Practice question · Multiple choice
Latin American states won political independence between 1810 and 1826 but went on exporting primary commodities and importing manufactures and capital. Why do historians treat that as a distinct kind of dependence?
Hints
- Ask what a state controls and does not control when its revenue depends on one export price.
- Robinson and Gallagher’s phrase for this kind of arrangement is informal empire.
Show the answer
A. Formal sovereignty coexisted with an economy vulnerable to foreign markets and creditors
Why
The concept is informal empire: control exercised through trade, credit and the threat of intervention rather than through administration. A state whose budget depends on the world price of guano or coffee, and whose railways are built with foreign loans, makes fewer independent choices than its constitution implies, without any foreign flag being raised.
Practise The Extra-European World
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