1.
Latin America
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Latin America is a group of countries and dependencies in the Americas where Romance languages are predominant. It is therefore broader than the terms Ibero-America or Hispanic America—though it usually excludes French Canada and it has an area of approximately 19,197,000 km2, almost 13% of the Earths land surface area. As of 2015, its population was estimated at more than 626 million and in 2014, Latin America had a combined nominal GDP of 5,573,397 million USD and a GDP PPP of 7,531,585 million USD. The term Latin America was first used in 1861 in La revue des races Latines, a further investigation of the concept of Latin America is by Michel Gobat in the American Historical Review. The term was first used in Paris in an 1856 conference by the Chilean politician Francisco Bilbao and this term was also used in 1861 by French scholars in La revue des races Latines, a magazine dedicated to the Pan-Latinism movement. Latin America is, therefore, defined as all parts of the Americas that were once part of the Spanish. By this definition, Latin America is coterminous with Ibero-America and this definition emphasizes a similar socioeconomic history of the region, which was characterized by formal or informal colonialism, rather than cultural aspects. As such, some sources avoid this oversimplification by using the phrase Latin America, the distinction between Latin America and Anglo-America is a convention based on the predominant languages in the Americas by which Romance-language and English-speaking cultures are distinguished. Latin America can be subdivided into several subregions based on geography, politics, demographics and it may be subdivided on linguistic grounds into Hispanic America, Portuguese America and French America. *, Not a sovereign state The concept of Latin America has been criticized by a number of intellectuals, the earliest known settlement was identified at Monte Verde, near Puerto Montt in Southern Chile. Its occupation dates to some 14,000 years ago and there is disputed evidence of even earlier occupation. Over the course of millennia, people spread to all parts of the continents, by the first millennium CE, South Americas vast rainforests, mountains, plains and coasts were the home of tens of millions of people. Some groups formed more permanent settlements such as the Chibcha and the Tairona groups and these groups are in the circum Caribbean region. The Chibchas of Colombia, the Quechuas and Aymaras of Bolivia, the region was home to many indigenous peoples and advanced civilizations, including the Aztecs, Toltecs, Maya, and Inca. The Aztec empire was ultimately the most powerful civilization known throughout the Americas, with the arrival of the Europeans following Christopher Columbus voyages, the indigenous elites, such as the Incas and Aztecs, lost power to the heavy European invasion. Hernándo Cortés seized the Aztec elites power with the help of local groups who had favored the Aztec elite, epidemics of diseases brought by the Europeans, such as smallpox and measles, wiped out a large portion of the indigenous population. Historians cannot determine the number of natives who died due to European diseases, due to the lack of written records, specific numbers are hard to verify. Many of the survivors were forced to work in European plantations, intermixing between the indigenous peoples and the European colonists was very common, and, by the end of the colonial period, people of mixed ancestry formed majorities in several colonies
2.
Real Audiencia of Quito
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It was created by Royal Decree on 29 August 1563 by Philip II of Spain in the city of Guadalajara. It ended in 1822 with the incorporation of the area into the Republic of Gran Colombia, the Audiencia was effectively autonomous because the Viceroyal government was too far away to administer its territories effectively. Initially the Audiencia of Quito formed part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, later the Audiencia was part of a newly created Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada. This Viceroyalty was temporarily suppressed by the King of Spain in 1723, in 1739, the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada was re-established and the Audiencia of Quito was returned to it until it declared itself independent from Spain. A year later the King of Spain passed the Real Cedula of 1740 where the borders of the Audiencia of Quito would be closer to 4° south of the Equator. The Audiencia of Quito briefly became independent for 3 years after it staged the Quito revolution in 1809, was annexed again to the Spanish Empire in 1812. The Audiencia of Quito was liberated again in 1822 and formerly joined the territories of what is today Venezuela, Colombia and Panama to form the Republic of Colombia. As part of Gran Colombia, the territories of Quito were divided up into districts, departments, the Audiencia de Quito was divided into 4 departments, Ecuador Department, Guayaquil Department, Azuay Department, and Cauca Department. The departments of Ecuador, Guayaquil, and Azuay united to form the Distrito del Sur, the Kingdom of Quito in the Seventeenth Century, Bureaucratic Politics in the Spanish Empire. Madison, University of Wisconsin Press,1967
3.
Pasto, Colombia
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Pasto, officially San Juan de Pasto, is the capital of the department of Nariño, located in southern Colombia. The city is located in the Atriz Valley, on the Andes cordillera, at the foot of the Galeras volcano, the city has a population of approximately 500,000 inhabitants. Pasto was founded in 1537 by the Spanish conquistador Sebastián de Belalcázar, in 1539 another Spanish conquistador Lorenzo de Aldana moved the city to its current location, and established it under the name San Juan de Pasto. Pasto is a reference to the name of the people who inhabited the region at the arrival of the conquerors. However, the Atriz Valley was inhabited by the Quillacingas, a major contributor to the economy and expansion of Pasto was a man of Italian origin named Guido Bucheli. It has been an administrative, cultural and religious center of the region since colonial times, because of this, the city is known as the theological city of Colombia. During the Independence Wars against Spain Pasto was a royalist city, partly due to this political stance, and because of its geographical location, after independence Pasto remained isolated for a long time from the rest of the Colombia. Under the Köppen climate classification, Pasto features a subtropical climate with relatively consistent temperatures throughout the course of the year. Pasto averages roughly 800 mm of precipitation annually, in the municipality 11. 1% of establishments are dedicated to industry,56. 0% to trade,28. 9% to services and 4. 1% to other activities. In urban areas, the economic activities are trade and service industries with some small businesses. The larger companies in Nariño are located in Pasto, and are involved with food, beverages. For the development of trade, mainly with the country of Ecuador. The Pasto Chamber of Commerce was established in 1918 and according to the 2008 yearbook had 14,066 commercial establishments of which 58. 5% were engaged in trade, in the rural areas there is predominantly farming and cattle ranching, in addition there is a small-scale mining industry. By means of the Pasto Sanitation Company the urban area has a 93% provision of water, in the rural area 74% have mains water and 33% have plumbed sanitation. Pasto is connected northwards by land with Popayán and south,78 km away with Ipiales on the border with the Republic of Ecuador by the Pan-American Highway. The distance from Pasto to the capital of the republic, Bogotá, on the Panamerican Highway is 798 km with a travel time of about 18 hours. To the west the city is connected to the port of Tumaco on the Pacific coast, by a road of 284 km. For national intercity land transport there is a used by the principal transport operating companies
4.
Piura
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Piura is a city in northwestern Peru. It is the capital of the Piura Region and the Piura Province and it was here that Spanish Conqueror Francisco Pizarro founded the third Spanish city in South America and first in Peru, San Miguel de Piura, in July 1532. Piura declared its independence from Spain on 4 January 1821, like most of northern Peru, the territory of Piura has been inhabited by their autochthonous group of natives called tallanes and yungas. These groups lived without an organization or single leader to rule until the Muchik culture eventually took control, centuries later, Piura came under the rule of Tupac Inca Yupanqui for at least 40 years before the Spanish arrived. With the arrival of the Spanish in 1532, the current mestizo, the Spanish named the city from the Quechuan word, pirhua, meaning abundance. Nowadays, Piura is known as the Ciudad del eterno calor meaning The city of the eternal heat because it is hot all year round. Piura Department has a desert and semi-desert climate on the coast, precipitation is sparse except during El Niño events, when rainfall is abundant and water flows through normally dry watercourses, causing flooding and large-scale land movements. The hydrography of Piura Department is determined mainly by the amount of rainfall originating in the Pacific Ocean and these conditions lead to fluctuations in offshore sea temperatures, which are 18-23 °C in winter and spring, and 23-27 °C in summer and sometimes in autumn. The mean annual humidity is 66%, the mean atmospheric pressure is 1008.5 hPa, while winds are mainly from the north at an average speed of 3 m/s. Annual rainfall varies between 10 and 200 mm at altitudes of 100-500 m, between 200 and 800 mm at altitudes of 500-1500 m, and averages 1,550 mm at altitudes above 1500 m. Most of the region is arid, with rainfall concentrated in the high Andean areas, while on the plains the main water sources are seasonal rivers flowing from the north, the Chira. The southern half of the consists of the Sechura Desert. The main rivers are the Piura, the Huancabamba and the Chira, the reservoir of Poechos has been created within the course of the Chira. It has a capacity of 1,000,000,000 cubic metres and irrigates large portions of the coastal region, the river Quiroz, a tributary of the Piura, supplies the huge artificial lake of San Lorenzo. On the Huancabamba, in the mountains, there is a power station supplying energy to the region. One of the best known tourist attractions in Piura is La Esmeralda beach, Colan beach is a very long beach with warm waters. Local people like to go there during holidays, there are also great spots for surfers, like Mancora Beach and Cabo Blanco. Piura is served by the Cap, FAP Guillermo Concha Iberico International Airport
5.
Cajamarca
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Cajamarca is the capital and largest city of the Cajamarca Region as well as an important cultural and commercial center in the northern Andes. It is located in the highlands of Peru at approximately 2,750 m above sea level in the valley of the Mashcon river. Cajamarca had an population of about 226,031 inhabitants in 2015. Cajamarca has a highland climate, and the area has a very fertile soil. The city is known for its dairy products and mining activity in the surroundings. The history of the city is highlighted by the Battle of Cajamarca, the etymology of Cajamarca may mean town of thorns or cold place depending on the source. All sources agree that the word has quechua origin, the city and its surroundings have been occupied by several cultures for more than 2000 years. Traces of pre-Chavín cultures can be seen in archaeological sites, such as Cumbe Mayo. During the period between 1463 and 1471, Tupac Inca conquered the area and brought Cajamarca into the Tawantinsuyu, at the time, it was ruled by Tupac Incas father Pachacuti. In 1532 Atahualpa defeated his brother Huáscar in a battle for the Inca throne in Quito, on his way to Cusco to claim the throne with his army, he stopped at Cajamarca. Francisco Pizarro and his 168 soldiers met Atahualpa here after weeks of marching from Piura, as the two leaders faced off, the young captain Hernando De Soto, rode on horseback directly up to Atahualpa to intimidate him. Having taken Atahualpa captive, they held him in Cajamarcas main temple, Atahualpa offered his captors a ransom for his freedom, a room filled with gold and silver, within two months. Although having complied with the offering, Atahualpa was brought to trial, Pizarro, De Soto, and others shared in the ransom. In 1986 the Organization of American States designated Cajamarca as a site of Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Americas, the style of ecclesiastical architecture in the city differs from other Peruvian cities due to the geographic and climatic conditions. Cajamarca is further north with a climate, the colonial builders used available stone rather than the clay of used in the coastal desert cities. Cajamarca has six Christian churches of Spanish colonial style, San Jose, La Recoleta, La Immaculada Concepcion, San Antonio, although all were built in the seventeenth century, the latter three are the most outstanding due to their sculpted facades and ornamentation. The facades of three churches were left unfinished, most likely due to lack of funds. The façade of the Cathedral is the most elegantly decorated, to the extent that it was completed, El Belen has a completed façade of the main building, but the tower is half finished
6.
Spanish Empire
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The Spanish Empire was one of the largest empires in history. The Spanish Empire became the foremost global power of its time and was the first to be called the empire on which the sun never sets, the Spanish Empire originated during the Age of Discovery after the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Following the Spanish–American War of 1898, Spain ceded its last colonies in the Caribbean and its last African colonies were granted independence or abandoned during Decolonisation of Africa finishing in 1976. The unity did not mean uniformity, nevertheless, some historians assert that Portugal was part of the Spanish monarchy at the time, while others draw a clear distinction between the Portuguese and Spanish empires. During the 15th century, Castile and Portugal became territorial and commercial rivals in the western Atlantic. The conquest was completed with the campaigns of the armies of the Crown of Castile between 1478 and 1496, when the islands of Gran Canaria, La Palma, and Tenerife were subjugated. The Portuguese tried in vain to keep secret their discovery of the Gold Coast in the Gulf of Guinea, chronicler Pulgar wrote that the fame of the treasures of Guinea spread around the ports of Andalusia in such way that everybody tried to go there. Worthless trinkets, Moorish textiles, and above all, shells from the Canary and Cape Verde islands were exchanged for gold, slaves, ivory and Guinea pepper. The Crown officially organized this trade with Guinea, every caravel had to get a government license, the treaty delimited the spheres of influence of the two countries, establishing the principle of the Mare clausum. It was confirmed in 1481 by the Pope Sixtus IV, in the papal bull Æterni regis, thus, the limitations imposed by the Alcáçovas treaty were overcome and a new and more balanced worlds division would be reached at Tordesillas between both emerging maritime powers. Seven months before the treaty of Alcaçovas, King John II of Aragon died, Ferdinand and Isabella drove the last Moorish king out of Granada in 1492 after a ten-year war. The Catholic Monarchs then negotiated with Christopher Columbus, a Genoese sailor attempting to reach Cipangu by sailing west, Castile was already engaged in a race of exploration with Portugal to reach the Far East by sea when Columbus made his bold proposal to Isabella. Columbus discoveries inaugurated the Spanish colonization of the Americas and these actions gave Spain exclusive rights to establish colonies in all of the New World from north to south, as well as the easternmost parts of Asia. The treaty of Tordesillas was confirmed by Pope Julius II in the bull Ea quae pro bono pacis on 24 January 1506, Spains expansion and colonization was driven by economic influences, a yearning to improve national prestige, and a desire to spread Catholicism into the New World. The Catholic Monarchs had developed a strategy of marriages for their children in order to isolate their long-time enemy, the Spanish princes married the heirs of Portugal, England and the House of Habsburg. Following the same strategy, the Catholic Monarchs decided to support the Catalan-Aragonese house of Naples against Charles VIII of France in the Italian Wars beginning in 1494. As King of Aragon, Ferdinand had been involved in the struggle against France and Venice for control of Italy, these conflicts became the center of Ferdinands foreign policy as king. Only a year later, Ferdinand became part of the Holy League against France and this war was less of a success than the war against Venice, and in 1516, France agreed to a truce that left Milan in its control and recognized Spanish control of Upper Navarre
7.
Charles III of Spain
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Charles III was the King of Spain and the Spanish Indies from 1759 to 1788. While he was the son of Philip V of Spain, he was the eldest son of Philips second wife. In 1731, the 15-year-old Charles became the Duke of Parma and Piacenza, as Charles I, following the death of his childless granduncle Antonio Farnese. In 1734, as Duke of Parma, he conquered the kingdoms of Naples and of Sicily, and was crowned king on 3 July 1735, reigning as Charles VII of Naples and Charles V of Sicily until 1759. In 1738 he married Princess Maria Amalia of Saxony, daughter of Polish king Augustus III, Charles and Maria Amalia resided in Naples for 19 years. Charles succeeded to the Spanish throne on 10 August 1759, after the death of his half-brother King Ferdinand VI of Spain who left no heirs. As King of Spain Charles III made far-reaching reforms such as promoting science and university research, facilitating trade and commerce and he also tried to reduce the influence of the Church and avoided costly wars. His previous experience as King of Naples and Sicily proved valuable as King of Spain and he did not achieve complete control over the States finances, and was sometimes obliged to borrow to meet expenses. Most of his reforms proved to be successful and his important legacy lives on to this day, historian Stanley Payne wrote that Charles III was probably the most successful European ruler of his generation. He had provided firm, consistent, intelligent leadership, personal life had won the respect of the people. In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht concluded the War of the Spanish Succession and reduced the political and military power of Spain, which the House of Bourbon had ruled since 1700. Moreover, the House of Savoy gained the Kingdom of Sicily, and the Kingdom of Great Britain gained the island of Minorca, in 1700, Charles father, originally a French prince, became King of Spain as Philip V. For the remainder of his reign, he attempted to regain the ceded territories. Elisabeth and Philip married on 24 December 1714, she proved a domineering consort. On 20 January 1716, Elisabeth gave birth to the Infante Charles of Spain at the Real Alcázar of Madrid and he was fourth in line to the Spanish throne, after three elder half-brothers, the Infante Luis, Prince of Asturias, the Infante Felipe, and Ferdinand. Because the Duke Francesco of Parma and his heir were childless, Elisabeth sought the duchies of Parma and she also sought for him the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, because Gian Gastone de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany was also childless. He was a distant cousin of hers, related via her great-grandmother Margherita de Medici, the birth of Charles encouraged the Prime Minister Alberoni to start laying out grand plans for Europe. In 1717 he ordered the Spanish invasion of Sardinia, in 1718, Alberoni also ordered the invasion of Sicily, which was also ruled by the House of Savoy
8.
Michelangelo
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Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Considered to be the greatest living artist during his lifetime, he has since described as one of the greatest artists of all time. A number of Michelangelos works of painting, sculpture, and architecture rank among the most famous in existence and he sculpted two of his best-known works, the Pietà and David, before the age of thirty. As an architect, Michelangelo pioneered the Mannerist style at the Laurentian Library, at the age of 74, he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as the architect of St. Peters Basilica. Michelangelo transformed the plan so that the end was finished to his design, as was the dome, with some modification. Michelangelo was unique as the first Western artist whose biography was published while he was alive, in his lifetime he was often called Il Divino. One of the qualities most admired by his contemporaries was his terribilità, the attempts by subsequent artists to imitate Michelangelos impassioned and highly personal style resulted in Mannerism, the next major movement in Western art after the High Renaissance. Michelangelo was born on 6 March 1475 in Caprese near Arezzo, at the time of Michelangelos birth, his father was the Judicial administrator of the small town of Caprese and local administrator of Chiusi. Michelangelos mother was Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena, the Buonarrotis claimed to descend from the Countess Mathilde of Canossa, this claim remains unproven, but Michelangelo himself believed it. Several months after Michelangelos birth, the returned to Florence. There Michelangelo gained his love for marble, as Giorgio Vasari quotes him, If there is good in me. Along with the milk of my nurse I received the knack of handling chisel and hammer, as a young boy, Michelangelo was sent to Florence to study grammar under the Humanist Francesco da Urbino. The young artist, however, showed no interest in his schooling, preferring to copy paintings from churches, the city of Florence was at that time the greatest centre of the arts and learning in Italy. Art was sponsored by the Signoria, by the merchant guilds and by patrons such as the Medici. The Renaissance, a renewal of Classical scholarship and the arts, had its first flowering in Florence, the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti had laboured for fifty years to create the bronze doors of the Baptistry, which Michelangelo was to describe as The Gates of Paradise. The exterior niches of the Church of Orsanmichele contained a gallery of works by the most acclaimed sculptors of Florence – Donatello, Ghiberti, Andrea del Verrocchio, and Nanni di Banco. The interiors of the churches were covered with frescos, begun by Giotto. During Michelangelos childhood, a team of painters had been called from Florence to the Vatican, among them was Domenico Ghirlandaio, a master in fresco painting, perspective, figure drawing, and portraiture who had the largest workshop in Florence at that period
