Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, from the 15th century onward, European colonization of Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa was motivated by economic greed and by religious zeal on the part of European nations, especially Spain, to spread Christianity to the "uncivilized" indigenous peoples. The author points out that, as a result of New World colonialism, Spanish influence is still strongly felt throughout the Americas today and British, Dutch, French and Portuguese influence is still strongly evident in many parts of Africa. The paper stresses that this European colonization created massive changes, most of which were for the worse, in the physical landscape and in the economic distribution of wealth and resources on both continents, which today continue to strongly affect the people, their lack of resources and the overall conditions of those areas.

From the Paper:

"Latin America today suffers similarly in many ways, also an unfortunate legacy of past European invasion. Perhaps most interestingly, Brazil, the Latin American nation most ravaged by the Portuguese, suffers from an AIDS epidemic equal to those of parts of Africa. Indigenous peoples of Brazil, their numbers severely decreased by a smallpox epidemic brought by European settlers, live today in isolated pockets of Andean poverty. Some of Brazil's indigenous tribes are so small today that they risk dying out within the next generation. Meanwhile, Brazil's tropical rain forests continue today to be destroyed in the name of "progress", wreaking havoc with our worldwide ecosystem."

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