ABSTRACT
Latin America is a geographically, culturally, linguistically, and politically diverse region that is generally understood to include all countries south of the US/Mexico border as well as the Caribbean countries where a Latin-based language is spoken. This geographic diversity has influenced the types of subsistence strategies used by indigenous peoples, their population densities, and types of social organization, which in turn influenced major areas of European settlement, how the colonists organized land and labor, and the resource extraction strategies of the colonial economy. Latin America's geographic and racial diversity reinforces, and is reinforced by, extreme variance in class. Diversity and inequality are also interconnected with Latin America's distinctive forms of nationalism and governance. The ways that European colonists and African slaves interacted with indigenous peoples is integral to understanding the region's diversity and its categorical boundaries.
