Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America

It is impossible to discuss Latin American history without the word “colonial.” In contrast, when one learns of United States history, the term colonial rarely surfaces, and colonial times is often described as pre-revolutionary. The reason for this is that, following independence, the United States walked a far different path than any nation in Latin America. The reasons for this are myriad, but what is most important is that Latin America continued to struggle with the effects of colonialism long after the smoke of revolution settled. Though Latin American nations gained independence from Spain or Portugal, they were unable to slough the yoke of colonial dominance as easily as the US.

Colonialism in Latin America, instituted by Spain and Portugal, established a hegemony whose roots buried themselves deep in the Latin American psyche. Spanish and Portuguese colonizers, borrowing ideas already developed in Iberia during the wars for reconquest, sought to dominate an Indigenous population that far outnumbered any amount of colonists Spain or Portugal could send. Aside from the need for control to meet the economic goals of the Europeans, the colonizers held a near universal view of the need for missionary work, the need to convert the Indigenous people to the True Faith (i.