Talk:History of South America/sandbox
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The history of South America is the study of the past, particularly the written record, of the continent of South America, but also oral histories and traditions passed down from generation to generation. South America has a history that covers a wide range of cultures and civilisations. Millennia of independent developments were interrupted by the arrival of Portuguese and Spanish conquerors and subsequent push to colonise the continent in the late 15th century. Despite this upheaval and the demographic collapse that followed, the continent's mestizo and indigenous cultures today remain quite distinct from those of their colonisers.
Through the trans-Atlantic slave trade in the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s, South America (especially Brazil) became the home of millions of people in the African diaspora. The mixing of races led to new social structures. The tensions between colonial countries in Europe, indigenous peoples, and immigrants of various kinds, shaped South America from the 16th through the 19th centuries. Following successful revolutions for independence from the Spanish crown in the 19th century, during the next century South America experienced yet more social and political change, including efforts at nation building, waves of European immigration, increased trade, colonisation of the continent's interior, wars over territorial ownership and political power, the reorganisation of Indian rights and duties, liberal–conservative conflicts within the ruling class, and the subjugation of Indians living in the states' frontiers.