Download or read book History of South America From the First Human Existence to the Present Time (Classic Reprint) written by William Frederick Griewe and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-06 with total page 588 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from History of South America From the First Human Existence to the Present Time The South American continent is nearest ours; it, indeed, is a continuation of North America. As the people of that continent are Americans as well as we are, they call us American brothers. Thus the American brotherhood extends down to Cape Horn and it behooves us to acquire closer knowledge of the southern nations. Their past struggles and their future aspirations concern us. The so-called prehistoric South America with its mighty works and noble governments, with its epochs of prosperity and decay; the Spanish discoveries and conquests, marred by greed and brutality; the colonial times which bore the character of the middle ages; the tenacious struggle for independence with its heroic deeds and continentwide campaigns; the modern republics in their endeavors, failing and succeeding, in their struggles with the hierarchical power and in their attempts to steer the ships of state into higher waters: all these furnish historical records which will interest and instruct the English reading public. The material from which to gain information upon the South American history is volumious. The most authentic is that which South American writers - each country has its own historians - have gathered. As the author of this work lived and labored in Chile, directing a school and teaching, he has access to the productions of the southern historians and took the material of this work mainly from Spanish histories of Chile, Peru, Colombia, Uruguay, and Argentina. He did not merely translate; he rather gathered such events as are essential to the history of a country and necessary for his readers to gain full information on a country's history, but he omitted happenings and occurrences that are of importance mainly to the people of the particular countries. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.