From Informal Imperialism to Transnational Relations: Prolegomena to a Study of German Policy towards Latin America, 1918-1933

Abstract

Although never more than a junior partner or rival to the hegemonic powers Great Britain and United States, the German states and later the Reich have since independence played an important role in the foreign relations of Latin America. German-Latin American relations in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have been the subject of a growing body of research over the last three decades. The interest of historians has focused on the development of these relations throughout the nineteenth century, the era of German imperialism 1890-1914, and on the infiltration of National Socialism and itsAuslandsorganisation(organization for Nazi party members living abroad) in Latin America from 1933 to 1945. In addition, the reconstruction of German ties to the Latin American states after the Second World War and postwar emigration from Germany to Latin America are subjects which scholars have recendy begun to analyze.