GUIDING QUESTION How did colonialism influence the history and government of Central America and the Caribbean?

Colonialism, that is, the policies carried out by the European powers to obtain territories abroad and exploit them economically within the framework of mercantilist economic production, forever marked the destiny of the different nations that emerged from the colonized territories.  

This was the case, among others, of the nations of Central America and the Caribbean, where powers such as Spain, England, France, the Netherlands and Portugal established different colonies, transferring their cultures to these territories, to the detriment of native cultures, which they were displaced and in many cases wiped out by the colonizers.

In this way, the nations of these regions are the product of said colonialist intervention: their peoples emerge from the mixture of Europeans, slaves, natives and later migrants, and their cultures are also a mixture between these nations. In addition, politically these countries have adopted Western systems, leaving aside the systems applied by the natives.