No Colombian jokes in South America

Beagles does a pretty good job with the history of central and south America.  You know a peculiar thing about South America, if you look at a map of it shortly after Bolivar, the countries and their borders are about the same as they are today.  No countries taking over other countries, no civil wars resulting in new nations.  There have been wars but I think they have been border skirmishes.  So without wars and without conquerors or rebels, what kind of history do you have?

Not much, or not the kind of history that gets into books.  I remember once feeling bad about not knowing much about South America, like much of the United States does,  It seems like every four or eight years the new administration announces a new focus on our forgotten friend and then promptly forgets it.  I had a bit of trouble finding a book on South America, and when I read it, it was pretty boring.  Lots of leaders I never heard of succeeding leaders I had also never heard of, but not much else. 

I worked with a guy from Colombia a few years and once I asked him if they had a thing in South America like we do in Europe where Poles aren't very bright, and Italians are passionate, and French are snobs, and the Brits are prissy.  That was cool stuff back in school.  Once you found out what you were you could make fun of other kids and they of you.  It was all good clean fun, and I think it is still allowed a bit, after all it is just white people making fun of other white people.  Anyway my friend said no such thing existed in South America.  See, boring.

Territory is just a place but in the US I think the assumption was that it would eventually become one or several states.  People in territories can't vote in federal elections and they don't pay the federal income taxes but they do pay payroll taxes and various other taxes that go into the US treasury.

I don't know if I would describe China or India as feudal or tribal, but they were weak at the time of colonization and I think the main thing the colonizers looked for was weakness.  Certain countries like Thailand, Iran, and Ethiopia in the path of colonization were never colonized.  In some countries like in Africa there was no country to colonize and the colonizer took a few port cities and called it a colony.