Throughout the last few weeks of class we have learned about the various implications of colonialism and how they affected the entire continents of Latin America and Africa.
To begin, it is valuable to compare the two areas of the world due to the similar experiences and suffering they have faced. Both Latin America and Africa were arbitrarily divided by European powers purely for the purpose of extraction and to increase the wealth and domain of the colonial powers. Additionally, both regions were ravaged by the effects of slavery. Africa suffered as the natives were kidnapped and exported and Latin America suffered as their natives were also enslaved while simultaneously dealing with the influx of Africans brought against their will and inserted into the economy.
This was further explored and explained by Professor Holt and she discussed colonial life in Latin America and presented what she called the “Legacies of Colonialism” that included the different ways negative effects took hold in the region such as through the economy, politics, and society (economic, political, and social). Additionally, she discussed transculturation which is the idea that when two cultures are forced together both experience an exchange of culture from the other. Both of what she described is evident throughout the two continents as well as in other parts of the world.
It is important to understand these experiences often forgotten about in modern historical commentary due to the power and influence colonial powers maintained over the lands they controlled.