1. Politics and Markets in Latin America
Colonial Legacies
in the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata

2. Colonialism in Argentina Before the Encounter
Characterized by sparse populations of relatively small, isolated, and semi-nomadic tribes
Some Indigenous Groups:
North/Costal: Tupi, Guarani
Mountain Highlands: Kolla, Calchaquí
Grasslands: Charrúa, Pampa

3. Colonialism in Argentina After the Encounter
Settlement Patterns: Viceroyalty Río de la Plata
Permanent settlement by Europeans
Eviction of indigenous groups
Viceroyalties
in 1784

4. Economic Structures
Economic Life: mercantilism and resource extraction
Transportation: rivers to the interior, ports for international shipping
Ranching: hides and tallow
Economic opportunity was tied to Royal patronage
Grant of Encomienda
Internal trade regulation
Monopolization of oceanic trade

5. Political Structures Political Structures
Absolutism AND a disregard for the law
While maintaining de jure legal authority, the high cost of intervention in remote areas meant that day to day governance was left to local authorities
Sources of influence
Landowners: the ability to employ and to grant/deny access to large parcels of land
Merchants: centralized credit networks, without access to which rural production and consumption would be blocked; absentee ownership of estancias
Popular influence: based on nonobservance of the law and refusal to others’ interests

6. Social Structures Xenophobia
Social Stratification
Crown officials
Urban merchants
Rural estate holders
Managers of estancias
Rural small-holders
Non-white peoples
Mestizo (European/indig)
Mulatto (European/black)
Indigenous
Zambo (indig/black)
Black
Xenophobia
Christian theology questions the humanity of indigenous groups
The “white” myth
Caudillos and patronísmo

7. Colonial Legacies
Chasteen argues that: "For Latin America, conquest and colonization by the Spanish and Portuguese created patterns of social domination that became eternal givens…" (p. 29) Is this a convincing argument? If so, what is it about Spanish colonial structures that made them so strong? If not, what is a plausible alternative interpretation?