GENERAL CONDITIONS IN LATIN AMERICA
The New World or Western Hemisphere consists of two continents. The greater part of the northern continent is occupied by two great Powers, which may be described as mainly Anglo-Saxon in origin and character. One of them, the Canadian Federation, is a monarchy, covering the northern part of the continent. The other, a republic, the United States, occupies the middle part. To the south and south-east of these two extensive and powerful countries stretch the twenty republics, mainly Iberian in origin and character, which constitute Latin America. These lands cover an area which is about twice the size of Europe or three times the size of the United States. Their population approaches eighty millions. Latin America, extending as it does through every habitable latitude from the north temperate zone to the Antarctic seas, possesses every climate and every variety of soil, and accordingly yields, or can be made to yield, all the vegetable and animal products of the whole world. Moreover, most of the republics also severally contain territory of every habitable altitude, so that a man can change his climate from torrid to temperate and from temperate to frigid simply by walking up-hill. Thus, equatorial lands can produce within the range of a few miles all the products of every zone. Most of the republics also furnish an abundance and variety of mineral products. The name Costa Rica, or Coast of Riches, which was given by the early discoverers to a small strip of the mainland, was prophetic of all its shores. And the fable of El Dorado, concerning its interior wealth, has proved to be not fabulous but only allegorical.
Geographical Grouping
The geographical distribution of these republics should be indicated. Three of them are island states of the Caribbean Sea. Cuba is the largest of the Antilles; Santo Domingo and Haiti divide between them the next largest. The rich tropical fertility of these West Indian isles has been a proverb for centuries and need not here be emphasised. Upon the mainland, the vast territory of Mexico and the five Central-American republics may be grouped together, forming as they do a kind of sub-continent, a narrowed continuation of North America. Through this region a broad mountain-mass curves from north-west to south-east. This configuration provides the characteristics and the varied products of every zone upon the same parallel of latitude: the torrid coastal strips, bordering both oceans; the beautiful, wholesome and productive region of the central plateau and long upland valleys; and finally the chilly inhospitable regions of the mountain heights. The long sweep of the country south-eastwards through the tropics also provides a wide range of character, from the cattle-rearing plains of Northern Mexico to the coffee and banana plantations of Costa Rica. Nowhere are lands of richer possibilities to be found.
The small newly-created Republic of Panamá completes this northern system of Latin-American countries. Thus, before coming to South America at all, we count ten Latin-American states, three in the Antilles, seven upon the mainland.
The other ten republics lie within the continent of South America. That continent is shaped by nature in lines of a vast and imposing simplicity, so that it is possible to sketch its main features in a few words. It is divided broadly into mountain, forest and plain—the immense chain of the Andes, the vast Amazonian forests, the wide-stretching plains of the Pampa, and the colossal water system of the three rivers, Orinoco, Amazon, La Plata. The dominating element is the great backbone, the cordillera of the Andes. From the southern islands of Tierra del Fuego this cordillera stretches for 4000 miles along the Pacific coast to the northern peninsulas of the Spanish Main, and thence throws out a great eastward curve along the southern shore of the Caribbean Sea. This continuous mountain-wall, clinging closely to the Pacific coast, determines the whole character of the continent. In the tropical zone, the trade winds, blowing continually from the Atlantic, sweep across South America until they strike this towering mountain barrier. Then they shed their moisture on its eastern slopes, which give birth to the multitudinous upper waters of the Orinoco, the Amazon and the western affluents of the River Plate. The Amazon rather resembles a slowly moving inland sea, its twelve principal tributaries all surpassing the measure of European rivers. The River Plate pours into the ocean more water than all the rivers of Europe put together. The Orinoco, shorter but not less voluminous, drains a vast area with its 400 tributaries.
But the Andes, whose forest-clad eastern slopes pour these immeasurable water-floods across the whole continent to the Atlantic, oppose to the Pacific, in the southern tropics, a bare dry wall of rock and yellow sand. In the north, the garrua, the winter mist of equatorial Peru, supplies moisture for cultivation. South of this region, the rainless desert stretches, a ribbon-like strip, between the mountains and the sea. Here, except in some transverse river-valleys, not a blade of grass can grow for over a thousand miles. Yet it is this very barrenness which has produced the materials of fertility for other lands in the form of guano and nitrate deposits. Far to the south, in the "roaring forties," these conditions are reversed. Here, moisture-laden winds blow continually and stormily from the Pacific, feeding the dense and soaking forests of southern Chile. In the same latitudes, to the east of the Andes the terraced plains of Patagonia supply sheep pasture, thinly nourished by slight rainfall, although, over so vast an extent, these flocks amount to many millions. In the more temperate regions, between these zones of climatic extremes, more normal conditions prevail. On one side of the Andes are the rich valleys of Central Chile, on the other side the wide plains of the Argentine Pampa, formerly given over to pasture, now producing wheat, maize, flax, barley and oats as well as meat, hides and wool.
South America has been called the fertile continent. Considering that most of the land lies within the tropics, it might be called the habitable continent—habitable in comfort and health by white men. In form, the continent may be roughly compared with Africa, but the comparison is in favour of South America. The traveller who has sailed along the east or west coast of tropical Africa meets a contrast on crossing the Atlantic. Along the Brazilian coast, he finds a succession of busy ports, crowded with the shipping of all nations—flourishing and growing cities, inhabited largely by Europeans living the normal life of Europe. The perennial trade winds, blowing from the sea, bring coolness and health; and, almost everywhere, the worker in the ports may make his home upon neighbouring hills. On the west coast, tropical conditions are even more striking. Here, a soft south wind blows continually from cooler airs, and the Antarctic current flowing northwards refreshes all the coast. At Lima, twelve degrees from the Line, one may wear European dress at midsummer and, descending a few miles to the coast, may plunge into a sea which is almost too cold. Moreover, in these regions the Andine valleys offer every climate, and a short journey from the coast leads one to uplands resembling southern Europe. Higher yet, beyond the first or western chain of the Andes stretches the vast and lofty plateau enclosed between the double or triple ranges of volcanic mountains. The western part of Bolivia, though tropical in situation, is a temperate land, lying as it does at a height of above 12,000 feet. This broad Bolivian plateau narrows northwards through Peru and finally contracts into the Ecuadorian "avenue of volcanoes." Here, in the very central torrid zone, a double line of towering peaks shoot their fires far above plains and slopes of perpetual snow. Thence the cordillera opens out northwards into the broad triple range of Colombia, which encloses wide river valleys of extraordinary richness and fertile savannahs, enjoying perpetual spring.
Lastly, it should be noted that some of the best part of South America begins where Africa ends. Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Capetown and Sydney lie approximately in the same latitude, about 34° or 35° south. But some of the best parts of Chile and Argentina stretch far to the south of this latitude. Alone of the southern continents, South America thrusts itself far through the cool regions of the temperate zone.
Hitherto, white settlement in South America has, in the main, followed the easiest lines, along the coast, upon the southern plains and up the river courses. Of the three great rivers, the Orinoco is the least developed, partly owing to natural difficulties—namely, an uneven shifting bed and great differences of water level—partly owing to artificial and political conditions; but in the wet season its waters admit navigation up the main stream and its principal western affluent, the Apure, almost to the foothills of the Colombian Andes; and the trade winds, blowing upstream, carry sailing craft half across the continent. Upon the Amazon system, Manaos, one of the great ports of Brazil, is 900 miles from the sea: Iquitos, 2300 miles from salt water, is accessible to the smaller class of ocean steamers. Upon the Paraná, 1000 miles from the ocean, stands the port of Asunción, capital of Paraguay, accessible to ocean ships of shallow draught and to large river steamers: stern-wheel steamers can mount the Paraguay River 1000 miles farther to the remote Brazilian port of Cuyabá.
The navigation of both these river systems, the Amazon and the River Plate, is limited or rather interrupted by the fourth great feature of the continent, the Brazilian plateau. The Paraná and its affluents plunge from this plateau to the southern plain in tremendous waterfalls. The southern tributaries of the Amazon pierce their way down into the Amazonian valley along defiles, cataracts and rapids sometimes extending scores of miles. The Amazonian affluents are mostly navigable from the main river to the foot of these cascades. Above the cascades, there stretch fresh reaches of navigable water, providing many paths into the far interior. Similar conditions are found on the two branches of the River Tocantins and on other Brazilian rivers, such as the São Francisco and the Paranahyba. With the future growth of population, the construction of lateral railways and, later, perhaps the partial canalisation of rivers, there is no limit to the possibilities of internal water communication. The wealth of water power which awaits application is obvious. As to possibilities of water storage and irrigation, it suffices to say that on the Lower Orinoco and also on the Lower Amazon the difference of water level between wet and dry seasons is at least fifty feet, and most of the affluents rise and fall proportionately.
The great Brazilian plateau, which has just been mentioned, further justifies the description of South America as the fertile continent—the region of habitable tropics. The vast scale of this plateau and its relation to the River Plate system justify its description here as a continental feature rather than a purely national feature, although it is mainly a national possession of Brazil. From the north-east shoulder of the Brazilian coast, this varied plateau, seamed by many clefts, stretches southwards and south-westward in a vast semi-circular sweep dividing the two river-systems. The Paraná and its affluents plunge from this plateau towards the south and west. Northwards and eastwards it sends a multitude of streams to the Amazon and the Atlantic. These Brazilian uplands naturally vary in character and productiveness, but they are in great part suitable for white habitation and especially for the grazing of cattle. There is no winter; there is little of excessive or torrid heat; the grass grows all the year round; and in the neighbourhood of some rivers, the grasslands are annually renovated by seasonable and shallow floods.
Political Distribution
Among the republics, the United States of Brazil stand in a class apart, by virtue of the Portuguese origin and character of that country, its very distinct history and its immense size, occupying, as it does, more than half the continent. As to the republics of Spanish origin, no single classification suffices. The most obvious division is that which groups them into tropical and temperate countries. The five republics of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, which lie wholly within the tropics, form a group of states which were closely connected in the early history of emancipation and which are still marked by a general though not very close similarity in respect of geography and ethnological conditions. Chile and Argentina lie mainly in the temperate zone; Uruguay wholly so; and these, with the southern parts of Brazil, are the regions most obviously suitable for white settlement. These three southern republics may also be described as the most European part of the continent, whereas the five tropical republics have a large admixture of indigenous, and, in parts, also of negro, blood.
The small sub-tropical republic of Paraguay, secluded in the interior of the continent, does not quite fall into either group, but belongs to the system of River Plate countries. For the three Atlantic republics of the southern hemisphere, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, form a distinct group or sub-continent known as the "River Plate" and thus suggest a second classification into the Rio-Platense and the Andine states. Lastly, a glance at the map shows that Colombia and Venezuela differ from all their southern neighbours in that they border upon the Caribbean Sea, that Mediterranean Sea of the New World which stretches between the two continents. Thus these two republics complete the circle of that Mediterranean system of lands—the Antilles, Mexico, Central America, Panamá—in which the United States are the dominant Power and in which Great Britain, France and Holland are also members—one may perhaps say subsidiary members. Thus each of these republics of the Spanish Main has a dual character. They are on the one hand South American continental states; but their coasts also face the coasts of the United States, and their borders, to east and west, touch lands which are not purely Latin-American in character. Venezuela, both historically and actually, faces both ways. On the one hand she is the country of the Orinoco, of a vast continental interior: on the other hand she belongs also to the Antillean system: her eastern neighbour is British Guiana, and her territory almost locks fingers with the British island of Trinidad, which is in some sort the distributing commercial centre for all the Spanish Main. Thus Venezuela completes that long Antillean chain which curves from Florida to the Spanish Main, a chain whereof several links are in the possession of the United States. This dual character stands out in the early history of the country. For, during most of the colonial period, Venezuela was the only part of South America not attached to the Viceroyalty of Lima. Eastern Venezuela depended on the Audiencia of Santo Domingo and was thus connected with the Antilles and with the Viceroyalty of Mexico, that is to say with North America. Then followed a period of dependence on the Viceroyalty of Santa Fé de Bogotá, until finally Venezuela was erected into a separate Captaincy-general.
In the Republic of Colombia the dual position has been forced into prominence by recent events. On the one hand Colombia is a Pacific state, an Andine and continental country; yet her chief ports and arteries of communication lead northwards; and, until fifteen years ago, she bestrode the Isthmus of Panamá. In 1903 that Isthmus passed under the control of the United States; and Colombia, which formerly included the province of Panamá, now practically has the United States for her nearest neighbour.
Origin of Divisions
The connexion of these states with Europe dates from the first voyage of Columbus across the Atlantic and from Cabral's voyage to Brazil. The fabric of South America, as it stands today, was constructed in the main during the marvellous half-century from 1492 to 1542. During that time almost all the existing states took shape, and most of the present capitals were founded. That work is chiefly connected with five great names, Columbus, Balboa, Cortes, Magellan, Pizarro. Columbus and his companions or immediate successors founded the Spanish empire on the Antilles and the Spanish Main. Balboa sighted the South Sea, crossed the Isthmus, and claimed that ocean and all its shores for the Crown of Castile. Cortes established the empire of New Spain in North America. Pizarro, starting southwards from Panamá, discovered the empire of the Incas, shattered their power and set in its place a Spanish Viceroyalty.
The political divisions marked out at the conquest, which still subsist in the main, were determined by the course of exploration and conquest. When a separate condottiere hit upon a convenient site for a port and founded a city either upon the sea-board or in some inland situation accessible from the port, his work usually came to be recognised by the creation of a separate government. These conquistadores showed judgment and capacity in their choice of sites and in their marches inland, which naturally followed the most convenient lines of communication. In this way it came about that the political divisions in the Spanish empire were mainly determined by natural economic causes, acting through the rather haphazard experiments of practical men rather than through any deliberate theory. These natural economic conditions are permanent in character: they still persist, and they account in great part for the continuance of the chief political divisions after the achievement of independence and for the failure of ambitious schemes and aspirations after union or federation. Thus the separate "kingdoms" and "captaincies-general" of imperial Spain grew into states and are now growing into nations. An illustration may be found in the Australian colonies. In Australia, separate existence was at first an economic necessity, demanded by the early colonists, owing to the distinct paths of settlement and the distance between ports. Union, achieved later by means of federation, was the work of artificial efforts of statesmanship acting patiently through many difficulties.
The "Indies" were dependencies or possessions of Spain down to the nineteenth century. Viceroys, captains-general and governors were sent out from the Peninsula to rule in the capitals: corregidores held office in the smaller towns[1]: audiencias, at once tribunals and councils, were established in important centres. The course of trade was regulated and was directed solely to the Peninsula. But the strength and the basis of the fabric lay in the municipalities, which, although the councillors' seats were purchased from the Crown or inherited from the original purchasers, nevertheless offered some kind of public career to the inhabitants and afforded the means of local public vitality.
Emancipation
When Napoleon stretched out his hand upon the Spanish royal family and upon the Spanish kingdom, these municipalities everywhere became the channels of patriotic protest and resistance to French pretensions. Owing to the collapse of the monarchy, the unsympathetic and even hostile attitude of successive popular authorities in Spain, and the action of certain resolute leaders guiding the natural development of local activities, these movements in America soon shaped towards separation. In every capital the municipality formed the nucleus of a junta or convention, which first assumed autonomy and then was forced by the logic of events, and particularly by Spanish attempts at repression, to claim republican independence. The resultant struggle was shared in common by all. Buenos Aires, having worked out for herself a fairly tranquil and facile revolution, sent troops under San Martín to aid Chile and to invade the royalist strongholds of Peru. Bolívar, the Caraqueño, liberator of the Spanish Main and of Quito, sent his soldiers southwards through Peru. Finally, Venezuelans and Argentines, from opposite ends of the continent, stood side by side in that battle on the Andine heights of Ayacucho which ended the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru and the Spanish dominion on the continent. The peoples of South America, through all subsequent divisions, have never quite forgotten that in those days they made common cause and united in a combined effort to lay the foundations of what might be a common destiny.
The emancipation of Mexico was a separate movement, which followed a rather different course owing to the Indian origin of most of the population. The issue was confused and hindered by early outbreaks, which were in great part Indian insurrections and class conflicts not directed to any clear aim and tainted by brigandage. An attempt was made to cut the tangle of conflicting interests by the establishment of an independent Mexican monarchy. In 1823 this was overthrown by a military revolt, which started the Mexican republic on its stormy career. The movement of separation from Spain inevitably embraced also the Captaincy-general of Guatemala, which chose separation from Mexico, and assumed the name of Central America—an artificial political term rather than a geographical description. Its five provinces eventually separated into the five republics of Central America.
Events in Brazil shaped themselves differently. Upon the French invasion of Portugal in 1807-8, the Portuguese royal family migrated to Brazil and made Rio for a time the capital of the Portuguese dominions. When King John VI returned to Lisbon in 1821, he left as Regent of Brazil his son Dom Pedro, who, a few months later, supported by Brazilian opinion, threw off allegiance to his father and declared himself an independent sovereign. Thus was established, or rather continued, that Brazilian monarchy which subsisted down to 1889 and which secured to that country tranquillity and a continuous though rather sleepy progress during the stormy period through which Spanish America passed after the achievement of independence.
For the long struggle had been mainly destructive. It had not only swept away Spanish authority, but had blurred and in some parts had erased all authority, all stability and order, had confused or obliterated whatever had existed of political experience or tradition, and had left the ignorant masses a prey to theorists and adventurers. The result was that, for at least a generation after the achievement of independence, most of the Spanish-American states were agitated by a turmoil of multitudinous constitutional experiments, confused conflict and destructive civil war, alternating with periods of rigorous and often tyrannical personal despotism. These movements have been perhaps unfairly judged in Europe. The young communities of Latin America, wanting in political experience and torn by a long and unavoidable struggle, were engaged in sweeping up the débris of their great revolution.
The Republic of Chile in great part escaped that turmoil through the establishment, after a brief period of conflict, of a fairly stable aristocratic oligarchy of landed proprietors. Her three "revolutions" have been landmarks rather than interruptions in her historical development; for they were brief, decisive and conducive to a clearer constitutional definition. Argentina, after the fall of the Dictator Rosas in 1852, began to feel her way towards union and order, and may be said to have achieved that end with the general acceptance of her completed Federal Constitution in 1880. In the tropical republics constitutional agreement was rendered more difficult by the mixture of races, by geographical and climatic obstacles and by a comparative remoteness from European influences. And in the Caribbean lands our own generation has seen Presidential seats occupied by despots of the old type, usually men of imperious and resolute character, dauntless courage and unscrupulous indifference respecting means and methods, men sometimes risen from the lowest station through ruthless force and cunning. Indeed, Mexico, after a period of remarkable economic development under the long autocracy of Porfirio Diaz, relapsed, upon his fall in 1910-11, into the condition of a century ago.
Yet it may be generally said that the decade following 1870 was the beginning of a new era for the Latin-American republics. The extension of steam navigation, the building of railways, machinery applied to agriculture, the influx of immigrants from Southern Europe and of capital from Northern Europe, the growing demand in Europe for foodstuffs and raw materials—all these things favoured, particularly in the south temperate zone, a rapid and very remarkable economic development which accompanied and aided a consolidation and closer cohesion of the social and political fabric.
The outstanding fact in the recent history of Latin America and in her present relations to the war is this economic development, this great creation of new wealth during the past generation. It has been described in many modern books upon the various republics, and can be studied in Consular Reports, which read like romances. The Pampa has become one of the chief granaries of the world; and Buenos Aires, the greatest city of the southern hemisphere, is the centre of a railway system almost equal in extent to that of the United Kingdom. Chile has been enriched by nitrate and copper, Brazil by coffee and rubber. The High Andes have become once more a treasure-house of mineral wealth: tropical hills, valleys and coastal plains yield the riches of their vegetable products.
The date assigned above as the beginning of this great economic increase is the date when the modern German Empire came into complete being. The recent growth of Latin America coincides with the birth and growth of the German industrial system. The organised energy, the patient assiduity, the expanding productiveness of Germany found a great opportunity in meeting the new needs of these rapidly growing countries. Germans won a remarkable position in those lands and had marked out for themselves a yet more ambitious future.
During the same period the United States, having decisively consolidated the Union, has taken its place among the great Powers of the world. That republic has also altered its economic character: for whereas previously the inhabitants had been principally engaged in the internal development of a vast territory and had been exporters mainly of foodstuffs and raw materials, the growth of population has turned them into a commercial people exporting manufactured goods. This dual development, political and economic, has profoundly affected the relations of the United States with Latin America.
Meantime the long-standing and intimate connexion between these lands and the maritime countries of Western Europe has followed a natural and uninterrupted course suffering no signal change except that, quickened by a newly-awakened and more active interest on the part of Europe, it has become closer, more sympathetic and more firmly based upon mutual respect and understanding.
It is the object of the following pages to examine these matters with reference to the Great War, and also to consider generally the bearings of the war upon the development of the Latin-American countries.