98

Latin America and the Caribbean in the History of the World(Lecture)

Latin America and the Caribbean
in the History of the lVorld :Going Global Is Nothing New
Franklin W.KNIGHT**

Introduction:
Today we live in a world preoccupied by thoughts of impending globalization, a subject on which opinion is clearly sharply divided. But it is an unavoidably important subject. Many economists and thinkers view the processof globalization as unavoidable and universally in our best interest. The various protesters - organized and otherwise - who have haunted international
meetings from Seattle to Quebec think that globalization is a vast, malicious,

capitalist plot designed to divert our interest away from the pressing problems of world poverty.

Last September (2000) The Econom'f,st of London weighed in on thesubject, in an article titled, "The Case for Globalisation" :International economic integration is not an ineluctable process, asmany of its most enthusiastic advocates appear to believe. It is only, one,the best, of many possible futures for the world economy; others may
be chosen, and are even coming to seem more likely. Governments, andthrough them their electorates, will have a far bigger say in deciding thisfuture than most people appear to think. The protesters are right that
* Keynote address for the annual congress of Japan Association for Latin American
Studies, at Nagoya University on June 2,2007.
**Leonard And Helen R. Stulman Professor, The Johns Hopkins University

ラテ ンアメリカ研究年報 No.22(2002年 )governments and companies - if only they can be moved by force or ar-

gument, or just by force - have it within their power to slow and evenreverse the economic trends of the past twenty years.
The Ecanom'ist, September 23, 2000, p. 19

But is this preoccupation really so new? I would say not.
Sometime we need to look back to figure out what is ahead. Globaliza-tion is a good case for review and now is as good a time as any to explore thisfascinating and unavoidable theme.
Just as technology is driving today's world, so in the eighteenth century
logic, or reason, provided the principal impetus. Like today it was a period of

rapid, confusing and often misunderstood changes. TWo of the great thinkersof the eighteenth century, the Abb6 Raynal, and Adam Smith thought muchabout the foreboding implications of change for their time - and their part of
the world.
The Abb6 Raynal wrote tn1774:

No event has been so interesting to mankind in general, and to the inhabitants of Europe in particular, as the discovery of the New World,
and the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope. It gave rise to arevolution in the conunerce, ild in the power of nations ; as well as in
the manners, industry, and the government of the whole world. At thisperiod, new connections were formed by the inhabitants of the rnost dis-tant regions, for the supply of wants they had never before experienced.
The productions of climates situated under the equator, were consumed

in countries bordering on the pole ; the industry of the north was transplanted to the south ; and the inhabitants of the west were clothed withthe manufactures of the east ; a general intercourse of opinions, laws,
customs, diseases and remedies, virtues and vices, was establishedarnong men.

Every thing has changed, and must change again. But it is a question, whether the revolutions that are past, or those which must herea"f-100

Latin America and the Caribbean in the History of the Worldter take place, have been, or can be, of any utility to the human race.
Will they ever add to the tranquility, the happiness or the pleasures ofmankind? Can they improve our present state, or do they only change
it?r)[Raynal's observations were accepted almost in toto by Adam Smith twoyears later and appears in the Wea,Lth oJ No,tions, Bk I Ch 11 "The rent ofIand" ; as well as in Bk 4.]

Their observations are relevant to our discussion today, because I wish
to return to their observations and reexamine the importance of the Caribbean and Latin America in the history of the modern world.

For me, the modem world began about 1492, with the discovery ofAmerica and its integration into an Atlantic system of commerce and colonization that would eventually go global.
I will examine our topic under six principal sub-themes :1. The Americas in the imaginary of Europe post 1492

2. The Americas in the global environrnental transformation
3. The Americas and population growth
4. The Americas in the world economy
5. The Americas in modern political thought
6. The Americas and the contemporary world
Each of these sub-themes is worth a full lecture in its own right. Certainly the literature on each is vast. You would not want me today to engage
each fully, so I will only briefly address each as it relates to the principal goalof establishing the centuries-old importance of the Caribbean and Latin
America to the integration of a global system of communication and commerce.

My conclusion is that globalization is nothing new. It is a process thathas been going on for centuries - sometimes dramatically, but more often

surreptitiously. Sometime we consciously engineer the process, but more
often the consequences present themselves to us in surprising ways. But
more important, we need not fear the consequences of this unforeseen proc-

ラテ ンアメリカ研究年報 No.22(2002年 )101

ess. We have been handling it for the past five hundred years and I think we
can manage for the next five hundred - if given the chance.

Let me begin with my first sub-theme.

1. The Americas in the European and World lmaginary:' Before 1492 Europe was not noticeably ahead of the world in many
areas of comparable technology. European cities - especially Spanish

cities were relatively small. Pre-Hispanic American cities were quite
impressive and densely occupied. Tenochtitlan had about 250,000 in
1519 ; Monte Alban in Oaxaca had about 45,000 in 700 A. D. Tikal in

Guatemala had about 45,000 in 550 A. D. Chan Chan on the northerncoast of Peru had about 100,000 between 900 and 1463.

' Between 1502 and 1630 the SparLish built 331 cities in the enclaves
they occupied across the Americas - many on the sites of pre-existing concentrations of people.

'The discovery of the Americas changed the European concept ofspace and time.

' The Americas changed language - not just in adding new words - but
also by transforming old words : em,p,ire, plantati,on, sle,ne, Creole,

C'imarr6n, race.

'The American experience changed European self-perception ofthemselves and their previously parochial world. Contrast the modest

reports of Christopher Columbus and Bernal Diaz del Castillo withthat of the unknown Spanish factor at Macao writing to Philip II in
1580 : The reality of the American conquests changed the European

notion of geography, but it also radically changed their self-image
and how they viewed the other.

This can be seen in a number of European reactions to their new situation : From the logs of Christopher Columbus :This is a green, level, and fertile island, and I have no doubt that the

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Latin America and the Caribbean in the History of the World

people sow and reap grain, and also many other things, year around. I
saw many trees quite different from ours. Many of them have branchesof different kinds, all on one trunk, one twig is of one kind and anotherof another, ffid so different from each other that it is the greatest won-

der of the world. How great is the diversity of one kind from another.
For example, one branch is like cane, another like mastic; this on one
tree five or six kinds, and all different. Nor are these grafted so that one
can say that the graft does it, for these trees are right there in the woods,

and the people do not take care of them.

From the soldier, Bernal Diaz del Castillo :We went forth to the Indies to serve God and His Majesty, to give light tothem that dwell in darkness, and to grow rich as all men desire to do.

From a Spanish Factor in Manila, 1580 :Send me 50 good Castilians that I might conquer for Your Majesty the
kingdom of China.

The reaction of the factor at Manila is in strong contrast to the earlier
reports of Columbus and Diaz del Castillo who still retained some respect for

the novelty of their situation. The initial experience in the Carilbean and
Latin America would have a profound impression on Spain and the rest ofEurope. The Spanish would begin a new experiment in empire, transforming

the Portuguese tradition of the trading post empire and creating a structureof government and control that would forever change every aspect of the indigenous American experience - and basically alter Europe's view of itself
and of the non-European world.

Christopher Columbus and his successors definitely changed history.
And they accelerated a process that eventually led to the first stages of con-

i 7 > 7 ) t) fihftfr,+W No.Z2 (2002+)
tacts and exchanges on a global scale.

2. The Americas and environmental transformation.
The exchange of plants and animals across the Atlantic created a basically new environment. Here are some of the things we can consider :' Plants from the Old World such as sugar cane, wheat, chickpeas, melons, onions, radishes, grapes, bananas, rice, olives, various grasses

like daises, dandelions and the Kentucky Bluegrass took hold in theAmericas and in our world seem to be native to the hemisphere.

' Animals from the old world such as horses, asses, mules, cattle, pigs,
chickens, sheep, goats proliferated rapidly and adapted to the American hemisphere as rapidly as did the human immigrants..

' By the end of the sixteenth century hides exported from the New
World became a major corrunerce. Herds of cattle that numbered in
the hundreds in Spain numbered in the hundreds of thousands in theAmericas. Animals transformed the landscape as surely as man.

' New plants like the sugarcane were layrng the foundation for a newcommercial commodity that wor-rld make viable an Atlantic economy
based on the reciprocal linking of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. Commerce became global since the sixteenth century..

American crops in the wider world fell into two types, non-food crops
and food crops :. Non-food crops of major economic importance included tobacco, rubber, and certain types of cotton.

'Food crops of equal importance included maize, beans, peanuts,
white potato, sweet potato, manioc, squash, pumpkins, papaya, guava,
avocado, pineapple, tomato, chili pepper, and cocoa. Most produce

well in wide climatic differences and low soil fertility. And most havebecome so coflunon worldwide that their origin has been largely ignored.

' Maize, beans, potato, and manioc yield extremely high calories per

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Latin America and the Caribbean in the Historv of the World

hectare and so have virtually revolutionized food production in partsof Africa, Ireland, Germany, Yugoslavia and Rumania, India, China,
and Indonesia.

'African populations would not possibly have survived the depredations of the transatlantic slave trade if the importation of American
food crops had not boosted food supply especially among the forest
peoples.

The costs and benefits of this sort of exchange have not been fully dealt

with by historians, but certainly they constitute a important dimension of thesteady global integration of societies worldwide.

3. The Americas and World population changes:' It is extremely difficult to know what world populations were around1492 but the population of the Americas might have been around 25

millions, most concentrated in the Central Valley of Mexico and theAndean highlands of South America.

' By 1650 Europe (including parts of Russia) had an estimated population about 100 million, and the African popr-rlation amounted torougruy the same. Asia had about three times as much - and theAmericas had probably had a population of approximately 12 millions- considerably less than in 1492. But by 1650 the composition of theAmerican population was vastly different from what it had been in
t492.

'The American population of 1650 was largely derived from immigrants from Europe and Africa and a large newly generated m,est'izo
population that resulted from the procreation of newcomers with indigenous people. Mesti,zaje begun as early as the first Europeans to
the Americans.

' Already by 1580 about 65 percent of the population of Spanish Cuban
towns were mest'izo, a pattern that was no doubt reproduced on themainland.

ラテ ンアメ リカ研究年報 No.22(2002年 ).The Americas would also be peopled in the following centuries by
waves of immigrants from divers parts of the globe : Europearts, Africans, Asians, as well as relocating mixed populations created acrossthe Americas.

. Iberian immigrants arrived at a rate that might have reached 1-2,000

peryearbefore 1650.
. Between 1650 and 1782 Africans arrived at rates that rose from about
9,000 to 39,000 per year - immigration rates not exceeded until after

the revolution in transportation and migration during the nineteenth
century. Africans, therefore, were the single largest group of immigrants to the Americas before the nineteenth century.
. The re-population of the Americas resulted from the massive demographic disaster of the century immediately following the arrival of
the first Europeans in 1492, and represented lniquely plural conununities in world history. Nowhere else did such a mixed group of people derive from the integration of immigrant groups as throughout theAmericas.

4. The Americas in the World Economy. It is extremely difficult to exaggerate the importance of the Americas
in the development of the world economy after the sixteenth century.
That is a theme that runs through authors as different and varied as
Martin Gonzalo Ferndndez de Oviedo, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Walter
Prescott Webb, Earl Hamilton and Pierre Chaunnu'. John Eltiott notes rn The Old, World ond the New, 1492-1650 that
"Between 1500 and 1650 something like 181 tons of gold and 16,000

tons of silver reached Europe officially from America, and further
large quantities must have arrived by contraband... One consequenceof the new availability of silver was to push up the price of gold rela-tive to that of silver - by the early seventeenth century the ratio ofgold to silver exceeded one to twelve. A further consequence was toenable Europeans to acquire large quantities of those Far Eastern

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Latin America and the Caribbean in the History of the World

luxuries for which Asia insisted on silver in exchange." By 16b0,
therefore, the silver trade was being conducted worldwide, with commercial links between the producers in the Americas and the consumers in Europe and Asia.

' By Raynal's account, bullion valued at more than six million pounds
sterling still entered Spain and Portugal from the Americas in the
1750s. The precious metal contribution of the Americas to supplies in

Europe and Asia after 1550 was enougl'r to modify significantly thevalue of gold and silver. American silver and gold production inflated

the quantities available in Europe and Asia and depressed their prices
over the following centuries.

'More important than bullion to the European economy, however,were the commodity and slave trades between 16b0 and 18b0.

' The slave trade made a monurnental contribution to the developmentof European capitalism, despite doubts to the contrary by Roger Anstey and David Eltis and others.

' The commodities trade - in tobacco, sugar, cotton, cochineal, cacao,
and other plantation exports also manifestly increased the wealth ofEurope and areas participating in those trades.

' Finally there was the economic input that the importation of the foodcrops described earlier made to the local economies. The economic
impact of food crop production rfiras especially evident during and af-

ter the eighteenth centuries when the populations began to explodein Europe.

' Note the situation in Ireland as recounted by Alfred Crosby:

one and a half acres, planted with potatoes, would provide
enough food, with the addition of a bit of milk, to keep a family
hearty for a year. It was not exceptional for an Irishman to consurne ten pounds of potatoes a day and very little else. on thisdiet the Irish, without benefit of medical science, hygiene, industrialization, or decent government, increased from 8.2 million inラテ ンアメリカ研 究年報 No.22(2002年 )t754to nearly eight million in 1845, not counting the 1.75 million
who emig;rated before 1846. Then calne the potato blight, thefailure of the Irish staple, and one of the worst famines of modern
times. The Irishmen who had lived by the potato died by the potato.2)

Latin America, and the Caribbean were extremely important to the development of imperial power worldwide. The imperial might of Spain, of Portugal, of France and of England derived from their colonial and economic interests in Latin America and the Caribbean. The history of those states sim-ply could not be written without recounting the importance of their American connection.

Without the bullion of the Indies, Spain would never have been able tobe the defender of the Faith and a major player in Europe between 1500 and
1800. It required enormously irnovative powers on the part of the Spanish

monarchy to establish a system that was, for its time, efficient, streamlined,
and controllable. As John Elliott noted in his Im,peri,al Spuin, 1469-1716 :With the creation of the viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru, the number of viceroyalties in the Spanish Monarchy rose to nine - Aragon,
Catalonia, Valencia, Navarre, Sardinia, Sicily, Naples, and the two
American Viceroyalties - and the Monarchy's administrative system wasnow established in the form in which it was to continue for the best partof two centuries. This system was in effect that of the medieval Catalan-Aragonese Mediterranean Empire adapted and extended to meet theneeds of a world empire. The vast distances in the empire - elght
months or more were necessary to transmit messages from Castile toPeru - constituted a challenge to the Spanish Crown that was without
precedent in European history. Inevitably the administrative system developed by Spain during the course of the sixteenth century had numerous defects but its success in meeting the challenge was neverthelessremarkable.3)

Lath America and the Caribbean in the History of the World

Braail was equally important to Portugal, providing vital ports-of-callfor its Indian Ocean empire. Brazil was also the source for a series of valuablecommodities such as sugar, dyewoods, gold, and coffee that would enhance
the commercial importance of that colony for its metropolis and for the restof Europe.
The perceived wealth of the Caribbean sugar and staple trade instigateda series of wars between Holland, France and England. Much of the comrner-cial success of those countries was based on their Caribbean and American
connections. "saint Dorningue in the 1780s" wrote David Geggus :was an object of international renown, the most fruitful and pleasant ofEurope's caribbean colonies. Accounting for some 40 percent ofFrance's foreign trade, its 7,000 or so plantations were absorbing by
1790 also 10-15 percent of United States exports and had importantcommercial links with the British and Spanish West Indies as well. On

the coastal plains of this colony little larger than Wales was grown about

two-fifths of the world's sugar, while from its mountainous interiorcarne over half the world's coffee.a)

The American cormection would also seriously affect both the outcomeof the French Revolution as well as the demise of Napoleon who lost 40,000
of his best troops there trving to restore French hegemony after 1802.

The American slave systems - and about gb percent of the Africanslaves delivered in the Americas arrived in Latin America and the Caribbean- were of inordinate importance in the development of modern capitalism.
As both commodity and factors of production, the transatlantic slave tradecreated a system of backward and forvyard linkages that increased economic

activity, spread and remodeled capitalist institutions and inculcated and distributed a capitalist mentality.s)
The story of capitalism has an important American dimension.

ラテ ンアメ リカ研 究年報 No 22(2002年 )5. The Americas in modern PoliticalThought:

The Americas played an important role in three aspects of intemational

political thought :i) The Americas were the venue for first working out the nature of empire and of international law, especially between 1492 and 1650. This
was an activity that virtually became a Spanish obsession, but was ofenorrnous interest to the other Europeans as well as they competed forhegemony within Europe. This was a major preoccupation of the Iberianmonarchs between 1493 when the Treaty of Tordesillas established a di-vision of the Americas for purposes of exploration and evangelical activ-

ity and about 1697 when Spain acknowledged after the Treaty of
Ryswick, its diminished role in the Americas. No other European state
spent as much time as the Spanish in trving to define the nature and leBality of empire.

ii) The Americas were the location to reify utopias; although that
seemed more a preoccupation of the eighteenth and nineteenth century

emigrants of the British Isles than the mainland.6) America as Utopia is acornmon theme that occupied much of the seventeenth century Europe
and beyond.

' The Pfurims' The Mennonites. Diverse Groups of transfrontiers folk like couriers de bo'is, the buccaneers, the maroons, artd mountain people of the west.

iii) The Americas were also locations for political and social engineerng. In this respect I already mentioned the early Spanish colonial experiment. But after 1502 a number of new political experiments would

be conducted in the Americas: buccaneers, slave colonies, maroons,
mountain men, and missionary settlements like those of the Jesuits
aJnong the Guarani and elsewhere. Four of the seven major revolutions

in world history took place in the Americas :' The American 1776-83:' The Haitian, 1791-1804 ;Latin America and the Caribbean in the History of the World

The Mexican, 1910-17 ; andThe Cuban, 1959-?

6. The Americas and the Contemporary WorldIf we could not contemplate the trajectory of world history before thetwentieth century without an American focus, it is even less likely today.

' The USA is a world power - perhaps the only world power at the moment - and a sort of Mecca to the world.

'The Cuban revolution is still struggling along, Iosing its luster anduen'ido n?nrA a, fl?Enos but still there. What ever we may think of the
Cuban Revolution, it was an amazing event and holds its own among'mrord revolutions. Photographs of Che Guevara are displayed at politi-

cal manifestations everywhere in the world and the memory of the
Cuban revolution still continues to fascinate a large umber of people

worldwide.

' The Caribbean remains an interesting area to examine diversity, democracy and plural societies. Some of the longest representative democracies - Barbados and the Bahamas - are found in the Caribbean
and the political plurality of places like Suriname, Guyana, and Trinidad are hard to find elsewhere. In an age when ethnicity continues tocreate centrifugal forces in many polities worldwide, the success ofpolitical plurality in the Caribbean remains fascinating.

' Spain, recently described by The Economt[,sf as "one of Europe's brg
five" has rediscovered Latin America and the Caribbean, ranking behind the USA in investment and political influence. Spain's BBVA and
BSCH rank among the leading banks from Mexico to Argentina. Tele-

f6nica operates over the entire region, including Brazi,. Endesa owns
big power plants in Argentina and Chile. Sol Meli6 is active in the ho-

tel industry in Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Chile, and Argentina. Political boundaries are no longer

barriers to international trade and business and modem communica-tion technology has penetrated to the most remote regions of theラテ ンアメ リカ研 究年報 No.22(2∞ 2年 )earth. This is a reality from which no group has the power to withdraw unilaterally.

Conclusion
When Columbus mis-adventured into the Americas n 1492 he set inmotion an inevitable process that still continues. The Europeans discovered
a new world and by so doing discovered talents in themselves they never

knew they had. More important, they discovered the advantages andstrengths of global cormections.

That discovery began the final closure of what William McNeill tn The
Ri,se oJ the West calls the closure of the ecuTnone. A-fter that the entire

world would never be the sarne again. No aspect of world history could everbe the same again. And it all started with an Italian being lost among the Car-ibbean islands, and the shrewdness of Isabel of Castile to see more than Columbus the true value and portentous implications of his accomplishment.

The consequences that followed, for better and for worse, created firstan Atlantic community that inexorably spread to incorporate the entire globe.

It is easy to see now that the Abb6 Raynal was right : No event was so important to mankind in general, and to the inhabitants of Europe in particular, as

the discovery of the New World, and the passage to India by the Cape ofGood Hope. Technology has made this integrated world more like a commu-

nity. It has increased mobility, accessibility and communication creating asort of global village. But this global village is not now, nor is it likely to be
ever, a homogenous unit. Of that I am sure.

Globalization is an inevitable process. Nevertheless, it behooves us tokeep in mind the sage saying of the sixteenth and seventeenth century Eng-

lish clergyman, John Donne (1572-1631) :No Man is an island, entire of itself ; every man is a piece of the conti-

nent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe isthe less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy
friend's or of thine owrr were : any man's death diminishes me, because

II2

Latin America and the Caribbean in the History of the WorldI am involved in Mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls ; it tolls for thee.
John Donne. Meditati,oz XVIIIn this increasingly globalized world it should be necessary to match ourconcerrr with our communication. The more we know about others the more
we should feel a collective responsibility for them. That spirit of curiosity andconcern still prevails strongly throughout the Caribbean and Latin America.

It is something that the rest of the world must take seriously if neu/ globalizing concepts such as the World Trade organization or the Free Trade Area of

the Americas are to encounter success. Above all, the best approach toglobalization is to accept it rather than fight it. The opportunities are everywhere as abundant as the perils.
Thank you all for your patience.

Notes

1) The Abbd Raynal [Guillaume Thomas Raynal, 1713-1796], A Plt;ilosophi,cal
and Poli,ti,cal H'i,story of the Settlem,ents ond Trade oJ the Europeans in theEa,st a,nd West Ind,i,es. Trans. by J. O. Justamond. 6 vols. (London, 1798), I : 122) Alfred Crosby, Jr., The Columbi,an Enchange flMestport, Ct. : Greenwood
Press, 1972), p. 183.

3) John ElliotI, Imperial Spai,n 1469-lZl6 (New York : Mentor Books, 1966),
pp.172-173.

4) David Geggus, Slauery, War, and, Reuolution: The British Occupati,on oJ
Sai,nt Donui,ngue 1793-1298 (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1982),p. 6.

5) See Barbara L. Solow (ed.), Slauery and, the Ri,se of the Attanti,c Sgstem
O{ewYork : Cambridge University Press, 1991).

6) See Gerald and Patricia Gutek, Vi,siti,ng utop'i,an Commun'i,ti,es. A Guid,e to
the Shakers, Morau'i,arts, and Others (Columbia : University of South Carolina
Press, 1998).