Order and Progress

Abstract

Many Latin Americans believe that theirs is the continent of the twenty-first century. South America alone is twice the size of the whole of Western Europe, and has a smaller population. As the legend of ‘El Dorado’ (actually modern Colombia) bears witness, it has long been seen as a source of almost limitless wealth and in terms of mineral resources this is true. The fortunes of the Spanish monarchy in Europe were based on the wealth of the Indies; Mexican silver funded the Napoleonic Wars. Yet today huge numbers of Latin Americans live in poverty such as Europe seldom, if ever, sees. As the twentieth century nears its end, the inhabitants of much of the region are divided into a wealthy few and a vast poverty-stricken mass, and the story of Latin America remains largely the story of the Third World facing the First and Second, the South versus the North.