Facts from South American countries

1. SOUTH AMERICAN
COUNTRIES
Social Studies for 9th E.G.B.
Teacher: Mauricio Torres

2. SOUTH • It includes 10 countries as follows
AMERICA

3. ARGENTINA • Capital: Buenos Aires
• President: Cristina Fernandez
• Independence: May 25th 1810
• Population: 40 million (aprox.)
• Currency: Peso
Argentine Republic, is the second largest
country in South America by land area,
after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of
23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos
Aires. It is the eighth-largest country in the world
by land area and the largest among Spanish-
speaking nations.

4. ARGENTINA • Facts:
– A recognized middle power,
Argentina is Latin America's third-
largest economy.
– Argentina is a founding member of
the United Nations.
Rioplatense Spanish
Preliminary research has shown that Rioplatense Spanish, and
particularly the speech of the city of Buenos Aires, has
intonation patterns that resemble those of Italian dialects and
differ markedly from the patterns of other forms of Spanish.
Argentina, and particularly Buenos Aires, had huge numbers of
Italian immigrant settlers since the 19th century. The
researchers note that the development of this dialect is a
relatively recent phenomenon, developing since the beginning
of the 20th century and the main wave of Southern Italian
immigration.

5. BOLIVIA • Capital: Sucre
• President: Evo Morales
• Independence: August 6, 1825
• Population: 10 million (aprox.)
• Currency: Boliviano
Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked
country in central South America

6. BOLIVIA • Facts:
– Named after Simón Bolivar.
– Has the only native american
President in the World
Resourceful Nation
Its main economic activities include agriculture,
forestry, fishing, mining, and manufacturing
goods such as textiles, clothing, refined metals,
and refined petroleum.

7. BRAZIL • Capital: Brasilia
• President: Dilma Rouseff
• Independence: September 7 1822
• Population: 192 million (aprox.)
• Currency: Real
Federative Republic of Brazil, is the world’s fifth
largest country. It shares borders with all of the
South American countries except for Ecuador
and Chile. It became a Kingdom in the 1800s and
afterwards an independent Republic.

8. BRAZIL • Facts:
– One of the fastest growing major
economies.
– Five times world champions
(football).
A Latin Kingdom
Brazil was a colony of Portugal until 1815, when it was
elevated to the rank of kingdom and the United
Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves was
formed. The colonial bond was in fact broken in 1808,
when the capital of the Portuguese colonial empire
was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, after
Napoleon invaded Portugal. Independence was
achieved in 1822 with the formation of the Empire of
Brazil, a unitary state governed under a constitutional
monarchy and a parliamentary system.

9. CHILE • Capital: Santiago
• President: Sebastian Pinera
• Independence: Feb 12, 1818
• Population: million (aprox.)
• Currency: Peso
Republic of Chile , is a country in South America
occupying a long, narrow strip of land between
the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific
Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the
north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the
east, and the Drake Passage in the far south

10. CHILE • Facts:
– Chilean territory includes Easter
Island
– Renounced world producer of
copper.
A Booming Economy
Today, Chile is one of South America's most
stable and prosperous nations and a
recognized middle power. It leads Latin
American nations in human development,
competitiveness, income per capita,
globalization, economic freedom, low
perception of corruption and state of peace.

11. COLOMBIA • Capital: Bogotá
• President: Juan Manuel Santos
• Independence: July 29, 1810
• Population: 46 million (aprox.)
• Currency: Peso
Republic of Colombia , the world’s leading
coffee producer and one of South America’s
cultural centers.

12. COLOMBIA • Facts:
– Has the second largest population of
any Spanish-speaking country in the
world.
– Shakira, Juanes, Sofia Vergara,
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Juan Pablo
Montoya and Carlos Vives are all
Colombian.
Violent History
Tensions between political parties have frequently erupted into violence, most notably in the Thousand
Days War (1899–1902) and La Violencia, beginning in 1948. Since the 1960s, government forces, left-wing
insurgents and right-wing paramilitaries have been engaged in the continent's longest-running armed
conflict. Fueled by the cocaine trade, this escalated dramatically in the 1980s.

13. PARAGUAY • Capital: Asunción
• President: Fernando Lugo
• Independence: May 14, 1811
• Population: 6.3 million (aprox.)
• Currency: Guarani
Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in
South America. . Due to its central location in
South America, it is sometimes referred to
as Corazón de América, or the Heart of America.

14. PARAGUAY • Facts:
– When the flag is turned around, the
coat of arms is different from the
one in front.
– They fought a war against Argentina,
Brazil and Uruguay in the 1800s. The
country was devastated and its
effects are still felt today.
Guarani Rules
The official languages are Spanish and Guaraní,
both being widely spoken in the country, with
around 92% of the general population speaking
Spanish and 98% speaking Guaraní. Most of the
population are mestizos.

15. PERU • Capital: Lima
• President: Ollanta Humala
• Independence: July 28, 1824
• Population: 29.4 million (aprox.)
• Currency: Nuevo Sol
Republic of Peru, its territory was home
to ancient cultures, spanning from the Norte
Chico civilization, one of the oldest in the world,
to the Inca Empire, the largest state in Pre-
Columbian America.

16. PERU • Facts:
– Famous for the cuisine
– Macchu Picchu: one of the most
visited sites on earth.
Different environments
Its geography varies from the arid plains of the
Pacific coast to the peaks of the Andes
Mountains and the tropical forests of the
Amazon Basin.

17. URUGUAY • Capital: Montevideo
• President: Jose Mújica
• Independence: August 25, 1825
• Population: 3.3 million (aprox.)
• Currency: Uruguayan Peso
Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is one of the most
economically developed countries in South
America, and the first by human development in
Latin America, when inequality is factored in.

18. • Facts:
URUGUAY – It is home to 3.3 million people, of whom
1.8 million live in the
capital Montevideo and its metropolitan
area. An estimated 88% of the population
are of European ancestry.
– Uruguay is reimbursed by the UN for the
majority of its military spending, because
the majority of its military is deployed as
UN peacekeepers.
Strong Economy
Uruguay and Bolivia were the only countries in
the Americas which did not go into recession (2
consecutive quarters of retraction) as a result of
the Late-2000s financial crisis. In 2009, Uruguay
became the first nation in the world to provide
every school child with a free laptop and
internet.

19. VENEZUELA • Capital: Caracas
• President: Hugo Chávez
• Independence: July 5, 1811
• Population: 27 million (aprox.)
• Currency: Bolívar Fuerte
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, has been one
of the world's leading exporters of oil and has
the largest oil reserves. Previously an
underdeveloped exporter of agricultural
commodities such as coffee and cocoa, oil
quickly came to dominate exports and
government revenues.

20. VENEZUELA • Facts:
– Venezuela is among the most
urbanized countries in Latin
America; the vast majority of
Venezuelans live in the cities of the
north, especially in the capital,
Caracas.
Biodiversity
Venezuela is considered a state with extremely
high biodiversity, with habitats ranging from the
Andes mountains in the west to the Amazon
Basin rainforest in the south, via extensive llanos
plains and Caribbean coast in the center and the
Orinoco River Delta in the east.

21. AND OF
COURSE…
•ECUADOR
(which we already know)