Sandwiched between the Andes and the Pacific is Chile, over 4200km long, yet nowhere wider than 430km. The People Before its conquest by the Spanish and Portuguese in the 16th century, South America was home to many native peoples. Millions died after the Europeans arrived - some killed by their conquerors, some by European diseases to which they had no resistance and some from cruel treatment. Many who survived married the Spanish settlers who came to seek their fortune. Their descendants are called mestizos.
Today there is a mixture of many different races in South America, especially in large cities.
Even so, there are native villages in the Andes that are racially pure, and in the Amazon there are still native tribes that have had little contact with the world outside. The Uru, an ancient Indian people , live on floating mats of dried reeds on Lake Titicaca, high in the Andes between Bolivia and Peru. A Poor Continent South America has the fastest growing population in the world, and most people are poor. In the country, much of the land is in vast estates called latifundia owned by a rich few. Industry is growing in some South American countries, especially Brazil, and these may create wealth in time.