ABSTRACT
Three hypotheses frame this chapter. First, that in the hundred years between the 1840s and the 1940s, many Latin American states achieved the substance of sovereignty: they obtained international recognition, defined, and came to control national frontiers and exercised authority within those boundaries. Second, that state formation was conditioned by ideas and agents imported from overseas and that Latin American “state-builders” of the period saw no conflict between this and constructing “national” sovereignty. Third, that if elsewhere states were “made” by capitalists, in Latin America states created business. For much of the period Latin American decision-takers regarded the continent as part of the Western, capitalist world. Furthermore, there was little echo of a desire for distance from Europe, a sentiment that shaped US views of international relations and played a powerful role in domestic politics. The promulgation of the Monroe Doctrine by the USA in the 1820s excited little attention. Bolivian attempts to foster americanismo either ignored or were designed to marginalize the USA while trying to engage British and French attention.
