ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the relationships among the states that emerged from the ruins of Spanish and Portuguese empires in Latin America. The United States enters the discussion here to the extent that it has presented challenges and problems that Latin American states have tried to address in their foreign policies and in their dealings with each other. The remainder of the nineteenth century in Latin America was most notable, perhaps, for the culmination of a long-term trend. One of the first indications of concern about international economic issues on the part of Latin American states was their proposal to form the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA) as a part of the new United Nations organization. Nevertheless, by the end of the 1960s, both organizations were showing signs of strain resulting in part from suspicions among less developed members that they were not sharing equally in the benefits of integration.
