Carta de Jamaica

Carta de Jamaica by Simón Bolívar

The Jamaica letter was something like a "declaration of independence" of South America. Bolivar had a gradualist approach to liberation from Spain. He saw the people as a "new" people that were part Spanish, part native. They were "slaves" to Spain. They would inevitably form their own countries of various sizes. Some were expected to gather large groups and form monarchies, but these monarchies are likely to fail. This short letter foretells much of the future of South America, but was perhaps too conservative in outlook.

Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard

Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard by Joseph Conrad

I read Nostromo after seeing it mentioned in The Company. The novel did deal with capitalist enterprises in South America, so there was some connection. It seemed "familiar". There were Italians and English involved in various parts of activities in this country. Things would seem familiar for a bit, then I would get lost. This is one of Conrad's longer books. I just did not have the patience to adequately engage with it.

The Inca: Lost Civilizations

The Inca: Lost Civilizations by Kevin Lane

The Inca are an intriguing population. They had built up a great empire that only seemed to last a short time before it succumbed to the Spaniard guns and germs. The Inca had very little intercourse with other populations (in part due to their geography). Thus they developed many of the hallmarks of humanity (such as writing) in their own fashion. With the vast elevation changes in an equatorial region, they had a variety of climatic regions in a small geographic area.

This book on the Inca is written from a very academic style. Anthropologists and archeologists are given abundant credit for their insights. There is little concrete narrative on the life of Inca, but rather a scientific dissection of the various aspects of their society. This leads to some repetition with parts that fit in multiple categorizations.

Some areas that I found interesting included the fact that the Inca empire was relatively short lived. There were other civilizations that had grown up before. The Inca unified some close regions and had a strong empire for only a few generations. They also used means of moving people around to keep them in order. Road networks were fairly well established as was agriculture (especially potatoes).  The religion seems to not be very well understood, but it did include some human sacrifice. Dynastic leadership was quite complex with multiple aspects of inheritance and old clans "hanging on".

The Disappearance of Josef Mengele: A Novel

I had initially thought this was a fictional work. The "a novel" subtitle was misleading. This is a mostly factual work about the life of Josef Mengele in South America after World War II. He comes across as a mostly sympathetic old man. He is living a new life in South America. When questioned about past experiences, he talked about just doing his duty. He sees the work he did in concentration camps as work to "help" allow the most people to live. (Very little is discussed about the actual work he did.) However, just when you are feeling sympathetic, he lets an anti-Semitic rant out that lets you realize he might not be as innocent as he comes across. He is rather successful in medical and business endeavors, but has to flee to Paraguay and assume a false identity when the Nazi hunters start tracking him. He dies a rather anonymous death. He continues to be hunted down before people get proof that he is actually dead.

The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History

The Napoleonic Wars is a long book that covers the Napoleonic Wars as well as all the world history that immediately related to it. Napoleon himself only plays a minor part in the story. There are shifting alliances among other European countries. The European nations at the time had colonies throughout the world. Thus, the various conflicts among the nations spread through the entire world.

Napoleon rose to power after the French Revolution. The revolution started out as an attempt to ensure freedom for the people. Alas, this freedom ended up with people that did not like the "right" freedom losing their heads. Eventually, the best way to be "free" was to have a strong leader that could force other people to be "free." Napoleon filled this void. He was a keen military leader and took advantage of this opportunity to take over the army and eventually declare himself emperor. All of the idealism of the revolution simply resulted in the replacement of one despot with another. (Oh, and a few million people died in the process.) Alas, this pattern has seemed to repeat itself again and again as the "people" throw out the despot only to end up needing a new despot to force the "will of the people". A violent progressive revolution is a dangerous thing.

The events of the Napoleonic war caused massive changes in other parts of the world. A number of colonies switched hands during the time. Many took that opportunity to proclaim their own independence.  It was not a direct process. There were rises and falls before the revolutions finished playing out. France, Spain and Britain were somewhat involved, but also busy with the European battles. Asia was also involved, with China, India, Vietnam and Indonesia all touched by these wars. The United States also grew with the Louisiana purchase. International trade was impacted by the wars as countries tried to block others from trading. Slavery was initially banned by the French, but Napoleon was convinced to maintain it. (The Haitian government created after a slave rebellion was blackballed by much of the world.)

Back in Europe, Napoleon created a large (if temporary) unification of Europe. In some sense, it was a preview of the European Union that would come in the future. There were some bad economic decisions in the process. However, in the end it was primarily overextension of military quests that did in Napoleon. 

Napoleon was exiled, then came back. He seemed to have a chance, but just was not quite up to his old self. This time he was exiled a little more thoroughly. France was also punished more thoroughly with more territory lost than at the end of the previous peace. The author posits that the way tides had turned, Napoleon would have eventually met his defeat no matter what had happened. He just made some mistakes that caused it to happen earlier. Britain seemed to be the big European winner. After the huge number of deaths, there was a lot more respect for conservative leadership. The ideals of the French revolution did continue to hold some sway, they just progressed a little slower.

Chile and Argentina

This is a super brief overview of the history of Argentina and Chile. One thing I didn't realize is that there was an attempt at a "United States of Argentina" with countries such as Paraguay and Uraguay. However, the confederation broke down, leading to the states as they are today. The two far south countries have had their ups and downs with military rule coming in a little too frequently. The English had helped agitate for Argentina's separation from Spain. However, Argentina responded by their independence. Chile has a narrow area of fertility where most people live. However, there are also wealthy mining areas. Earthquakes are a common occurrence. This overview tended to focus a lot on politics. It would be nice to go in into a more detailed history.