ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the US economic and political power influenced South America's internal struggles for equality, usually to the advantage of oligarchic interests. It also examines the evolution of the relations between the USA and South America in a series of historical epochs. The chapter show how each epoch was characterized by a different form of US interventionism, albeit with the same function: the domination of states and societies in South America through markets. The history of inter-American relations is rooted in the imperial pasts of the Western Hemisphere. The liberal republics that emerged out of the wreckage of the British and Iberian empires were products of their colonial experiences, the interactions of their respective empires, as well as engagements between the people of the Americas. The civilizing mission could not be imposed on South America, but positivist regimes embraced the transformational power of US investment.
