what two european countries colonized most of south america
History of South America While millennia of independent development were interrupted by the Portuguese and Spanish colonization of the late 15th century and the demographic collapse that followed, the continent's mestizo and indigenous cultures remain quite distinct from those of their colonizers. Through the trans-Atlantic slave trade, South America (especially Brazil) became the home of millions of people of the African diaspora. The mixing of races led to new social structures.