Figure 3.13: The colonial heritage of Middle and South America. Most of Middle and South America was colonized by Spain and Portugal, but important and influential small colonies were held by Britain, France, and the Netherlands. Nearly all the colonies had gained independence by the late twentieth century. Those for which no date appears on the map are still linked in some way to the colonizing country.
[Source consulted: Hammond Times Concise Atlas of World History (Maplewood, NJ: Hammond, 1994), p. 69]