Latin American Coloniality In The 1500s

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Coloniality throughout Latin America has been apparent since the 1500s. While the process has changed over to the current contemporary period, colonialism has left it large mark on Latin America. Colonialism has shaped race, class, industries, labor and land throughout Central America and the Caribbean, in ways that leaves visible scars on the land. Hierarchal systems, knowledge, and cultural systems have been shaped by coloniality from the 1500s to contemporary times. Coloniality has take various shapes and forms but it changes presences doesn’t divert from its true nature. Europe and United States influences have aimed to obliterating indigenous and African culture in Central America and the Caribbean by appropriating their lands, causing racial division, and by genocide. Colonials approached Central America and the Caribbean with a divide and conquer attitude, in terms of the racial and labor hierarchy. This kept the indigenous and black people against each other, allowing the elite to persist at the top of the hierarchy. European and U.S. appropriation of Central America and the Caribbean followed a habitual pattern of land seizure, instituting a …show more content…

From initial contact in the 1500s to early 20th century, indigenous people stayed in the bottom sector of the racial hierarchy. The Spanish instituted indigenous peoples into the bottom of their racial hierarchy because they were seen as uncivilized due to their culture and skin tones. The more advanced racial hierarchy from the United States will have a lasting effect on Central America and the Caribbean. In some cases, enslaved Africans from the West Indies will be introduced as labor competition to the indigenous people, further advancing the racial hierarchy. New phenomenons to coloniality will only strengthen its hold on Central America and the Caribbean, continuing its