South America cultural definition

Continent in the Western Hemisphere, connected to North America by the Isthmus of Panama.

• Exploration of the continent began in the sixteenth century with the Portuguese claiming what is now Brazil and the Spanish claiming most of the remaining land. Settlement was accompanied by the defeat of many of the Native American cultures, including the Inca Empire.
• All of the Latin American nations in South America and Central America achieved their independence from Spain or Portugal in the first half of the nineteenth century.