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ABSTRACT
From the late nineteenth century, both Argentina and Chile were integral parts of Britain’s ‘informal’ empire in Latin America. It has been suggested by historians that this ‘informal empire’ came to an end around the mid-twentieth century. By analysing contemporary sources from within the British government and the findings of later economic historians, it is the purpose of this article to contest this viewpoint. It will instead argue that the end of ‘informal’ empire in these countries was a direct consequence of the First World War, and that the decline in British influence in the region was registered by British policy-makers much earlier than has previously been argued.
Acknowledgements
My thanks to Dr. Jeremy Krikler, Dr. Fiona Venn and Dr. Mark Frost, all of the University of Essex, for their invaluable comments and advice.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Gallagher and Robinson, ‘Imperialism of Free Trade’, 1–15.
2 Ibid., 11; see also Barton, Informal Empire, 96.
3 See, for example, Platt, ‘Imperialism of Free Trade’, 298–300; Platt, ‘Introduction’, 11–12. For later criticism, see Thompson, ‘Informal Empire?’, 419–36.
4 Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, 244.
5 Darwin, ‘Imperialism and the Victorians’, 614; Knight, ‘Britain and Latin America’, 124.
6 Smith, Illusions of Conflict, 3–5.
7 Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, 248–49.
8 Bethell, ‘Britain and Latin America’, 7–8.
9 Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, 249.
10 Barton, Informal Empire, 103–04.
11 See, for example, Miller, Britain and Latin America, 202; Hopkins, ‘Informal Empire in Argentina’, 469–84; Knight, ‘Latin America’, 623–42; Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, 521–40; Rock, ‘The British in Argentina’, 59–60.
12 Streeter, South America, 53–54.
13 ‘Status of His Majesty’s Representatives in Brazil, the Argentine and Chile’, Memorandum by Mr. Balfour, 16 April 1918, 1, Cabinet papers (hereafter CAB) 24/48/53, The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA).
14 Ibid.
15 Hennessy, ‘Argentines, Anglo-Argentines and Others’, 11; Winks, ‘On Decolonization and Informal Empir’e” 543; Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, 274.
16 Ferns, ‘Britain’s Informal Empire in Argentina’, 60; a similar point is made, alongside direct comparisons with other territories within the British Empire during this period, in Darwin, The Empire Project, 118.
17 ‘Status of His Majesty’s Representatives in Brazil, the Argentine and Chile’, 16 April 1918, 1, CAB 24/48/53, TNA.
18 Knight, ‘Latin America’, 633.
19 Darwin, The Empire Project, 138; Stone, ‘British Direct Investment’, 695.
20 Stone, ‘British Direct Investment’, 695.
21 Hennessy, ‘Argentines, Anglo-Argentines and Others’, 9, 20.
22 Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, 257–59; Darwin, The Empire Project, 138.
23 Forbes, ‘German Informal Imperialism’, 391; Rock, ‘The Argentine Economy’, 64.
24 Hennessy, ‘Argentines, Anglo-Argentines and Others’, 21–22.
25 Forbes, ‘German Informal Imperialism’, 394.
26 Ibid., 392–93.
27 Ibid., 392.
28 Gravil, The Anglo-Argentine Connection, 119.
29 Albert, South America and the First World War, 66; Gravil, The Anglo-Argentine Connection, 136.
30 Gravil, The Anglo-Argentine Connection, 137.
31 Albert, South America and the First World War, 76.
32 Gravil, The Anglo-Argentine Connection, 139–40.
33 MacDonald, ‘End of Empire’, 81–82.
34 Sir Reginald Tower to Arthur Balfour, 17 Jan. 1919, Foreign Office papers (hereafter FO) 371/3503, TNA.
35 Sir Reginald Tower to Arthur Balfour, 18 May 1919, FO 608/173/24, TNA.
36 ‘Monthly Review of the Progress of Revolutionary Movements Abroad’, Report no. 12, 14 Oct. 1919, 36–37, CAB 24/92/29, TNA.
37 House of Commons Debate, 24 Feb. 1919, c. 1444, Parliamentary Debates, Fifth Series, vol. 112.
38 Rock, ‘The Argentine Economy’, 65; Rock, Argentina, 1516–1982, 171.
39 Albert, South America and the First World War, 76; ‘Argentina: Increased Trade with the United States’, The Times, 23 Jan. 1920, 57.
40 Gravil, The Anglo-Argentine Connection, 141–42; Hennessy, ‘Argentines, Anglo-Argentines and Others’, 35.
41 Knight, ‘Latin America’, 625–26.
42 Sir Reginald Tower to Foreign Office, 9 Jan. 1919 and 10 Jan. 1919, FO 371/3503, TNA.
43 Ibid., covering note by Lord Cecil for telegram from Sir Reginald Tower to Foreign Office, 9 Jan. 1919 and 10 Jan. 1919. This opinion was also reflected in The Times. See ‘Bolshevist Plot in Argentina: Ringleaders Arrested’, The Times, 15 Jan. 1919, 8.
44 ‘Labour Wars in Buenos Aires: Feared Collapse of the Government’, The Times, 11 Jan. 1919, 7.
45 Covering note by Lord Cecil for telegram from Sir Reginald Tower to Foreign Office, 10 Jan. 1919, FO 371/3503, TNA.
46 Director of Naval Intelligence to Lord Cecil, 27 Jan. 1919, ibid.
47 Foreign Office to Treasury, 28 Jan. 1919, ibid.
48 Ibid.
49 Sir Reginald Tower to Foreign Office, 6 March 1919, ibid.
50 Sir Reginald Tower to Arthur Balfour, 4 April 1919, FO 371/3504, TNA.
51 ‘A Weekly Review of the Progress of Revolutionary Movements Abroad’, Report no. 2, 7 May 1919, 18, CAB 24/79/17, TNA.
52 ‘A Weekly Review of the Progress of Revolutionary Movements Abroad’, Report no. 5, 28 May 1919, 21, CAB 24/80/69, TNA.
53 ‘A Weekly Review of the Progress of Revolutionary Movements Abroad’, Report no. 6, 4 June 1919, 15, CAB 24/81/18, TNA.
54 ‘A Weekly Review of the Progress of Revolutionary Movements Abroad’, Report no. 8, 18 June 1919, 16, CAB 24/82/35, TNA.
55 Albert, South America and the First World War, 310; see also Streeter, South America, 149.
56 ‘The Operations Effected by the Argentine Government with the Gold Deposited in the Legations Abroad during the Years 1916–1919’, Memorandum by Victor Kelly (Foreign Office), 26 Jan. 1920, FO 371/4410, TNA.
57 Ronald Macleay to Lord Curzon, 14 May 1920, ibid.
58 Ronald Macleay to Lord Curzon, 20 July 1920, ibid.
59 ‘Conditions in the Argentine Republic’, Memorandum by the Political Intelligence Department, Foreign Office, 12 June 1918, 2, CAB 24/54/47, TNA.
60 Phillip Dehne, On the Far Western Front, 160–61.
61 ‘Conditions in the Argentine Republic’, Memorandum by the Political Intelligence Department, Foreign Office, 12 June 1918, 3, CAB 24/54/47, TNA.
62 Foreign Office to Treasury, 28 Jan. 1919, FO 371/3503, TNA.
63 ‘British Financial Relations with the Argentine Republic’, Memorandum by H. O. Chalkley, 14 Nov. 1919, 3, Treasury papers (hereafter T) 1/12582, TNA.
64 Ibid., 2–3.
65 Ibid., 1–2. Prior to the war, Argentina was frequently in debt to British banks. For example, in 1891 alone the Argentine government had renegotiated a debt repayment that totalled nearly £41 million, and within two years this had increased to over £44 million. See Marichal, A Century of Debt Crises, 165.
66 Albert, South America and the First World War, 76.
67 Murray, The People’s Budget 1909/10, 4.
68 ‘British Financial Relations with the Argentine Republic’, Memorandum by H. O. Chalkley, 14 Nov. 1919, 12, T 1/12582, TNA.
69 Ibid., 14.
70 Ibid., 16.
71 Gravil, The Anglo-Argentine Connection, 143.
72 Note on a Conversation Held at 10 Downing Street, 21 June 1922, 6, CAB 23/39/32, TNA; MacDonald, ‘End of Empire’, 79.
73 See Knight, ‘Latin America’, 628; Rock, Argentina, 1516–1982, 198.
74 Rock, Argentina, 1516–1982, 198, 210.
75 O’Brien, The Nitrate Industry, 2–3; Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, 267.
76 Monteón, ‘The British in the Atacama Desert’, 132.
77 Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, 269–70.
78 Miller, ‘The Making of the Grace Contract’, 73–74, 77; Marichal, A Century of Debt Crises, 126–27.
79 O’Brien, The Nitrate Industry, 144; Monteón, ‘The British in the Atacama Desert’, 129.
80 Monteón, Chile in the Nitrate Era, 64.
81 Ibid., 130; Greenhill, ‘The Nitrate and Iodine Trades’, 237.
82 Monteón, Chile in the Nitrate Era, 64.
83 Greenhill, ‘The Nitrate and Iodine Trades’, 237.
84 Edmundson, History of British Presence in Chile, 180.
85 Ibid.
86 Ibid., 143–44; Jones, Jones and Greenhill, ‘Public Utility Companies’, 80.
87 Marichal, A Century of Debt Crises, 249, 260.
88 Edmundson, History of British Presence in Chile, 172–73.
89 Briones and Villela, ‘European Bank Penetration’, 334–35.
90 Monteón, Chile in the Nitrate Era, 63.
91 Ibid., 112.
92 Ibid., 64.
93 Stevenson, 1914–1918, 82–84.
94 Quoted in Albert, South America and the First World War, 96.
95 Monteón, Chile in the Nitrate Era, 110–11.
96 ‘Status of His Majesty’s Representatives in Brazil, the Argentine and Chile’, 1, CAB 24/48/53, TNA.
97 Ibid., 2.
98 Rice, ‘Transnational Business and US Diplomacy’, 772–73.
99 Albert, South America and the First World War, 104–05; Barton, ‘Struggling against Decline’, 240.
100 Monteón, Chile in the Nitrate Era, 115.
101 Kiernan, ‘Chile from War to Revolution’, 84–85.
102 ‘The S. American Dispute: Mr. Wilson’s Note to Chile’, The Times, 10 Dec. 1918, 7; Sir Reginald Tower to Arthur Balfour, 18 May 1919, FO 608/173/24, TNA.
103 Monteón, ‘The British in the Atacama Desert’, 130.
104 J. E. Bell to Sir Francis Stronge, 5 Feb. 1919, FO 371/3678, TNA.
105 J. C. T. Vaughan to Lord Curzon, 23 May 1919, ibid.
106 ‘A Monthly Review of Revolutionary Movements in Foreign Countries’, Report no. 16, Feb. 1920, 29, CAB 24/98/36, TNA.
107 ‘Supplementary Report on Special Military Mission to Chile’, Lt.-Col. Alick V. F. V. Russell, 15 Sept. 1920, CO 323/838/46, TNA.
108 J. C. T. Vaughan to Lord Curzon, 10 Sept. 1921, FO 371/5552, TNA.
109 J. C. T. Vaughan to Lord Curzon, 16 Sept. 1921, ibid.
110 J. C. T. Vaughan to Lord Curzon, 16 June 1920, T 160/134, TNA.
111 Barton, ‘Struggling against Decline’, 248–49; Knight, ‘Latin America’, 627–28.
112 Barton, ‘Struggling against Decline’, 241.
113 Monteón, Chile in the Nitrate Era, 116.
114 J. A. Salter (Ministry of Shipping) to Ministry of Munitions, 18 April 1918, MUN 4/2112, TNA.
115 Even by 1920, the percentage of total exports from Chile to Germany was once again only 10 per cent behind that of Britain. See Monteón, Chile in the Nitrate Era, 115; Edmundson, History of British Presence in Chile, 230.
116 Department of Overseas Trade to Foreign Office, 28 July 1919, FO 371/3677, TNA.
117 Ibid.
118 Soto Cardenas, Influencia Británica en el Salitre, 198; for a comprehensive comparison of the production of synthetic nitrate and Chilean nitrate between 1900 and 1937, see O’Brien, ‘“Rich beyond the Dreams of Avarice”’, 138.
119 Barton, ‘Struggling against Decline’, 241, 244–45; Albert, South America and the First World War, 105.
120 Barton, ‘Struggling against Decline’, 252–53.