ABSTRACT
Latin American geopolitics does not begin with the construction of nationstates after independence in the early nineteenth century (or late nineteenth century in the Brazilian case). Much of the work on geography and the organisation of space within the continent does indeed tend to begin with the ‘discovery’ by the Europeans and suggests that the political division of the New World is still unconcluded today; this is the view of Derwent Whittlesey for example. However, while geopolitical debates and disputes are certainly not concluded over much of the continent, the spatial division of the continent among Amerindian social groups during the pre-Columbian period has equal importance for the long-term evolution of boundary and other spatial organisation issues, such as urban and economic production locations.
