Short answers, pulled from the story.
The oldest known human presence in South America dates back to approximately 14,500 years ago at the Monte Verde II site in Chile. This timeline predates the widely accepted date for the peopling of the Americas by thousands of years.
The Treaty of Tordesillas drew an imaginary line 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands to split the non-European world between Spain and Portugal. This agreement gave Spain the western portion of the continent and Portugal the eastern portion, which eventually became Brazil.
The Paraguayan War lasted almost six years from 1864 to 1870 and resulted in Paraguay losing 60% of its population. The conflict caused the death of 90% of the country's men and the loss of 40% of its territory.
The monarchy in Brazil ended with a coup d'état in 1889, marking the beginning of the First Brazilian Republic. Dom Pedro II was the last emperor, having been crowned after his father Dom Pedro I proclaimed the independent Kingdom of Brazil in 1822.
Angel Falls in Venezuela is the world's highest uninterrupted waterfall, and the Atacama Desert is the driest non-polar place on Earth. The Andes mountains dominate the western side of the continent while the Amazon rainforest contains high biodiversity with Brazil estimated to hold 10% of Earth's species.
The pink tide began with the election of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela in 1998. This political shift led to the election of several leftist and center-left administrations across most countries in the region.