This is probably a really easy question for a historian but it's something I've always wondered. Whites Europeans came to the USA which was already inhabited by brown Native Americans. The result is a white country. White Europeans also came to Mexico and South America. The result there is countries made up of brown "Latino" people. Why the difference? Why isn't the USA brown, or why isn't Mexico white?
Here is my theory right now, which is probably wrong. I think what we now call Latino is the result of White Europeans (Spaniards) breeding with the Native Americans. Maybe there were just many more Natives in Mexico and South America, and they mated with the Europeans more, whereas in America we cordoned them off to their own areas without mixing races. I'm probably completely wrong about this, so I'd love to be corrected or enlightened as to what actually happened.
hi! there are some related questions in the FAQ* - see here for previous responses
Racial differences: North v South/Latin America
*see the link on the sidebar or the wiki tab
The main difference is the status that the colonist granted to the native population. In the spanish case, since the very start of the conquest and colonization claimed the natives to have souls and to be sons of god. (read about Bartolomé de Las Casas). Though creating a very stratified and clasist society, the natives were able to form part of it and the result is a mixed society in the present time. In the brittish case the most common result was extermination or displacement of the native population and they didn't encourage the creation of a mixed society, I cannot help you about the reasons they had for it.