ABSTRACT
Interpreting the Latin American past from the period of independence to the challenges the imagination of any historian. One prominent theme emerges to provide a sobering interpretation of the past, to give meaning, to impart understanding of Latin America’s national period. However, Latin America boasts of natural resources, including fertile lands, proportionate to any other comparable area in the world. Iberian institutions, which are to say those institutions developed by Spain and Portugal, embodied a curious mixture of feudalism and capitalism at the time of the discovery and conquest of the New World. During the long colonial period, the psychology of the Latin Americans, particularly the elite, a majority of whom were Europeans born in the New World changed significantly. Nationalism became a better defined force as more and more Latin Americans expressed greater pride in their homelands, appreciated their uniqueness, and pursued their visions of progress.
