Review of the Colonial Heritage of Latin America by Barbara and Stanley Stein
"The English had been the major factor in the destruction of Iberian imperialism; on its ruins they erected the informal imperialism of free trade and investment.
" (155) In this statement, buried late in Barbara and Stanley Stein's micro-tome on the economic dependence of both Spain and its new-world colonies through the last few centuries, sums up what the pair prodigiously expound.
Anything but terse, the Steins move with thorough inspection; from pre-colonial economic webs and hierarchical constraints that existed in Europe that framed the manner in which the Spanish and Portuguese would carry out their affairs across the Atlantic, into a lengthy scrutiny of colonial economies and society, and finally, into the post-colonial or neo-colonial government, economy and culture in Latin America.
The authors investigate the unique conditions of the colonial white elite, the social and economic caste systems and their eventual evolution.
They elucidate the various commercial apparatus that was to move the Amerinds and other poor-subsistence worker into the arms of the hacienda owner's lands, the deterioration of small-family ran traditional farmsteads under the wake of plantation and large land-grabs in the name of progress.
The book does well in revealing the mirroring systems that the Creoles set up in the stead of their colonial master's.
The book goes into much detail and evidence for every period and system it tackles.
Yet, what appears in the tail end, and less grounded in history but more of a forecast of prognostication that belies all optimism, is the Stein's belief that "the area (Latin America) as a bloc does not constitute a structure of society, economy, and politics perceptively transformed beyond what was present at the end of the nineteenth century.
" (198) The idea that lies here is that Latin America, as a whole has yet to move out from under its colonial past, that it is still working under undeveloped and underwhelming politics, policies, economic systems and social thoughts.
This is a rather bleak punctuation to what I believe to be a very topical and timely study of an area that has seen great change under some very trying situations.
Socio-economic struggles of color, breeding and heritage, evolution of a national character, the challenge of economic modernization and diversification in post-slavery, these are all hurdles that the Latin American world has waged war against in the past two centuries.
Though, as the book rightly expresses, these lands have much to do, much to address socially, politically and economically, their growth and merits they have achieved respectively in these three arenas should not be overshadowed by the fetters of the conditions that they were placed by both colonial and neo-colonial methodology and heritage.
The Steins themselves point out just how this cannot be casually attained.
Beyond pointing out that the colonies were "imperfectly organized, export-oriented...
", they render their pessimistically-prophetic epilogue unjust when they aver that: "It is apparent that under-developed areas cannot easily modernize their economies and transform traditional societies and aristocratic values and aspirations.
" (19)
" (155) In this statement, buried late in Barbara and Stanley Stein's micro-tome on the economic dependence of both Spain and its new-world colonies through the last few centuries, sums up what the pair prodigiously expound.
Anything but terse, the Steins move with thorough inspection; from pre-colonial economic webs and hierarchical constraints that existed in Europe that framed the manner in which the Spanish and Portuguese would carry out their affairs across the Atlantic, into a lengthy scrutiny of colonial economies and society, and finally, into the post-colonial or neo-colonial government, economy and culture in Latin America.
The authors investigate the unique conditions of the colonial white elite, the social and economic caste systems and their eventual evolution.
They elucidate the various commercial apparatus that was to move the Amerinds and other poor-subsistence worker into the arms of the hacienda owner's lands, the deterioration of small-family ran traditional farmsteads under the wake of plantation and large land-grabs in the name of progress.
The book does well in revealing the mirroring systems that the Creoles set up in the stead of their colonial master's.
The book goes into much detail and evidence for every period and system it tackles.
Yet, what appears in the tail end, and less grounded in history but more of a forecast of prognostication that belies all optimism, is the Stein's belief that "the area (Latin America) as a bloc does not constitute a structure of society, economy, and politics perceptively transformed beyond what was present at the end of the nineteenth century.
" (198) The idea that lies here is that Latin America, as a whole has yet to move out from under its colonial past, that it is still working under undeveloped and underwhelming politics, policies, economic systems and social thoughts.
This is a rather bleak punctuation to what I believe to be a very topical and timely study of an area that has seen great change under some very trying situations.
Socio-economic struggles of color, breeding and heritage, evolution of a national character, the challenge of economic modernization and diversification in post-slavery, these are all hurdles that the Latin American world has waged war against in the past two centuries.
Though, as the book rightly expresses, these lands have much to do, much to address socially, politically and economically, their growth and merits they have achieved respectively in these three arenas should not be overshadowed by the fetters of the conditions that they were placed by both colonial and neo-colonial methodology and heritage.
The Steins themselves point out just how this cannot be casually attained.
Beyond pointing out that the colonies were "imperfectly organized, export-oriented...
", they render their pessimistically-prophetic epilogue unjust when they aver that: "It is apparent that under-developed areas cannot easily modernize their economies and transform traditional societies and aristocratic values and aspirations.
" (19)
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