ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses Warfare, its approximations, and the search for peace. They incorporate political, ideological, diplomatic, and other elements. The presentation is organized by categories of warfare, which often have overlapping elements. Citations on individual Latin American states are included. The sequence of presentation is as follows: the first, the nineteenth-century movements for independence by Spanish Americans from Spain and Brazilians from Portugal; and the second is inter–Latin American conflicts—boundary and territorial disputes and interstate warfare, in which extraregional states were sometimes involved. The third is external state interventions—European and US intrusions in Mexico, European actions in South America, and US imperialist and sphere of influence involvement in the circum-Caribbean. The fourth is world events—the Spanish-American War, the two world wars, the Cuban missile crisis, Cuba in Africa, and Argentine-British conflict in the South Atlantic. The fifth is Latin American internal war—social revolutions and insurgency. The last, the Central American conflict after 1979 and the peace process.
