6 - International politics and Latin American independence

Summary

The basic source for British relations with Latin America during the independence period is C. K. Webster (ed.), Britain and the Independence of Latin America, 1812–1830: Select Documents from the Foreign Office Archives, 2 vols. (London, 1938; repr. New York, 1970), the introduction to which provides a valuable overview of British policy. This can be followed in more detail through its successive phases in J. Lynch, ‘British policy and Spanish America, 1783–1808’, JLAS, 1/1 (1969), 1–30; C. M. Crawley, ‘French and English influences in the Cortes of Cadiz, 1810–1814’, Cambridge Historical Journal, 6 (1939); J. Rydjord, ‘British mediation between Spain and her colonies, 1811–1813’, HAHR, 21 (1941); C. K. Webster, The Foreign Policy of Castlereagh, 1812–1815 (London, 1931), and The Foreign Policy of Castlereagh, 1813–1822, 2nd ed. (London, 1934); D. A. G. Waddell, ‘British neutrality and Spanish–American independence: The problem of foreign enlistment’, JLAS, 19/1 (1987), 1–18, and ‘Anglo–Spanish relations and the “Pacification of America” during the “Constitutional Triennium”, 1820–1823’, Anuario de Estudios Americanos, 46 (1989); and H. Temperley, The Foreign Policy of Canning, 1822–1827 (London, 1925; repr. London, 1966). Leslie Bethell, George Canning and the Emancipation of Latin America (London, 1970), gives a brief reevaluation of Canning’s role, and J. D. Jaramillo, Bolívar y Canning, 1822–1827: Desde el Congreso de Verona hasta el Congreso de Panamá (Bogotá, 1983) analyses both Britian’s policy in relation to recognition and Bolívar’s policy towards Britain. W. W. Kaufmann, British Policy and the Independence of Latin America, 1804–1828 (New Haven, Conn., 1951; repr. London, 1967) offers an interesting, though idiosyncratic, interpretation of the whole period, based on printed sources.