Monarchies in the Americas The royalists went to the polls divided, with the press indicating there were actually two princes aspiring to the Brazilian throne (Dom Luiz de Orleans e Bragança and Dom João Henrique); this created some confusion among the voters. The entire island of Hispaniola was first claimed on 5 December 1492, by Christopher Columbus, for Queen Isabella, and the first Viceroy of the Americas was established along with a number of colonies throughout the Island. With the later discovery of Mexico and Peru many of the early settlers left for the main land, but some twelve cities and a hundred thousand
Islam in the Americas Caribbean came from the Indian subcontinent as labourers following the abolition of slavery. This movement also reached Suriname, although other Muslims there moved from another Dutch colony, which is now Indonesia. In the United States, the largest Muslim ethnic group is of African Americans, who converted in the last century, including the syncretic, radical and revisionist Nation of Islam. However, in South America, the Muslim population is mainly composed of wealthy immigrants from the Levant, including Lebanese and Syrians. Shia Muslims comprise 15-20% of Muslims in the Americas. Nearly 786,000 Shia Muslims are situated on United States. The American Shia