Central America and Caribbean Study Guide 1. Spanish explorers came to the Caribbean area in the 1500’s to seek gold. 2. A colony is a group of people living in a new territory with ties to a distant state. 3. A dictatorship is a government controlled by a single leader. 4. Cultural diffusion is the spread of cultural traits. 5. Plants and animals that depend on one another and their environment for survival make up an ecosystem. 6. A hacienda is a huge farm or ranch created by Spanish landowners. 7. Simon Bolivar led the people in Caribbean South America in their rebellion against Spanish rule. 8. A representative democracy is a democracy in which the people elect representatives to make the nation’s laws. 9. El Nino is a weather phenomenon in which warm water from the western Pacific Ocean flows east to the coast of Peru every few years and causes heavy rain. 10. Fidel Castro led a communist revolution in Cuba in the late 1950’s. 11. One of the region’s major economic goal is to increase capital investment, or investments in factories and technology. 12. Free trade is a system in which goods and services are traded between countries without government restrictions. 13. The Andes Mountains extend up the west coast of South America. 14. The gauchos, or cowboys of the Pampas formed the cacalry when Argentina was fighting for independence. 15. A conquistador is a Spanish soldier-explorer. 16. An oligarchy is a type of government in which a small group of people rule. 17. Mercantilism is an economic system in which colonies send raw materials to the mother country; in return, colonists were expected to buy products from the country. 18. A referendum is a vote held to accept or reject a law. .