People lived in the continent of South America at least 11,000 years ago. Many civilizations developed there, the most brilliant among them being the Incas. The Incan empire was destroyed by the Spanish conquerors. Europeans, especially the Spanish and the Portuguese flooded the continent. They amassed wealth, leaving the Native Americans poor.
By the 1800s, these settlements collapsed and many independent nations were born after a series of bloody wars. These nations had to suffer slavery, riots, civil war, poverty and dictatorship at one point or the other. Today, South America consists of twelve sovereign states, French Guyana which is a part of France and the disputed overseas territory of Britain known as Falkland.
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