Latin America
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Latin America is a region of the World.
Latin America is in the Americas. People do not completely agree which countries are in Latin America. Some people call South America, Central America, and Mexico Latin America. Other people also call the Caribbean Islands Latin America. Other people call all American countries where people speak Spanish, Portuguese, and French Latin America.
The part 'Latin' comes from the Latin language. The Spanish, Portuguese, and French languages, spoken by many people in Latin America, are Romance languages. Romance languages are derived from Latin. Not all people in Latin America speak Romance languages, some Latin American people speak Native American languages.
Most Latin Americans are Roman Catholic.
Some people call the countries in the Americas that are noy part of Latin America, Germanic America. In Germanic American countries most people speak Germanic languages: English, Dutch, and Danish.
Latin America was discovered in 1492 by Christopher Columbus. Columbus wanted to find a short way to eastern Asia. When Christopher Columbus returned to Europe people were excited about the discovery. The pope drew the Line of Demarcation in 1493 because he did not want Spain and Portugal to fight over which country had the right to claim the new land. Everything on the west side of the line belonged to Spain and everything to the east belonged to Portugal. The Spanish took over Mexico easily. The Native Americans could not fight against the Spanish because the Spanish had horses and guns. The Native Americans in Mexico also thought that the Spanish people were gods. Large numbers also died because of the diseases brought by the Spanish.
