Languages and Migration.Portuguese is the most spoken language in Latin America, mainly because Brazil is so much larger than other countries in the region. Spanish is the most wide spread, with every Latin American country except Haiti, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and Brazil recognizing it as an official language. Guyana uses English, Brazil uses Portuguese, Suriname uses Dutch and French Guiana and Haiti use French.
While European languages are by far the most dominant, native languages are still used. The map on the right shows languages spoken other than Spanish. Bolivia, Paraguay and Columbia all recognize Native languages as official languages. Most of the migration in Latin America is immigration to the United States at 70%. Spain is the second most traveled to getting 8% of all traffic. Within the region, the countries most people have emigrated from have been Brazil, Equador, Argentina and Uruguay. The countries that get the most immigration are Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Panama and Bolivia. |
Old Map (1700)This map shows the territory claimed by European colonists in 1700. In terms of sheer area covered, Spain dominated the Americas at this time, with the west coast, Central America, Florida, Cuba and much of America under its belt. France was also dominant in terms of area, controlling the east part of Canada and the midwest as well as Luisiana and the rivers that connected them. They also owned what would become Haiti. The British owned new England and contested territory with their best friend of all time: France. Spain appears to have a massive advantage over the other European powers because it controls most of the fertile territory near the equator, and thus can grow the most food, although France did have access to various animal pelts from Canada. The Native Americans aren't accounted for in this map, because for the most part Europeans ignored all of their long standing claims to territory.
The most obvious change from 1700 to now is that none of territory owned by the European powers is owned by any of them anymore (besides French Guiana). The USA, Mexico and other countries have all fought for their independence and won. Spanish influence has survived in Mexico, central, and south America, and French is still a common language in Canada but the english colonies, who appear to be the underdogs on this map, ended up controlling all of North America except for Mexico, which is a surprising turn of events given how little they had control of in 1700. Native Americans have been adversely affected all over the place, being either assimilated of subjugated by Europeans. In the mania of manifest destiny the United States annexed Mexican territory, which caused problems for many Mexicans who found themselves suddenly living in the US over night and now had to integrate into a country that spoke a different language. |