The population of South America


According to scientists, South America began to be populated 15-17 thousand years ago by Indians from North America. They belong to the Mongoloid race. Therefore, the most probable is that their ancestors came to America from Asia.

By the time the Europeans discovered South America, it was inhabited by various Indian peoples, standing at different levels of social development. The Incas created a powerful state with a developed civilization. The inhabitants of the country were engaged in agriculture, built dams, roads, irrigation canals.

After the discovery of the continent, the Europeans on the new lands began to settle the Spaniards and the Portuguese. To work on agricultural plantations, they imported black slaves from Africa. Later, representatives of other European and Asian countries began to emigrate to South America. Among them were Ukrainians who created their diasporas in Argentina, Brazil. Chile.

The modern population of the continent consists of representatives

of all the basic human races. Mixed races were formed as a result of marriages between representatives of different races. Descendants of the marriages of whites and Indians are called mestizos, whites and Negroes – mulattoes, Negroes and Indians – sambo.

The bulk of the continent’s population communicates in Spanish, in Brazil – in Portuguese. Since these two languages ​​are close to Latin, South America and the countries of the Panama Isthmus are also called Latin America.

In some countries of South America, the Indians are still a significant part of the population. They communicate in their own languages.

Currently, the continent is home to over 370 million people, accounting for more than 5% of the world’s population. The average population density is small – more than 20 people / km2. The population is very unevenly distributed, which is connected with the natural conditions and peculiarities of colonization.

Almost unoccupied are the Amazonian Selva, the semi-desert in the south, the Atacama Desert. The highest population density is observed on the Atlantic coast and in the Andes.


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The population of South America