Trade and Gunboats
Subtitle: The United States and Brazil in the Age of Empire
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: January 1, 1997
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 316
ISBN-13: 9780804726023
Subjects: American history: c 1800 to c 1900; International relations; Relations; U.S. - Latin America Relations; Political Science; History - General History; Politics/International Relations; Brazil; USA; International Relations - General; Latin America - South America; United States - General; Political Science / International Relations; United States
First sentence: The Gilded Age conjures up images of robber barons lighting cigars with hundred dollar bills, farmers plowing the Great American Desert into a wheat basket, miners striking pay dirt, and factories belching black, prosperous smoke across a countryside closely knit together by rail and canal.
Description: A hundred years ago, the United States first projected itself onto the international stage, hoping to stake out a sphere of influence in Latin America just as the largest of Latin American countries, Brazil, ending a 67-year-long monarchial regime, struggled to redefine its relationship to the world economy.

When the trajectories of these two unequal giants collided, their interaction revealed much about the international economic and political affairs of their day that bears upon the debates surrounding today's "new world order.".

This is the first study of U.S.-Brazilian relations that seriously examines the internal politics and economics of both countries and how they played themselves out in the late nineteenth century. The author attempts a new kind of international history, comparative political economy, that examines not only internal dynamics but also the nature of the international regime at the time.

In addition to studying the words and actions of politicians, diplomats, and admirals, the book examines the private diplomacy of U.S. businessmen who had their own reasons for working toward an entente between the two countries.