History of Latin America

I must say from the moment you think Latin America, you automatically begin to think about the Latin language. Rome was responsible for the spread of the Latin Language, which has formed the basis for Western languages, such as English, French, German and Spanish. Even in today’s society because of Latin’s strong influence Latin roots form the foundation of a good majority of common words. According to the Wikipedia encyclopedia “Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages (i.e., those derived from Latin) – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken.”
Latin America defined in terms of geographic location according to the Princeton University “WorldNet” website defines Latin America as “the parts of North America and South America to the south of the United States where Romance languages are spoken”.
Similarly, the “Webster's New World College Dictionary (2009)” definition of Latin America is “that part of the Western Hemisphere south of the U.S., in Mexico, Central America, the West Indies and South America, where Spanish, Portuguese, & French are the official languages”.
According to William R Shepherd, in Latin America, “The twenty republics of Latin America stretch over an area of nine million square miles, or approximately three times that of the United States.” “These twenty republics are (alphabetically) Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Puerto Rico is often included as part of Latin America, as are the islands of the West Indies where Latin-derived languages are spoken. Further still, Guyana, French Guiana, Belize and Suriname are at times included in the list of Latin American countries.” As such, it is clear that Latin America is both a geographical and cultural concept. This is so mainly because the countries in Latin... [continues]

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