This book provides a study of the transformation of the Latin American oil system from one in which the international oil companies dominated to one which is dominated by the main state oil companies, and an account of how some of the more important of the state companies have operated. This comprehensive guide to the evolution of the Latin American oil system combines in one volume a synthesis of material from secondary sources and original research and thus provides an invaluable reference for all concerned with the history and economy of Latin America and with the development and...

This is an introductory survey of the history and recent development of Latin American economy and society from colonial times to the establishment of the military regime in Chile. In the second edition the historical perspective has been enlarged and important events since the Cuban Revolution, such as the agrarian reforms of Peru and Chile, the difficulties of the Central America Common Market and LAFTA, the acceleration of industrialisation in Brazil and the consolidation of the Cuban economy, are discussed. The statistical information has been extended to the early 1970s and the...

This book provides a general history of Latin America in the period between the European conquest and the gaining of independence by the Spanish American countries and Brazil (approximately 1492-1825). It is both an introduction for the student at the college level and a provisionally updated synthesis of the quickly changing field for the more experienced reader. The authors' aim is not only to treat colonial Brazil and colonial Spanish America in a single volume, something rarely done, but also to view early Latin America as one unit with a centre and peripheries, all parts of which were...

This study examines the history of the sugar economy and the peculiar development of plantation society over a three hundred year period in Bahia, a major sugar plantation zone and an important terminus of the Atlantic slave trade. Drawing on little-used archival sources, plantations accounts, and notarial records, Professor Schwartz has examined through both quantitative and qualitative methods the various groups that made up plantation society. While he devotes much attention to masters and slaves, he views slavery ultimately as part of a larger structure of social and economic relations....

Uruguay was once the most stable democracy in Latin America, but in 1973 the military seized power for the first time. Political parties did not disappear, however, even though they were made illegal. By the 1980s Uruguay's generals were anxious to find a way to withdraw from power. Yet they continued to insist on certain guarantees as the price for holding elections. The issue of whether to make any concessions to the military came to divide the country's three major parties--the Blancos, the Colorados, and the Left. Nevertheless, the latter two parties eventually did agree to a pact in July...

This volume aims to establish that the period between World War II and the beginning of the Cold War (1944-5 to 1947-8) represents an important conjuncture in the political and social history of Latin America in the twentieth century. The volume contains an Introduction and a Conclusion by the editors and case studies of eleven of the twenty Latin American republics. Despite differences of political regime and different levels of economic and social development there are striking similarities in the experiences of the majority of the Latin American republics in this period. For most of Latin...

This book examines the characteristics of political power in the cities of the colonial Spanish Empire between the 1740s and 1780s, based on a detailed study of the mining city of Oruro in Alto Peru (present-day Bolivia), emphasizing the workings of the judicial system and the role of the bureaucracy. Toward the end of this period, the analysis focuses on the Indian uprisings of the 1780s (the rebellions of Tupac Amaru) and the reasons that led to the alliances or confrontations between the actors of the distinct bands, whether white or Indian.

This study investigates the historical and political conditions which have contributed to the state of the Protestant community in China, and the kinds of spirituality and religious life that it has evolved. The authors draw on extensive fieldwork, and offer fascinating insights into the beliefs and practices of a little-documented section of Chinese society. They show that healing, protection, and vengeance by gods have been deep-rooted elements of Chinese religiosity for several hundred years, notions appropriated by Christians who now emphasize the powers of Jesus. Chinese Protestantism is...

This book is the first to describe the role of business interest groups, also known as pressure groups, in the development of Brazil during the nineteenth century. Business interest groups strongly affected the modernization and prosperity of agriculture, the pace of industrialization, and patterns of communications. The commercial associations, the most important of business interest groups, also may be seen as institutions through which ties of dependency to better-developed nations overseas were maintained.

This volume presents a quantitative study of Cuban slavery from the late eighteenth century until 1880, the year slavery was formally abolished on the island. The core of this study is an examination of the yearly movement of slave prices and changes in the demographic characteristics of the slave market. Incorporating over 30,000 slave transactions from three separate locations in Cuba--Havana, Santiago, and Cienfuegos--this work comprises the largest extant database on any slave market in the Americas.