History of South America

Political - South America has an area of 6,886,000 square miles. There are 12 separate countries, the fewest of any continent. The largest is Brazil, which covers almost half of the continent at 3,286,470 square miles, and the smallest, Suriname which covers 63,039 square miles. South America's total population is 362 million. 19 million live in the largest city, SaoPaulo. Most follow the catholic faith that they brought with them.

Physical - South America is the fourth largest continent. Stretching the full length of its Pacific coast is the towering Andes mountain range, second only in height to the Himalayas and sporting the worlds largest Volcano's.

Through the trans-Atlantic slave trade, 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 escaped slaves shaped South America from the 16th through the 19th Centuries. With the revolution for independence from Spanish crown during the 19th century, South America underwent another social and political change that lasted until the early 1900s.
South America is thought to have been first inhabited by people crossing the Bering Land Bridge from Asia, which is now the Bering Strait. Over the course of millennium.

The first evidence for the existence of agricultural practices in South America dates back to circa 6500 BCE, when potatoes, chilies and beans began to be cultivated for food in the Amazon Basin. Pottery evidence further suggests that manioc, which remains a staple foodstuff today, was being cultivated as early as 2000 BCE.

South American cultures began domesticating llamas and alpacas in the highlands of the Andes circa 3500 BCE. These animals were used for both transportation and meat. Guinea pigs were also domesticated as a food source at this time.