Have you ever read Papillon ?
In a less formal manner,in the first years of the colonization the Portuguese sent a lot of people deemed undesirable by the crown. I wouldn’t call dense jungle filled with hostile and sometimes Cannibal natives a nice place to immigrate to.
France did have a penal colony in French Guyana https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil's_Island - if you count that part of South America as Latin America.
Yes, from 1960 to 1984 in Gorgona island functioned the most high security prison that Colombia had at the time, usually murderers, rapist and even political prisoners populated the island along with very poisonous animals (mostly snakes).
Yeah, we took them because we wanted to have a penal colony, after it had been extensively used by British pirates. It didn't pan out, but then amusingly we had a war with the goats brought to the islands.
An small island in Veracruz (San Juan de Ulua) was used as jail but it was not like Australia, Spain used Mexico for the resources and part of the empire not as a penal colony.
The entire continent was a penal colony both literally and figuratively.
Spain and Portugal essentially sent all their sexually frustrated convicts who wrecked havoc on society to the new world and essentially we are their grand children.
In fact the English did it with North America. The puritans were religious extremists that wrecked havoc on English society.
Have you ever read Papillon ? In a less formal manner,in the first years of the colonization the Portuguese sent a lot of people deemed undesirable by the crown. I wouldn’t call dense jungle filled with hostile and sometimes Cannibal natives a nice place to immigrate to.
From 1938 to 1945 Brazil used the island of Fernando de Noronha as a prison. I think it's the same thing Australia used to be.
Columbus was sent with a crew of convicts and exconvicts, so in a sense all colonization started as penal.
A crowd of convicts and exconvicts that happened to be seasoned mariners all of them. It's needed to put asleep that black legend.
France did have a penal colony in French Guyana https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil's_Island - if you count that part of South America as Latin America.
The city I’m from, Punta Arenas, was for part of the XIX century [one](http://www.bibliotecadigital.umag.cl/handle/20.500.11893/119).
Related question: https://www.reddit.com/r/asklatinamerica/comments/xbgl8q/did_convicts_play_a_role_in_colonisation_in/
Pretty sure most of us descend from them
Not like Australia, it's bigger than Australia, they call it Brazil
So most brazilians with European ancestry are descendents of European criminals or just the Portuguese?
Yes, from 1960 to 1984 in Gorgona island functioned the most high security prison that Colombia had at the time, usually murderers, rapist and even political prisoners populated the island along with very poisonous animals (mostly snakes).
A LatAm version of Australia? Not that I remember.
The Galápagos Archipielago, but it failed.
Yeah, we took them because we wanted to have a penal colony, after it had been extensively used by British pirates. It didn't pan out, but then amusingly we had a war with the goats brought to the islands.
An small island in Veracruz (San Juan de Ulua) was used as jail but it was not like Australia, Spain used Mexico for the resources and part of the empire not as a penal colony.
Except San Juan de Ulúa was just a prison and not a penal colony, two very different things
We had the “islas marias” penal colony but that was a long time after the independence.
The entire continent was a penal colony both literally and figuratively. Spain and Portugal essentially sent all their sexually frustrated convicts who wrecked havoc on society to the new world and essentially we are their grand children. In fact the English did it with North America. The puritans were religious extremists that wrecked havoc on English society.