ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to carry out a historical retrospective of the strategic sense given to the Southern Common Market (Mercado Común del Sur – Mercosur) by its members, from the date of its foundation in 1991 to the present day. The introduction is followed by four sections. The second concerns the period 1991–2002, called ‘the economic-commercial phase’; the third looks at the period between 2003 and 2010, called ‘the social, political, participatory and distributive phase’; the fourth, which covers the period 2011 to late 2017, is defined here as ‘the uncertainty phase’. The last section offers three fundamental conclusions about the development of the Mercosur regional integration process throughout its history.
