ABSTRACT
Latin America’s independence was achieved at a high cost economically and in blood. The Creole elite fought for sovereignty but rejected the plans of Bolívar and others for social transformation and Pan-Americanism. Latin America remained economically dependent; its elite looked outwardly, not inwardly, for models of nation- and state-building. After 1850 the elite embarked on projects of modernization, introducing social changes that would bring political change in the next century.
