealthy sugar plantations. Starting in the 1730s, French engineers constructed complex irrigation systems to increase sugarcane production, by the 1740s Saint-Domingue, together with Jamaica, had become the main supplier of the worlds sugar. Sugar production depended on extensive manual labor provided by enslaved Africans in the harsh Saint-Domingue colonial plantation economy, the economic importance of St. Domingue, and several million indirectly depended upon trade from Frances richest colony to maintain their standard of living. To sustain the sugar production amid the climate of the Caribbean with malaria. In one year alone, namely 1787, the French imported about 20,000 slaves from Africa into Saint-Domingue while the British imported about 38,000 slaves to all of their Caribbean colonies
3.
Spanish American wars of independence
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These conflicts started in 1809 with short-lived governing juntas established in Chuquisaca and Quito opposing the composition of the Supreme Central Junta of Seville. When the Central Junta fell to the French invasion, in 1810, Cuba and Puerto Rico remained under Spanish rule until the Spanish–American War in 1898. The new republics from the abolished the formal system of racial classification and hierarchy, casta system, the Inquisition. Slavery was not abolished immediately, but ended in all of the new nations within a quarter century, criollos and mestizos replaced Spanish-born appointees in most political offices. Criollos remained at the top of a structure which retained some of its traditional features culturally. For almost a century thereafter, conservatives and liberals fought to reverse or to deepen the social and political changes unleashed by those rebellions, both armies originated from Spanish colonial troops of Americas. The events in Spanish America were related to the wars of independence in former French colony of St-Domingue, Haiti, a more direct cause of the Spanish American wars of independence were the unique developments occurring within the Kingdom of Spain and its monarchy during this period. Political independence was not necessarily the outcome of the political turmoil in Spanish America. There was little interest in outright independence, humphreys and John Lynch note, it is all too easy to equate the forces of discontent or even the forces of change with the forces of revolution. Since by definition, there was no history of independence until it happened, because Spanish American independence did occur, there are a number of factors that have been identified. First, increasing control by the Crown of its overseas empire via the Bourbon Reforms of the mid-eighteenth century introduced changes to the relationship of Spanish Americans to the Crown. The language used to describe the overseas empire shifted from kingdoms with independent standing with the crown to colonies and this meant that Spanish American elites were thwarted in their expectations and ambitions by the crowns upending long-standing practices of creole access to office holding. The regalist and secularizing policies of the Bourbon monarchy were aimed at decreasing the power of the Roman Catholic Church, the crown had already expelled the Jesuits in 1767, which saw many creole members of the Society of Jesus go into permanent exile. In the economic sphere, the sought to gain control over church revenues. In a financial crisis of 1804, the crown attempted to call in debts owed the church, shortening the repayment period meant many elites were faced with bankruptcy. Prominently in Mexico, lower clergy participated in the insurgency for independence with priests Miguel Hidalgo, in some areas—such as Cuba, Río de la Plata and New Spain—the reforms had positive effects, improving the local economy and the efficiency of the government. Other factors may include Enlightenment thinking and the examples of the Atlantic Revolutions, the Enlightenment spurred the desire for social and economic reform to spread throughout Spanish America and the Iberian Peninsula. Ideas about free trade and physiocratic economics were raised by the Enlightenment in Spain and spread to the overseas empire, the political reforms implemented and the many constitutions written both in Spain and throughout the Spanish world during the wars of independence were influenced by these factors
4.
Hispanic America
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Hispanic America, more generally called Spanish America, is the region comprising the Spanish-speaking nations in the Americas. These countries have significant commonalities with other and with Spain. In all of these countries, Spanish is the language, sometimes sharing official status with one or more indigenous languages. Catholic Christianity is the predominant religion, Hispanic America is sometimes grouped together with Brazil under the term Ibero-America, meaning those countries in the Americas with cultural roots in the Iberian Peninsula. Hispanic America also contrasts with Latin America, which not only Hispanic America. Hispanic America became the part of the vast Spanish Empire. Napoleons takeover of Spain in 1808 and the consequent chaos initiated the dismemberment of the Spanish Empire, by 1830, the only remaining Spanish American and Asian territories were Philippine archipelago and the islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico, until the 1898 Spanish–American War. While relatively unknown, there is a flag representing the countries of Spanish America, its people, history and it was created in October 1933 by Ángel Camblor, captain of the Uruguayan army. It was adopted by all the states of Spanish America during the Pan-American Conference of the year in Montevideo. The deep lilac color of the crosses evokes the color of the lion on the coat of arms of the medieval Crown of Castile
5.
South America
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South America is a continent located in the western hemisphere, mostly in the southern hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the northern hemisphere. It may also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas, which is the used in nations that speak Romance languages. The reference to South America instead of other regions has increased in the last decades due to changing geopolitical dynamics. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean, North America and it includes twelve sovereign states, a part of France, and a non-sovereign area. In addition to this, the ABC islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Trinidad and Tobago, South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers. Its population as of 2005 has been estimated at more than 371,090,000, South America ranks fourth in area and fifth in population. Brazil is by far the most populous South American country, with more than half of the population, followed by Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela. In recent decades Brazil has also concentrated half of the regions GDP and has become a first regional power, most of the population lives near the continents western or eastern coasts while the interior and the far south are sparsely populated. Most of the continent lies in the tropics, the continents cultural and ethnic outlook has its origin with the interaction of indigenous peoples with European conquerors and immigrants and, more locally, with African slaves. Given a long history of colonialism, the majority of South Americans speak Portuguese or Spanish. South America occupies the portion of the Americas. The continent is delimited on the northwest by the Darién watershed along the Colombia–Panama border. Almost all of mainland South America sits on the South American Plate, South Americas major mineral resources are gold, silver, copper, iron ore, tin, and petroleum. These resources found in South America have brought high income to its countries especially in times of war or of rapid growth by industrialized countries elsewhere. However, the concentration in producing one major export commodity often has hindered the development of diversified economies and this is leading to efforts to diversify production to drive away from staying as economies dedicated to one major export. South America is one of the most biodiverse continents on earth, South America is home to many interesting and unique species of animals including the llama, anaconda, piranha, jaguar, vicuña, and tapir. The Amazon rainforests possess high biodiversity, containing a proportion of the Earths species. Brazil is the largest country in South America, encompassing around half of the land area
6.
Federal Republic of Central America
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It existed from September 1821 to 1841, and was a republican democracy. It is also incorrectly referred to in English as the United States of Central America. The republic consisted of the states of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua. Maps and borders hardly existed at the time so locations are only approximate, from 1838 to 1840 the federation descended into civil war, with conservatives fighting against liberals and separatists fighting to secede. From the 16th century through 1821, Central America, apart from Panama and that date is still marked as independence day by most Central American nations. Independence proved short-lived, as local law-and-order broke down, driven by regional rivalries, many localities refused to accept the newly formed federal powers in Guatemala—San Salvador, Comayagua, León, and Cartago were in open revolt. The ensuing anarchy prompted the land-owning wealthy and conservative class to advocate union with Mexico, on 25 January 1822 the Junta consultiva in Guatemala City voted for annexation. A few weeks later General Vicente Filísola, the envoy of Emperor Agustín de Iturbide of the First Mexican Empire arrived in Guatemala as the new ruler. The annexation was controversial, with some seeing the Mexican constitution with its abolition of slavery, Central American liberals in San Salvador objected to this and refused to accept Filísolas authority. The army was ordered to quell dissent, after Iturbide abdicated, Mexico became a republic and offered to the previously annexed Central American provinces the right to determine their own destiny. Filísola turned over his power to the hastily formed National Constituent Assembly, on July 1,1823 the Congress of Central America declared absolute independence from Spain, Mexico, and any other foreign nation, and established a republican system of government. The liberal-dominated Assembly elected Manuel José Arce as president but he turned against his own faction. San Salvador rose in revolt against federal authority, Honduras and Nicaragua joined the rebellion and Arce was deposed in 1829. The victors led by the Honduran Francisco Morazán took power and Morazán was proclaimed president in 1830, to appease liberal supporters, the capital was relocated from Guatemala City to San Salvador in 1831 but Morazáns hold on power was waning as conservatives regained control in the provinces. The Assembly in 1838 adjourned with the declaration that the provinces were free to rule themselves as the Federal Republic dissolved, in 1839 Morazán was exiled as rebels from Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua entered San Salvador, evicting the governing institutions that held the region together. In practice, the federation faced insurmountable problems, and the union slid into war between 1838 and 1840. Its disintegration began when Nicaragua separated from the federation on November 5,1838, followed by Honduras, in reality, this merely legally acknowledged the process of disintegration that had already begun. The union effectively ended in 1840, by which four of its five states had declared independence
