Latin America was mostly under the rule of Spain. The living in this region though were not happy with the Spanish ruling at all, and they wanted to be independent countries. Independence movements rose on the scene, led by some very well known revolutionaries such as Simon Bolivar and Che Guevara, and they started to fight against the Spanish, defeating the little by little and eventually pushing them out of the region. This resulted in the formation of several new countries in Latin America, but things were not perfect after that. Once independent, these countries were mostly ruled by either communists or military dictators, leading to constant conflicts, overthrows of governments, poverty, and instability. On top of that, the US had its interests int he region so it was always heavily involved in most things, often sponsoring guerrilla fighters or military dictators close to them to take over the governments. Gradually the situation started to stabilize, but there's still numerous countries in this region where the things having been quite settled yet.
