This study, the first of its kind in English, examines Russian responses to the independence movement in Latin America during the early nineteenth century. From a strictly presentist perspective, the investigation of this subject contributes to the historiography of colonialism and of Latin America's relations with the major world powers. In addition, it rounds out the story of foreign interests in the emancipation of Spanish and Portuguese America, while at the same time shedding new light on the history of Russian overseas expansion. The study probes the major determinants of Russian responses to the struggle for independence of colonial Latin America and evaluates, from a European perspective, the actual impact of tsarist policy on the course of those historic events. Drawing on a wide range of printed materials and on hitherto unused manuscript sources from the archives and libraries of Spain, Portugal, Brazil, and the USSR, it isolates Russian New World objectives during the first decades of the nineteenth century and relates those objectives to the formulation of tsarist policy toward the insurgent Iberian colonies.

Latin America's quest for independence is revealed through the national struggles of Mexico, Spanish Central and South America, and Brazil. Excerpted from the Cambridge History of Latin America.

Jackson's Sword is the initial volume in a monumental two-volume work that provides a sweeping panoramic view of the U.S. Army and its officer corps from the War of 1812 to the War with Mexico, the first such study in more than forty years. Watson's chronicle shows how the officer corps played a crucial role in stabilizing the frontiers of a rapidly expanding nation, while gradually moving away from military adventurism toward a professionalism subordinate to civilian authority. Jackson's Sword explores problems of institutional instability, multiple loyalties, and insubordination as it demonstrates how the officer corps often undermined-and sometimes supplanted-civilian authority with regard to war-making and diplomacy on the frontier. Watson shows that army officers were often motivated by regionalism and sectionalism, as well as antagonism toward Indians, Spaniards, and Britons. The resulting belligerence incited them to invade Spanish Florida and Texas without authorization and to pursue military solutions to complex intercultural and international dilemmas. Watson focuses on the years when Andrew Jackson led the Division of the South—often contrary to orders from his civilian superiors—examining his decade-long quasi-war with Spaniards and Indians along the northern border of Florida. Watson explores differences between army attitudes toward the Texas and Florida borders to explain why Spain ceded Florida but not Texas to the United States. He then examines the army's shift to the western frontier of white settlement by focusing on expeditions to advance U.S. power up the Missouri River and drive British influence from the Louisiana Purchase. More than merely recounting campaigns and operations, Watson explores civil-military relations, officer socialization, commissioning, resignations, and assignments, and sets these in the context of social, political, economic, technological, military, and cultural changes during the early republic and the Age of Jackson. He portrays officers as identifying with frontiersmen and southern farmers and lacking respect for civilian authority and constitutional processes-but having little sympathy for civilian adventurers-and delves deeply into primary sources that reveal what they thought, wrote, and did on the frontier. As Watson shows, the army's work in the borderlands underscored divisions within as well as between nations. Jackson's Sword captures an era on the eve of military professionalism to shed new light on the military's role in the early republic.

The study of Latin American and Caribbean international relations has a long evolution both within the development of international relations as a general academic undertaking and in terms of the particular characteristics that distinguish the approaches taken by scholars in the field. This handbook provides a thorough multidisciplinary reference guide to the literature on the various elements of the international relations of Latin America and the Caribbean. Citing over 1600 sources that date from the nineteenth century to the present, with emphasis on recent decades, the volume's analytic essays trace the evolution of research in terms of concepts, issues, and themes. The Handbook is a companion volume to Atkins' Latin America and the Caribbean in the International System, Fourth Edition, but also serves as an invaluable stand-alone reference volume for students, scholars, researchers, journalists, and practitioners, both official and private.

Volume III looks at the period of history in Latin America from independence to c.1870.

Featuring numerous updates and revisions, U.S. and Latin American Relations, 2nd Edition offers in-depth theoretical and historical analyses to explore the complex dynamic between the United States and the countries that comprise Latin America. Presents a theoretical framework that allows readers to view U.S.-Latin American relations from both a regional and global context Reviews the history of U.S.-Latin American relations from the 19th century to the present, including in-depth coverage of the ways political events in Cuba have shaped policy Examines former issues of conflict that are now areas of cooperation, such as debt and trade, immigration, human rights, illegal drugs, and terrorism Incorporates primary documents to place issues within historical context

Discusses the ill-fated Vine and Olive Colony within the context of America's westward expansion and the French Revolution

The overthrow of Viceroy Joaqu&ín de la Pezuela on 29 January 1821 has not received much attention from historians, who have viewed it as a simple military uprising. Yet in this careful study of the episode, based on deep archival research, Patricia Marks reveals it to be the culmination of decades of Peruvian opposition to the Bourbon reforms of the late eighteenth century, especially the Reglamento de comercio libre of 1778. It also marked a radical change in political culture brought about by the constitutional upheavals that followed Napolean's invasion of Spain. Although Pezuela's overthrow was organized and carried out by royalists among the merchants and the military, it proved to be an important event in the development of the independence movement as well as a pivotal factor in the failure to establish a stable national state in post-independence Peru. The golpe de estado may thereby be seen as an early manifestation of Latin American praetorianism, in which a sector of the civilian population, unable to prevail politically and unwilling to compromise, pressures army officers to act in order to &"save&" the state.

This book was first published in 1989. The Soviet presence and purposes in Latin America are a matter of great controversy, yet no serious study was hitherto combined with a regional perspective (concentrating on the nature and regional impact of Soviet activity on the ground) and diplomatic analysis, examining the strategic and ideological factors that influence Soviet foreign policy. Nicola Miller's lucid and accessible survey of Soviet-Latin American relations over the past quarter-century demonstrates clearly that existing, heavily 'geo-political' accounts distort the real nature of Soviet activity in the area, closely constrained by local political, social and geographical factors. In a broadly chronological series of case-studies Dr Miller argues that, American counter-influence apart, enormous physical and communicational barriers obstruct Soviet-Latin American relations and that the lack of economic complementarity imposes a natural obstacle to trading growth: even Cuba, often cited as 'proof' of Soviet designs upon the area, is only an apparent exception.

Though the participation of France in the American Revolution is well established in the historiography, the role of Spain, France’s ally, is relatively understudied and underappreciated. Spain's involvement in the conflict formed part of a global struggle between empires and directly influenced the outcome of the clash between Britain and its North American colonists. Following the establishment of American independence, the Spanish empire became one of the nascent republic's most significant neighbors and, often illicitly, trading partners. Bringing together essays from a range of well-regarded historians, this volume contributes significantly to the international history of the Age of Atlantic Revolutions.