The role of Latin America in the consolidation of world capitalism in the 19th century
First, the role of Latin America is considered important in strengthening global capitalism during the 19th century. As we know, throughout that century, Latin America was the most quoted raw material supplier by the West. That was due to Latin America inherited from the colony a land property system based on landownership, an agricultural exploitation system based on land ownership distribution, as a predominant way of rural exploitation. Which emphasized more and facilitated basic peculiarities such as export and extraction, mainly of guano, banana, rubber, cocoa, sugar, metals prices such as gold, silver and copper, among other products. Goods that were obtained through different territories, such as Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, among others.
In turn, it should be taken into consideration that the predominant political system in Europe during the nineteenth century was classical liberalism. System that focused particularly on guaranteeing the freedom of the individual from limiting the power of the State and maximizing the power of capitalist market forces. This happened to the development of the first industrial revolution, originated in England. Revolution that consisted of changing a rural manual production system based on agriculture to an industrial production system in cities. The production of mass, line or chain of manufactured products was given, allowing the appearance of new industries, highlighting among them textile, mining, metallurgical, food, pharmaceutical, among others, among others. It is worth highlighting the development of new technologies, such as steam machine, steam ship, plane, telephone, bulb, etc., inventions that gave way to the development of both technological, political, social and economic aspects of the European societies of that time. All this was responsible for a population increase in the population. It also caused the rural exodus to the city, because in large cities there was a greater job offer than in rural areas, a situation generated because the proletariat was lacking properties and means of production, which forced them to lease their forcesof work to the bourgeoisie, new social class, owner of the means of production. In turn, the aforementioned new social class appears, the bourgeoisie, which was the one who displaced the landowner aristocracy whose privileges were in its origin or in their blood ties, since now the privileges of this new social class were based onlyIn the accumulation of capital. All this series of events resulted in the emergence of a new economic system, the well -known capitalism, especially industrial capitalism.
Before talking about the consolidation of capitalism at the global level, it is necessary to know what the theoretical conception of it is, what are the principles and fundamentals with which this predominant economic system is based. Capitalism was mainly based on the fact that the means of production are private, the well -known "private property" and its protection, defends individual rights and establishes the least possible interference by the State. According to Max Weber, German philosopher and economist, recognized as one of the great intellectual figures between the nineteenth and early twentieth century, capitalism can be defined by the existence of companies whose objective is to obtain the maximum profit, and whosemedium is the rational organization of work and production. The desire to accumulate profits with ration. It should be noted that capitalism originated in England, because in this great power pass through a series of conditions that gave rise to it, including a more open Protestant mentality than in other countries in southern Europe, a periodof Peace from Great Britain, a good banking system, a certain monetary balance and absence of inflation.
In Europe, the consolidation of industrial capitalism, in the 19th century, generated the unpublished urbanization processes, increased food demand, to this an accelerated population growth was added that exponentially increased the European population, which was in 1800 of 187 million and even1900 became 401 million citizens. These factors caused the period of greatest departure from European citizens to the American continent to be produced. Within America, European migrants were distributed throughout the territory, however, there was a greater incidence in northern countries such as Canada and especially in the United States, a country that received more than 32 million people of European origin. Situation that caused a greater implementation of European industries within it. However, countries like Argentina, Brazil, Cuba and Uruguay received numerous amounts of migrants.
In Latin America during the nineteenth century, already completed the independence wars, the arduous processes for the construction of the nation and political organization of the new states begin in this territory, a first conflict was established to decide in the form of government, themonarchical model, only prospered in Brazil, while the Republican model was imposed on the other states. A second issue was to establish whether the republics should be unitary or federal, in this regard the conflicts between conservative and liberal politicians marked the first years that followed the independence of American countries.
During this same period the State was being established in Latin American nations, as a political organization. In the article of the Simón Bolívar University of Venezuela, stable that this organization was a model that had evolved according to the needs and circumstances of the populations of Europe. Disputes for centuries, which were given, for religious, political and social reasons, were a source of continuous transformation of the ideals and the organization of these societies. Very different thing was what happened in the new Latin American republics, which began as such, on a suspended path, to a part of their peoples, by the conquest of the original nations. Reason why the modern European liberal state was far from recognizing the peoples of the region, and at the same time be recognized by these. In part, because these did not possess the “skills” required for their adoption. Skills that the peoples of Europe acquired during millennia of conflicts and theoretical constructions of political sense. (Villaverde, 2008)
In Europe the Nation, after centuries of struggle was the creator of the State, while in Latin America it will be a form of state, of Eurocentric characteristics, which would have in its hands the formation of the so -called "nation". To do this, he should act as a “integrator” of peoples and cultures. Often, with the physical elimination of aboriginal communities and the abolition of ancestral cultures of the Latin American territory.
Underdevelopment in Latin America was mostly caused by precapitalist structures. The existence of underdevelopment is the result of the process where bourgeoisies took advantage of the weakest economic nations. This caused the exploitation and lordship mechanisms to be reproduced at an extensive scale. The moment when the world capitalist system reaches its imperialist stadium, that is, in the last third of the 19th century, Latin America is incorporated into a molded social economic matrix and promoted by European and North American capitalism. The emancipation of Latin America compared to power meant a violent process with a high price in human lives and excessive military expenses. It is also key to mention that the persistent economic system was dismantled.
The original accumulation that occurred worldwide is the fundamental movement that is related to Latin America, that is, through slave and servile roads. Internal capital flowed to the outside, instead of promoting development this stopped it. The unprecedented hoarding at one extreme implies the unprecedented dis compromise in the other, for example, the Viceroyal of New Spain in just three years emigrated liquid wealth in a total of 20 million sterling pounds, the same with the Lima viceroyalty around26 million sterling pounds between 1819 and 1825. Similarly, the social economic structure inherited from the colonial period is based on a limited level of development of productive forces. Social relations based on slavery and servitude make up the subsequent development of our society.
In the case of Latin America, their pre -capitalist agricultural production was insufficient, reaching the extreme that in many countries they were not even allowed their own supply, to name a few examples we have the case of Brazil, a country whose food imports reach only the fifth part of thetotal value of your acquisitions. On the other hand, in Ecuador the mountain landowners clung to the obsolescent feudal model, not without being unable to cover the production of flour necessary to feed the Ecuadorian coast. The preponderance of imports is precisely the barrier that blocks the emergence of an accumulation arising from the primary export activity, an innate characteristic of the delay and underdeveloped that Latin America suffered and suffers.
It is necessary to highlight in the same way the commercial and usurer character that prevailed in such a feudal model, so that Usurero capital extorted both producers and their workforce, by subtracting all the capital and surplus of the owners and impoverishing productionagricultural a posterior. This usure system was more than evidenced with the participation of England in the Latin American colonies with the impossibility of receiving the support from Spain or Portugal. It is England who assumes the paternalistic role by financing the battered Latin American economy, without leaving its interests and benefits, therefore, the alleged British aid was constituted as a profitable agiotist, usure and speculator industry in which it was dilapidated. An example that illustrates the latter, are those British loans requested during our emancipation period, of which only 60% of what was agreed and accepted by a very high interest rate was received and accepted. By 1870 the Latin American economy is already quite monetized and the first banks emerge as foreign institutions before even the existence of a single monetary sign. This whole process maintains a continuity and a close connection between the precapitalista Latin America with Europe and the United States Imperialist proto.
Once the metropolitan capitalism was inserted in 1889, our countries entered an imperialist phase and articulated as underdeveloped nations. The conception about how the economic crisis experienced by central countries automatically produces the boom and industrial development of peripheries, is a fallacy. On the contrary, capitalism is characterized by greater affectation experienced in dependent areas, being the most vulnerable point of the system.
In the mid -nineteenth century, Western Europe and the United States are highly industrialized. Factories brought great political and cultural changes. English and North American companies were very interested in Latin America’s resources. Thus 1850 that the second industrial revolution was based on the use of more advanced technologies in the production of synthetic materials and fuels derived from oil no longer from coal as was the case of the first industrial revolution. Transportation evolved with the growth of railroads, innovations in maritime transport and the invention of cooling chambers. In the middle of the same century, in Latin American societies they began to organize their respective national states. The political power was exercised by the highest sectors of each country, these political systems were called oligarchic regimes.
Latin America was inserted in the International Labor Division as a supplier of raw materials for the English industry, other countries of Western Europe and North America, that way the agro -export model is born. This new model was based on the export of raw material and food towards industrialized countries, importation of the goods produced in Factories in England, the United States, among other countries, the same model extended to livestock and mining.
The agro -export model had effects such as the appropriation of land of indigenous communities and the church and exploitation of unused land, also influx of European migrants and strong investment of foreign capital. The model mainly benefited the Latin American bourgeoisie, which monopolized fertile lands and mineral deposits and as a result of that the injured turned out to be the environment and indigenous communities that were dispossessed of their lands and exploited in different ways.
To conclude, the role of Latin America for the consolidation of world capitalism during the nineteenth century is undoubted. Since this contributed significantly to the consolidation of the industrial capitalism model, in European countries, especially in Great Britain and North America, providing them with the raw material necessary for their development. However, we must not forget that this process generated inequality, poverty and underdevelopment in Latin America. So, Latin America and the consolidators of world capitalism had and have a close relationship, because our territory gave it the necessary ingredients to expedite and facilitate the process of industrialization and subsequently the global capitalization, which was boomingIn the European west, during that century.
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