Analyze why South America is a place of ethnic diversity

The inhabitants of Latin America are from a variety of ancestries, ethnic groups and races, making the region one of the most diverse in the world. [1] The specific composition of the group varies from country to country. Many have a predominance of European-Amerindian or Mestizo population; in others, Amerindians are a majority; some are dominated by inhabitants of European ancestry; and some countries' populations have large African or Mulatto populations.

Amerindians. The indigenous population of Latin America, the Native Americans, arrived during the Lithic stage. In post-Columbian times they experienced tremendous population decline, particularly in the early decades of colonization. They have since recovered in numbers, surpassing sixty million by some estimates.[2] With the growth of other groups, they now compose a majority only in Bolivia. In Guatemala, Native Americans are a large minority who comprise two-fifths of the population. Mexico's 14%[3] (9.8% in the official 2005 census) is the next largest population, and one of the largest Amerindian populations in the Americas in absolute numbers. Most of the remaining countries have Native American minorities, in every case making up less than one-tenth of the respective country's population. In many countries, people of mixed Native American and European ancestry make up the majority of the population

South America is a widely diverse area for many reasons. Many early settlers were Hispanic or African-American. When the conquistadors settled, they married and had children with Hispanics. Now, we have travelers and traders in South America.