Hispanic America in the context of "Caudillo"

Latin America (Spanish and Portuguese: América Latina; French: Amérique Latine) is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish and Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geography, and as such it includes countries in both North and South America. Most countries south of the United States tend to be included: Mexico and the countries of Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Commonly, it refers to Hispanic America plus Brazil. Related terms are the narrower Hispanic America, which exclusively refers to Spanish-speaking nations, and the broader Ibero-America, which includes all Iberic countries in the Americas and occasionally European countries like Spain, Portugal and Andorra. English- and Dutch-speaking countries and territories, although in the same geographical region, are excluded (Suriname, Guyana, the Falkland Islands, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, etc.).

The term Latin America was first introduced in 1856 at a Paris conference titled, literally, Initiative of the Americas: Idea for a Federal Congress of the Republics (Iniciativa de la América. Idea de un Congreso Federal de las Repúblicas). Chilean politician Francisco Bilbao coined the term to unify countries with shared cultural and linguistic heritage. It gained further prominence during the 1860s under the rule of Napoleon III, whose government sought to justify France's intervention in the Second Mexican Empire.

Hispanophone (Spanish: Hispanohablante) refers to anything related to the Spanish language. The term is derived from the Latin word Hispanicus ("Spanish") which refers to anything pertaining to the historic Roman province of Hispania ("Spain"), and the word "phone". Hispanophone is linked to Hispanic culture which is the legacy of the vast and prolonged Spanish Empire, and the sense of identity of these people is sometimes referred by the term Hispanidad (Hispanicity).

The Spanish-speaking world, also called the Hispanosphere, encompasses the following geographical areas: Spain, Hispanic America, Equatorial Guinea, and portions of the United States (namely the Southwest and Florida). When used in the broader sense to include areas where the local culture has been heavily impacted by Hispanic influences, the former Spanish East Indies colonies of Philippines and (to a lesser extent) Guam are also included.

Spaniards, or Spanish people, are an ethnic group native to Spain. Genetically and ethnolinguistically, Spaniards belong to the broader Southern and Western European populations, exhibiting a high degree of continuity with other Indo-European-derived ethnic groups in the region. Spain is also home to a diverse array of national and regional identities, shaped by its complex history. These include various languages and dialects, many of which are direct descendants of Latin, the language imposed during Roman rule. Among them, Spanish (also known as Castilian) is the most widely spoken and the only official language across the entire country.

Commonly spoken regional languages include, most notably, the sole surviving indigenous language of Iberia, Basque, as well as other Latin-descended Romance languages like Spanish itself, Catalan and Galician. Many populations outside Spain have ancestors who emigrated from Spain and share elements of a Hispanic culture. The most notable of these comprise Hispanic America in the Western Hemisphere.

The Empire of Brazil (Portuguese: Império do Brasil) was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil and Uruguay until the latter achieved independence in 1828. The empire's government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Pedro I and his son Pedro II. A colony of the Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil became the seat of the Portuguese Empire in 1808, when the Portuguese Prince regent, later King Dom John VI, fled from Napoleon's invasion of Portugal and established himself and his government in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. John VI later returned to Portugal, leaving his eldest son and heir-apparent, Pedro, to rule the Kingdom of Brazil as regent. On 7 September 1822, Pedro declared the independence of Brazil and, after waging a successful war against his father's kingdom, was acclaimed on 12 October as Pedro I, the first Emperor of Brazil. The new country was huge, sparsely populated, and ethnically diverse.

Unlike most of the neighboring Hispanic American republics, Brazil had political stability, vibrant economic growth, constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech, and respect for civil rights of its subjects, albeit with legal restrictions on women and slaves, the latter regarded as property and not citizens. The Empire's bicameral parliament was elected under comparatively democratic methods for the era, as were the provincial and local legislatures. This led to a long ideological conflict between Pedro I and a sizable parliamentary faction over the role of the monarch in the government. He also had to face other obstacles. The unsuccessful Cisplatine War against the neighboring United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in 1828 led to the secession of the province of Cisplatina (later to become Uruguay). In 1826, despite his role in Brazilian independence, he became the king of Portugal; he abdicated the Portuguese throne in favor of Maria, his eldest daughter. Two years later, she was usurped by Pedro I's younger brother Miguel. Unable to deal with both Brazilian and Portuguese affairs, Pedro I abdicated his Brazilian throne on 7 April 1831 and immediately departed for Europe to restore his daughter to the Portuguese throne.

Ibero-America (Spanish: Iberoamérica, Portuguese: Ibero-América) or Iberian America is generally considered to be the region in the Americas comprising countries or territories where Spanish or Portuguese are predominant languages (usually former territories of Spain or Portugal). Spain and Portugal are themselves sometimes included in some Ibero-American diplomatic circles, such as the Ibero-American Summit and the Organization of Ibero-American States. The Organization of Ibero-American States also includes Spanish-speaking Equatorial Guinea, in Central Africa, but not the Portuguese-speaking African countries. The Latin Recording Academy, the organization responsible for the Latin Grammy Awards, also includes Spain and Portugal as well as the Latino population of Canada and the United States in their definition of Ibero-America.

The prefix Ibero- and the adjective Iberian refer to the Iberian Peninsula in Europe, which includes Portugal and Spain. Ibero-America includes all Hispanic American countries in North, Central, and South America plus the Hispanophone Caribbean, as well as Portuguese-speaking Brazil. Ibero-America makes up the overwhelming bulk of and is synonymous with the common definition of Latin America, but is differentiated from the expanded definition of Latin America by the exclusion of the French-speaking country of Haiti, the French overseas departments of French Guiana, Guadeloupe and Martinique, and the French collectivities of Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin, which are sometimes included in a few definitions of Latin America. Belize and Guyana, whose official language is English, and Dutch-speaking Suriname, Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten are usually not considered to be either Ibero-American or Latin American.

The term Hispanic (Spanish: hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad broadly. In some contexts, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an ethnic or meta-ethnic term.

The term commonly applies to Spaniards and Spanish-speaking (Hispanophone) populations and countries in Hispanic America (the continent) and Hispanic Africa (Equatorial Guinea and the disputed territory of Western Sahara), which were formerly part of the Spanish Empire due to colonization mainly between the 16th and 20th centuries. The cultures of Hispanophone countries outside Spain have been influenced as well by the local pre-Hispanic cultures or other foreign influences.

Conquistadors (/kɒnˈk(w)ɪstədɔːrz/, US also /-ˈkiːs-, kɒŋˈ-/) or conquistadores (Spanish: [koŋkistaˈðoɾes]; Portuguese: [kõkiʃtɐˈðoɾɨʃ, kõkistɐˈdoɾis]; lit. 'conquerors') were Spanish and Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and conquered parts of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania during the Age of Discovery. Sailing beyond the Iberian Peninsula, they established numerous colonies and trade routes, and brought much of the New World under the dominion of Spain and Portugal.

After Christopher Columbus's arrival in the West Indies in 1492, the Spanish, usually led by hidalgos from the west and south of Spain, began building a colonial empire in the Caribbean using colonies such as Santo Domingo, Cuba, and Puerto Rico as their main bases. From 1519 to 1521, Hernán Cortés led the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, ruled by Moctezuma II. From the territories of the Aztec Empire, conquistadors expanded Spanish rule to northern Central America and parts of what is now the southern and western United States, and from Mexico sailing the Pacific Ocean to the Spanish East Indies. Other Spanish conquistadors took over the Inca Empire after crossing the Isthmus of Panama and sailing the Pacific to northern Peru. From 1532 to 1572, Francisco Pizarro succeeded in subduing this empire in a manner similar to Cortés. Subsequently, Spanish conquistadores used Peru as a base for conquering much of Ecuador and Chile. Central Colombia, home of the Muisca, was conquered by licentiate Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, and its northern regions were explored by Rodrigo de Bastidas, Alonso de Ojeda, Juan de la Cosa, Pedro de Heredia and others. For southwestern Colombia, Bolivia, and Argentina, Spanish conquistadores from Peru combined parties with other conquistadors arriving more directly from the Caribbean and Río de la Plata-Paraguay respectively. These conquests founded the basis for modern Hispanic America and the Hispanosphere.

Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 1,902,590 people. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on the island of Luzon, it is classified as a highly urbanized city. With 43,611.5 inhabitants per square kilometer (112,953/sq mi), Manila is one of the world's most densely populated cities proper.

Manila was the first chartered city in the country, designated by Philippine Commission Act No. 183 on July 31, 1901. It became autonomous with the passage of Republic Act No. 409, "The Revised Charter of the City of Manila", on June 18, 1949. Manila is considered to be part of the world's original set of global cities because its commercial networks were the first to extend across the Pacific Ocean and connect Asia with the Spanish Americas through the galleon trade. This marked the first time an uninterrupted chain of trade routes circling the planet had been established.