Content provided in partnership with

A whole new world?

National Interest, The, Winter, 2001 by William J. Perry

Michael Wood, Conquistadors (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2000), 288 pp., $27.

Robert Harvey, Liberators: Latin America's Struggle for Independence, 1810-1830 (Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 2000), 561 pp., $40.

Octavio Paz, translated by Jason Wilson, preface by Charles Tomlinson, Itinerary: An Intellectual Journey (New York: Harcourt, 1999), 129 pp., $22.

Howard Wiarda, The Soul of Latin America: the Cultural and Political Tradition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), 417 pp., $35.

Most Popular Articles in Business: Research and Markets : Tesco Plc - SWOT Framework Analysis; Do Us a Flavor - Ben & Jerry's Issues a Call for Euphoric New Flavors; eBay made easy: ready to start an eBay business? These 5 simple steps will ...; Katrina's lawsuit surge: a legal battle to force insurers to pay for flood ...; Wal-Mart's newest distribution center opened last month near the southwest ...; More »

GEORGE W. BUSH has seized enthusiastically upon what had initially been his father's concept--a comprehensive Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)--as, hopefully, one of the most personal hallmarks of his presidency. At a summit of hemispheric leaders in Quebec this April, general agreement was secured for conclusion of such an historic accord by January 1, 2005--with universal ratification to follow by the end of that year. If successful, this process would make NAFTA the world's largest trading bloc, comprised of some 900 million people and boasting a combined annual GDP approaching $10 trillion. Even more fundamentally, by laying the basis for an evermore integrated Western Hemisphere community of nations, it would imply a considerable revision of past U.S. geostrategic priorities (traditionally oriented across the Atlantic toward Europe), over the course of the new century (and era) that we are now entering.

The original impetus for this visionary construct came at a time of unusual optimism. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, almost anything seemed possible. Meanwhile, on the hemispheric scene, an irresistible tide seemed to favor democratic government and the free-market economic model--something that Washington wished to encourage both to ensure local stability and to strengthen its own position in the competitive world of the future. Since that time, however, the United States--while doing much better economically vis-a-vis Europe and Asia than was generally expected--has come to confront several perplexing and perilous new difficulties around the globe, dramatically highlighted by the horrific events of September 11. In Latin America, the administration now faces a fresh constellation of social, economic, security and political problems that threaten the future of democracy and the free market in the region, and that generate both direct and indirect dangers for the United Sta tes. Moreover, on the domestic front, there is an increasingly visible resistance to commercial integration--especially within developing countries (and, indeed, with respect to globalization generally)--that progressively paralyzed progress toward a comprehensive, inter-American trade zone during the Clinton years.

It is therefore time for a deeper consideration of the basis for an ambitious, long-term policy that envisages ever-greater integration of the United States with its hemispheric neighbors. The historic experience of Latin America over the past five centuries is markedly different from that of the United States and Canada. In creating any sort of hemisphere-wide association, therefore, a better appreciation of what makes Latin America distinctive from its northern neighbors is critical. In this regard, four new books, each addressing a particular facet in the history and development of Latin America, can help us.

Conquistadors, by Michael Wood, highlights the epic saga of how Latin America's most advanced native civilizations were subjugated by and integrated within a vigorously emergent Spanish empire (Brazil and the non-Hispanic Caribbean are not directly treated). Wood's work has the flavor of a somewhat whimsical travelogue (not surprising from a maker of BBC documentaries) as he takes the reader from place to often-remote place, stopping at each to explain the historical significance of the venue. In four chapters, beautifully illustrated with abundant photographs, he escorts us through Cortes' conquest of Mexico, the Pizzaro brothers' equally amazing exploits in Peru, Orellana's travails in descending the Amazon from its source to the sea, and of Cabeza de Vaca's eight-year odyssey by boat to Florida and then on foot from Texas up the Rio Grande and across to the Pacific Ocean.

In Liberators, British journalist Robert Harvey deals with the course of events three centuries later that freed the region from the by-then decrepit Iberian monarchies--resulting in the creation of the independent nations we know today. Harvey's volume employs a series of interlocking biographies of the principal figures to illustrate the region's struggle for independence. Among those profiled are Francisco Miranda, Simon Bolivar, Jose de San Martin, Bernardo O'Higgins, Thomas Lord Cochrane (the British naval officer who assisted in the Peruvian and Chilean campaigns), Pedro I, first emperor of Brazil, and the Mexican triumvirate of Miguel Hidalgo, Jose Maria Morelos and Agustin de Iturbide.

A whole new world?

National Interest, The, Winter, 2001 by William J. Perry

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Business

Most Popular Articles in Business

Most Popular Publications in Business