Geography 1700
The demographic collapse of the indigenous population of Latin America started with
mortality due to disease and mistreatment. This is mostly due to the opening of
immigration in Latin America after gaining their independence from Spain and Portugal.
The leaders thought that this was the best way to develop the territory. However, what it
created was a decline in native populations. In Brazil alone, about 1-2 million people
represented a very large variety of groups during the era of the Portuguese conquest. Now,
only 220 groups exist, consisting of 300,000-700,000 indigenous people. Bolivia is the
only place that is purely indigenous, with 55-70% of the population being indigenous.
While in Paraguay, the population consists of mostly Spanish and Guarani descendants.
Pre-contact Americas had roughly 54 million people, and of that, about 47 million were in
what is now Latin America. By 1650, only one-tenth of this indigenous population size
existed. Ninety percent of the population was wiped out by a variety of horrific things.
Epidemics, influenza, and smallpox were very large contributors to the population decline.
Also, warfare, forced labor, and starvation caused the collapse of the indigenous
population. As of now, there are countries in Latin America, such as Mexica and
Guatemala, where the indigenous population survived. These areas were the most
populated when the Europeans came to dominate. The key for them, however, was the land
to keep a territorial home, which saved their ethnic identity and some of the indigenous
population. These groups go on to demand political and territorial recognition so that they
gain justice for the severity of indigenous population loss.