Regiones europeas y Latinoamerica (siglos XVIII y XIX) (review)

Regiones europeas y Latinoamérica (siglos XVIII y XIX). Edited by MICHAEL ZEUSKE and ULRIKE SCHMIEDER. Acta Coloniensia: Estudios Ibéricos y Latinoamericanos. Madrid: Vervuert, 1999. Illustrations. Tables. Figures. Bibliographies. 428 pp. Paper.

Despite its broader title, this volume of papers from a conference held at Cologne in December 1995, deals primarily with the relationship between Latin America and Germany. Of 19 contributions, all but 5 involve either a specific region of Germany or individual/collective activities of specific Germans in Latin America. Two of the less geographically limited essays that are of particular interest are Antonio García-Barquero González's detailed, quantified analysis of the impact of the 1778 "free trade" decree on colonial imports at Cádiz; and Iván Molina Jiménez's study of the dominance of European books among holdings of late-nineteenth-century libraries in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.

Editors Michael Zeuske and Ulrike Schmieder have grouped all of the papers into three parts, each with a specific thematic emphasis. The contributions in the first part address the impact on Germany of trade with Latin America and vice versa. Notable examples for the German side are essays by Walther L. Bernecker on Silesian textiles and the Mexican market, and by Max Zeuske on the role of Magdeburg as an entrepôt for Latin American goods bound for provinces in the German interior. Interesting from the Latin American perspective are studies by Vera Weiler and Germán Cardozo Galué of the German role in the development of the coffee industries in Colombia and Venezuela, respectively.

The second part of the collection is devoted to intellectual history, an examination of the Latin American image in Europe (principally, once again, in Germany), and of the European image in Latin America. Ulrike Schmieder embraces both questions in a study that covers not only how Latin American issues were treated in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century in the periodical press in Prussia, Saxony, and Thuringia, but also how Europe was portrayed at the time in reviews and newspapers throughout Latin America. Also of interest in this section are studies by Débora Bendocchi Alves of the image of Brazil presented to potential immigrants in mid-nineteenth-century Leipzig; and by Alejandro Zorzin of German Protestant missionaries' reports from Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay.

In the final section, the editors have gathered six studies of European activities in Latin America; all but one of which deal with Germans. Of particular interest here are the essays by Fe Iglesias García, Orlando García Martínez, and Hernán Venegas Delgado, all of which deal with the German presence in nineteenth-century Cuba.

It is notoriously difficult to evaluate collective works, especially conference proceedings. Certainly, all of the essays gathered here are substantial specimens of research and analysis. The book will be indispensable to scholars interested in the early phase of German-Latin American relations, and, indeed, it may profitably be read in conjunction with the monumental study of German imperialism in Central America by Thomas D. Schoonover, to name one important recent contribution in the field. Also, while it is likely that many Latin Americanists will consider most of these papers a bit parochial in scope, there is, in general, something here for everyone.

STEPHEN WEBRE, Louisiana Tech University

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