Latin American Nationalism Essay ⋆ History Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Latin America’s nationalism emerged as a reaction to the injuries inflicted during the colonial period and later with the wars of independence, revolution, and expansionism that—not surprisingly—generated a defensive stance toward the outside world. After independence, nationalism embraced modernity as a major state-related historical movement toward economic progress, technological innovation, and political liberty. This nationalism tended to be radical yet double ended, since while aiming to vindicate the historical past it also embraced a political project for the future that would solve the modernization imperative.

The origins of nationalism in Latin America can be traced to two key periods: independence and modernization. After independence from the European powers in the 19th century, the need to define a new identity started to shape an image that responded to a sovereign national identity. The colonial period in the Americas extended from the 16th to the early 19th century, a period of nearly 300 years during which different developmental stages followed. It is not necessary to credit the Spaniards for introducing urbanization to America since the Aztec capital already featured monumental architecture, advanced infrastructure networks, highly specialized manufacturing, and a sophisticated administrative urban structure. However, a European city planning framework was implemented following Spanish regulations and building codes (Leyes de las Indias and the Ordenanzas), which dictated basic land, use zoning, streets’ orientation and width, and various forms of land tenure.

Latin American countries gained their independence in the 1800s, when cities were already consolidated as socioeconomic and political centers on the continent. Likewise, at different stages in Latin America, the drive to become “modern” emerged as a requirement to accessing the world-class circuits and financial markets. However, in both cases the creation of national representation responded to the interaction among the networks of power. The glorification of the past is usually framed to convey sentiments and references that sustain a specific power structure. In most cases, the creation of a national image in each country was constructed by the people within the power circle (political, economic, or cultural), who, after considering several national images, identified the desired pattern of modernity. However, it is also clear that popular traditions, beliefs, and aspirations were also included in the construction of the national concept, even when choices were made among the different ways to frame the historical background of the country.

In various Latin American countries at the end of the colonial period in the 19th century, as well as during the industrial drive of the early 20th century, nationalism was modeled after a collage envisioned by the economic and military elites, which centered their aims within the transformation of the capital cities. These images served as a global outlining force that provided coherence and unity to the changing conditions of the territory. The creation of national images at the turn of the 20th century pursued the model of urban cosmopolitanism and modern nationalism epitomized by France. In this sense, the nation represented a Westernized, homogeneous construction oriented toward international markets and ruled and organized by scientific means. However, Latin American nations were also shaped according to the reorganization, invention, and reinterpretation of their past, following the national rhetoric that originated in colonial times. Nationalism had political uses, such as obtaining international acceptance, achieving internal cohesion, and concentrating and consolidating the new political elites. It is also ironic that the search for a flagship identity led individuals to explore their national heritage and history but also opened new means of expressing their identity through new images of modernity. For instance, Latin American countries embraced modern architecture in order to express their cosmopolitan modernity through novel design and avant-garde construction technologies. However, the reaction to recent aesthetic and cultural values was often hatred directed against cultural memories associated with past regimes more than against foreign ideas, recreating the new national identity in this way.

An important element in the construction of modern nationalism was the transformation of capitals into world-class cities. Since modernity demanded infrastructures, communication, and compelling urban environments, cities became the materialization of the national aims themselves. Following Baron Haussmann’s transformation of Paris at the end of the 19th century, Buenos Aires expanded its parks and green areas, Mexico City built its Paseo de la Reforma Boulevard, Santiago created its Santa Lucia and Forestal parks, and Montevideo defined the Prado’s grounds as the next Bois de Boulogne. In most capital cities, Haussman’s ideas were used selectively and limited to specific solutions and projects. However, a strong French influence was always present in the Latin American imagination, also present in education (most Latin American schools were modeled after the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris) and through professional consultancies (Forestier, Rotival, etc.).

Later in the 20th century the continent experienced considerable economic expansion, the modernization of infrastructures, and a process of urbanization without precedent. In the 1930s the industrialization of Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Peru, and Brazil took place and increased right after World War II, when national policies to substitute imports fostered development. The economic centralization of power was to overtly favor national capitals as engines of growth. With World War II, industrialization policies in Latin American cities followed the North American urban model of introducing industrialized construction technology as well as automobile oriented urban schemes that epitomized the ultimate instruments of modernity.

In the 20th century U.S. intervention in Latin American countries expanded, such as in the case of the Panama Canal, the Cuban missile crisis, and the assassination of the democratically elected Salvador Allende in Chile. As a consequence of the growing awareness of interdependence, the Bogotá Conference of 1948 produced the Organization of American States (OAS) to promote hemispheric unity. In short, the biggest challenge that postcolonial states in Latin America have had to face has been their fragility. Right after their independence, the new governments had to substitute the prenational links with a sense of identity and a national commitment to the emerging nation. However, and in order to protect the nation’s vulnerable condition, the states often favored a centralized administration, emphasizing the integration of the territory and stressing the need for political governance despite the different degrees of cohesion. It is not surprising that economic development represented the preeminent way to legitimize diverging loyalties in the territory and transfer them to the new state. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, industrialization led the way to modernity, which for a premature state meant more than a challenge; it was an imperative. In Latin American countries, the governments designed political projects that integrated a common past with a long-desired future, creating a sense of continuity in which the transcendent character of the nation would be revealed.

Bibliography:

Alba, Victor. Nationalists Without Nations: The Oligarchy Versus the People in Latin America. New York: Praeger, 1968;
Deutsch, Karl W. Nationalism and Its Alternatives. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969;
Shafer, Boyd. Faces of Nationalism: New Realities and Old Myths. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1972;
Smith, Anthony D. S. Nationalism in the Twentieth Century. New York: New York University, 1979;
Urban, Greg, and Joel Sherzer. Nation-States and Indians in Latin America. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991;
Whitaker, Arthur, and David C. Jordan. Nationalism in Contemporary Latin America. New York: Free Press, 1966.

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