number of Spanish Latin American countries, from the eight newly created
after independence to eighteen at the end of the century. Some eVective
colonization took place in the heyday of imperialism: French attempts to
control Mexico’s politics in the 1860s led to the conversion of the de facto
British colony of British Honduras into a Crown Colony in 1862. The
European presence was especially marked in the Caribbean Islands. In most
of Latin America, however, direct colonization was not the option chosen by
the external powers, and informal imperialism was practised instead. Eco-
nomic historians have largely ignored the question of whether the imperial
powers tried to obtain from their informal empires more than an economic
gain.This is obviously a complex question whose answer may be attempted by
looking at how antiquities were dealt with. Britain played a key role in the
economy of countries such as Argentina, Chile, and Brazil, whereas France
became one of the main players in Mexico.
As seen in the two previous chapters, the antiquities of the Great Civiliza-
tions of Italy, Greece and Egypt had been understood as the physical remains
of the early phases on a path towards civilization, and those of Mesopotamia
and Palestine as those leading towards Christianity. Perceptions of Latin
American antiquities, however, would generally be very diVerent. From the
beginning the antiquities of Latin America remained in a diYcult position.
They did not respond to the classical or religious canon and therefore could
not be integrated into the past of the Western civilization. However, some
comparisons were attempted. One with Egypt 1 was made by William Bullock,
a man who earned his living organizing exhibitions in his own museum in the
Egyptian Hall in London. He brought casts from Mexico and set them up
with great success in the Egyptian room on the secondXoor of his museum in
London in the 1820s (Aguirre 2005: chs. 1 and 2; Alexander 1985; Fane 1993:
156–8; Graham 1993: 58–63). Also in the 1820s, the excavation of the Mayan
site of Palenque by Antonio del Rı ́o was published in London with drawings
made by a Frenchman, Jean Fre ́de ́ric de Waldeck (1766–1875). SigniWcantly,
this early attention from Britain towards Mexico would not continue. After
the exhibition closed, the British Museum did not express any interest in
buying its contents and preparations were made to sell it in France. Only its
private purchase and subsequent oVer to the British Museum prevented it
from crossing the Channel. A smaller selection of objects was then put on
display in the Ethnographical Gallery, but no other exhibition similar to
Bullock’s would be organized for another 130 years. According to the director
1 Later in the century August Le Plongeon would propose the Mayan area as the origin of the
Egyptian civilization. His theories, however, were considered eccentric and resulted in Le
Plongeon’s marginalization by other scholars (Desmond 1989).
172 Archaeology of Informal Imperialism