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- The Andes are a tall mountain range that lines the western portion of South America.
- The Amazon River carries rain and snowfall from the Andes Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean.
- Seasonal changes are caused by the tilt of the earth, so December in South America is a warm month.
- Soccer
is a very popular sport
in South America.
- In 1493, Pope Alexander VI drew a line that split South America between Spain and Portugal.
- Simon Bolivar
was a Venezuelan revolutionary leader known as "the
Liberator." Bolivar
fought the Spanish to win the independence of Venezuela, Colombia,
Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.
- José de San Martin is a South American military hero who fought to win the independence of Argentina, Chile and Peru.
- Colombia is a mountainous nation known for it’s coffee and citrus exports. Unfortunately, the Colombian government has been unable to stop the flow of illegal drugs from their nation.
- Oil is a major source of wealth in Venezuela.
- Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana are small tropical nations along the north coast of South America. Rainforest comprise a great deal of the sparsely populated lands of the nations.
- French Guiana served as a French penal colony until 1953. It's prisioners included Alfred Dreyfus and Henri 'Papillon' Charrière
- Charles
Darwin formed his theories about evolution
while
sailing in the Galapagos
Islands. - Alberto Fujimori leads the mountainous nation of Peru. Fujimori is a descendant of Japanese immigrants.
- The violent Shining Path communist rebels have made many terrorist attacks in Peru.
- Lima is the capital of Peru.
- Bolivia is located high in the Andes mountains. American visitors to Bolivia often find it hard to breath due to the lack of oxygen at high altitude.
- La Paz is Bolivia’s largest city.
- Paraguay is a poor, landlocked Andean nation.
- Paraguay was controlled by General Alfredo Stroessner, a brutal military leader who was overthrown in 1989
- Portuguese is the national language of Brazil; Spanish or Native American languages are spoken almost everywhere else.
- Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are the largest cities in Brazil, but the capital is the smaller city of Brasilia located deep in the highlands of central Brazil.
- Carnival is a four-day Brazilian festival that comes before Lent.
- Lent is a holy period for Christians. Many Christians fast or abandon pleasurable habits during Lent.
- Argentina has become a "melting pot" nation. More people have immigrated to Argentina from Europe than any other Latin American nation.
- Juan Peron was a nationalist leader who ruled Argentina in the 1940s and the 1950s and again briefly in the 1970s.
- Thousands of people disappeared after opposing the military in South America from 1976 to 1983. That period of Argentina’s history is known as "The Dirty War."
- Britain defeated Argentina in 1982 after Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands off the Argentine coast.
- Chile is the size of Texas but has a very different shape. It is 2,600 miles long, but only about 110 miles wide.
- Mining is a very important industry in Chile. Chile recently surpassed the United States toi become the world’s largest exporter of copper.
- Easter Island is located off the coast of Chile. It is famous for its large stone statues.
- Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago (or a group of islands) at the southern tip of South America.
To cite this page:
Dowling, Mike., "The Electronic Passport to
South America," available from http://www.mrdowling.com/712southamerica.html;
Internet; updated
Wednesday, May 1, 2002
©2008, Mike Dowling. All rights reserved.