World History in Credo: Latin America

Pre-Columbian empire, W South America. The name Inca may specifically refer to the emperor, but is generally used to mean the empire or the people.

Member of an American Indian people who migrated south into the valley of Mexico in about 1168. The Aztec were the Indian people dominating central Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest. Their language belonged to the Nahuatlan subfamily of Uto-Aztecan languages.

One of the great cultures of mesoamerica, Maya civilization extended throughout southern Mexico and northern Central America. The Maya territory included what are now the southernmost Mexican states of Yucatán, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, and Chiapas, as well as all of Belize and Guatemala and the westernmost parts of Honduras and El Salvador.

Term denoting the culture of ancient Mexican natives inhabiting the tropical coastal plain of the contemporary states of Veracruz and Tabasco, between 1300 and 400 B.C.

Member of an ancient American Indian people who ruled much of Mexico and Central America in the 10th-12th centuries, with their capital and religious centre at Tula or Tollán, northeast of Mexico City.

1846–48, armed conflict between the United States and Mexico. While the immediate cause of the war was the U.S. annexation of Texas (Dec., 1845), other factors had disturbed peaceful relations between the two republics. In the United States there was agitation for the settlement of long-standing claims arising from injuries and property losses sustained by U.S. citizens in the various Mexican revolutions.

Confrontation in international relations in October 1962 when Soviet rockets were installed in Cuba and US president John F Kennedy compelled Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, by military threats and negotiation, to remove them.

An armed conflict between the UK and Argentina from March 1982 until Argentine surrender in June; resulting from Argentine claim to sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.

Conflict 1835-36 between US colonists and Mexican troops in Texas, then part of Mexico. The conflict, which included the famous siege of the Alamo in 1836, resulted in a US victory, led by Sam Houston, who became president of the new republic. Texas remained an independent republic until 1845, when it was fully annexed by the USA.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Incident that came near to causing war between the United States and Spain. The Virginius, a filibustering ship, was fraudulently flying the American flag and carrying arms to the Cubans in the Ten Years War.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
The costly and bitter war was seemingly without result, but actually it foreshadowed the Cuban war of independence that broke out in 1895 and the subsequent Spanish-American War.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Brief conflict between Spain and the United States arising out of Spanish policies in Cuba. It was, to a large degree, brought about by the efforts of U.S. expansionists.

The eldest of the five children of a weaver, Columbus probably first entered his father’s trade, but before 1470 he went to sea and for some years voyaged and traded for various employers based in Genoa, his birthplace.

Spanish Conquistador and conqueror of Mexico. Cortés went (1504) first to Hispaniola and later (1511) accompanied Diego de Velázquez to Cuba. In 1518 he was chosen to lead an expedition to Mexico.

Venezuelan by birth; South American revolutionary who led independence wars in the present nations of Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Today, monumental statues of Bolívar adorn the central plazas of cities and towns throughout the Andean region.

Cuban statesman: prime minister from 1959, when he led the Communist overthrow of Batista, and president from 1976 until his death. He led the revolution that overthrew the right-wing regime of the dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

Mexican priest and revolutionary, a national hero.

An army officer, Perón was the leader of a group of colonels that rose to prominence after the overthrow of the government of Ramón Castillo in 1943, a group which supported the fascist and Nazi movements in Italy and Germany.

Venezuelan political leader, president of Venezuela (1999–2013). Educated at the Military Academy of Venezuela (grad. 1975), for two decades he was a career army officer, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Mexican statesman and revolutionary, a mestizo, christened José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz. Under the rule of Diaz, roads, railroads, and telegraph lines greatly increased, and Mexico became a land of peace and prosperity, ruled in the interest of the few. Deposed by a revolution headed by Francisco I. Madero in 1911.

President of Peru (1990–2000), born in Lima, Peru. The son of Japanese immigrants, he was educated in Peru and attended Univ. of Wisconsin.

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Theoretician and tactician of guerrilla warfare and prominent figure in Fidel Castro’s revolution in Cuba (1956–59). Born to a middle-class family in Rosario, Argentina, he completed medical studies in 1953 and subsequently traveled widely in Latin America, eventually settling in Guatemala.