POLITICS AND MARKETS
IN LATIN AMERICA
Colonial Legacies
in the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata
Colonialism in Argentina
Before the Encounter
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Characterized by sparse populations of relatively
small, isolated, and semi-nomadic tribes
Some Indigenous Groups:
 North/Costal:
Tupi, Guarani
 Mountain Highlands: Kolla, Calchaquí
 Grasslands: Charrúa, Pampa
Colonialism in Argentina
After the Encounter
Settlement Patterns: Viceroyalty Río de la Plata
• Permanent
settlement by
Europeans
• Eviction of
indigenous groups
Viceroyalties
in 1784
Economic Structures
•
Economic Life: mercantilism and resource extraction
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•
•
Transportation: rivers to the interior, ports for
international shipping
Ranching: hides and tallow
Economic opportunity was tied to Royal patronage
•
•
•
Grant of Encomienda
Internal trade regulation
Monopolization of oceanic trade
Political Structures
Political Structures
–
Absolutism AND a disregard for the law
•
–
While maintaining de jure legal authority, the high cost of
intervention in remote areas meant that day to day
governance was left to local authorities
Sources of influence
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•
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Landowners: the ability to employ and to grant/deny access
to large parcels of land
Merchants: centralized credit networks, without access to
which rural production and consumption would be blocked;
absentee ownership of estancias
Popular influence: based on nonobservance of the law and
refusal to others’ interests
Social Structures
Social Stratification
• Crown officials
• Urban merchants
• Rural estate holders
• Managers of estancias
• Rural small-holders
• Non-white peoples
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•
•
•
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Mestizo (European/indig)
Mulatto (European/black)
Indigenous
Zambo (indig/black)
Black
Xenophobia
• Christian theology
questions the humanity
of indigenous groups
• The “white” myth
Caudillos and patronísmo
Colonial Legacies
Chasteen argues that: "For Latin America, conquest
and colonization by the Spanish and Portuguese
created patterns of social domination that became
eternal givens…" (p. 29)
Is this a convincing argument?
If so, what is it about Spanish colonial structures that
made them so strong?
If not, what is a plausible alternative interpretation?