The Brazilian Monarchy and the South American Republics, 1822-1831: Diplomacy and State Building

xvi+187 pages with maps, plates, bibliography and index. Royal octavo (9 1/4" x5 3/4") bound in original publisher's purple cloth with gilt lettering to spine in original pictorial jacket. First edition. This monograph discusses the development of international relations between the South American nations in the years immediately following their achievement of independence. The author seeks to give shape to a potentially amorphous subject by focusing on Brazil a decision he justifies not only because of its dominating size, its contiguity to all the other countries except Chile, and the advantages it derived from the continuity of its monarchy and bureaucracy with the colonial regime, but also on account of its early pretensions to continental leadership. He goes on to show how these aspirations aroused suspicion and hostility on the part of the revolutionary republics of Spanish America, so that initially there was much antagonism. This, however, alternated with hopes, entertained at times by both Brazilian and Spanish American leaders, of collaboration in some form of American organization. The study demonstrates, however, that national interests rather than any wider principles quickly came to dominate intra South American relations, and suggests that difficulties of communication and the internal instability of most of the new nations confined their operation very much to a local rather than a continental context. A substantial part of the book is taken up with illustrating this point by reference to the failure of the diplomatic efforts of the participants in the Argentine-Brazilian dispute and war over Uruguay and the Peruvian conflict with Colombia and Bolivia to secure the direct involvement of any other South American countries. Much of the author s argument was outlined in his article on South American Power Politics during the 1820s (HAHR, May 1976). But here the whole context is set out in a clear analytical framework, with a wealth of documentation drawn from a wide range of sources, including the archives of the foreign ministries of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. An introductory chapter on Brazil and the International Environment sets the scene effectively for nonspecialists, but they are given little further consideration in the remainder of the book. Although the author quite properly gives precedence to the development of his argument, there arc several points at which he might helpfully have provided a few more background facts. At the least a chronology of relevant events, incorporating a list of the various ministers, officials, and diplomatic representatives with the dates of their missions, might have been appended. Nevertheless this volume is a very welcome addition to the extremely limited bibliography in English on South American international relations, and it merits the attention of historians of nineteenth-century Latin America. Condition: Spine sunned else fine in near fine jacket.