Southern Cone
From Open Encyclopedia
The term Southern Cone (Cono Sur or Cono Sul) refers to the southernmost areas of South America. Typically, it refers to Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and southeastern Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná and Sao Paulo). Rarely is Bolivia included, though it forms a geographic part of the region. Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay are always included.
Language
The main languages spoken are Spanish and Portuguese, and the autochthonous Aymara, Guaraní, Mapudungun (or Mapuche), and Quechua. Furthermore English is spoken in the Islas Malvinas (or Falkland Islands), a disputed territory between the UK (which occupies the islands) and Argentina. Italian, French, and Welsh are spoken by descentents of immigrants in Argentina, and to a lesser extent the same is true for German and Korean in Chile, and the aforementioned, less Korean plus Japanese in Brazil. Generally speaking what goes for Argentina goes for Uruguay; where Portuñol, a pidgin language of Brazilian Portuguese and Argentine/Uruguayan Spanish is spoken by a large amount of the populace.
People
In contrast to most of Latin America, the populations of Argentina, Uruguay and southeastern Brazil are composed in their majority by people of European origin, with relatively small numbers of mixed race people. They also retain almost no indigenous Amerindian population, and in Uruguay's case the indigenous population is now extinct.
Meanwhile, although the majority of the population of Chile and Paraguay is composed of mestizos (mixed European and Amerindian), it is not uncommon for the admixture to lean more towards the European element (as oposed to a relatively equal amount of both), and in some cases it is the only discernable element. Both countries do also have an undetermined number of unmixed Europeans, and a small minority of Amerindians.
See also
| Regions of the World | |
| Africa: | Central Africa | East Africa | Great Lakes | Guinea | Horn of Africa | North Africa | Maghreb | Northwest Africa | Sahel | Southern Africa | Sub-Saharan Africa | Sudan | West Africa |
| Americas: | Andean states | Caribbean | Central America | Great Lakes | Great Plains | Guianas | Latin America | North America | Northern America | Pacific Northwest | Patagonia | South America | Southern Cone |
| Eurasia: | Anatolia | Arabia | Asia | Balkans | Baltic region | Benelux | British Isles | Caucasus | Central Asia | Central Europe | East Asia | Eastern Europe | East Indies | Europe | Far East | Kurdistan | Levant | Mediterranean | Mesopotamia | Middle East | Near East | North Asia | Northern Europe | Scandinavia | South Asia | Southeast Asia | Southern Europe | Southwest Asia | Western Europe |
| Oceania: | Australasia | Melanesia | Micronesia | Polynesia | Pacific Rim |
| Polar: | Arctic | Antarctic |
