FOCUS QUESTIONS

• What was neocolonialism, and what were its characteristic economic and politi-
  cal features? What role did the liberal state play in promoting national economic
  growth between 1870 and 1900?


• What were the policies of Mexico’s Porfi rio Diaz regarding indigenous communi-
  ties, land, labor, trade, and foreign investment?


• What were the policies of Argentina’s Julio Roca regarding indigenous communi-
  ties, land, labor, and foreign investment?


• What were the major elements of Justo Rufi no Barrios’s liberal reform program in
  Guatemala?


• How did Antonio Guzmán Blanco’s program in Venezuela compare to Rafael
  Núñez’s plan in Colombia, and how did each affect national economic
  development?


• How did these liberal programs contrast with the developmental policies of José
  Manuel Balmaceda in Chile?


• How did liberal development programs affect subaltern social classes, especially
  peasants and workers?

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11

The Triumph of

Neocolonialism and the

Liberal State, 1870–1900

B

EGINNING ABOUT 1870, the quickening
tempo of the Industrial Revolution
in Europe stimulated a more rapid
pace of change in the Latin American economy and
politics. Responding to a mounting demand for raw
materials and foodstuffs, Latin American producers
increased their output of those commodities. In-
creasing political stability, itself the result of the con-
solidation of the liberal state, facilitated the region’s
growing trade with Europe and the United States.
Encouraged by the increased stability and lib-
eral economic policies, European capital fl owed

into Latin America, creating railroads, docks,

processing plants, and other facilities needed to

expand production and trade. Latin America be-

came integrated into an international economic

system in which it exchanged raw materials and

foodstuffs for the factory-made goods of Europe

and North America. Gradual adoption of free-

trade policies by many Latin American coun-

tries, which marked the abandonment of efforts

to create a native factory capitalism, hastened the

area’s integration into this international division

of labor.