This study challenges the dependency perspective claim that Spanish American countries developed agro/mineral export economies in the nineteenth century as a result of their integration into the capitalist international economy. It offers an alternative interpretation which argues that the process of State building and the response of the emergent Spanish American States to internal political class struggles were chiefly responsible for setting the direction of their economies as well as the degree and character of their integration into the international economy. The importance of the State as a major determinant in economic development is outlined in an examination of the colonial period while an analysis of Peruvian and Argentine development during the nineteenth century finds that the new State administrations in these countries were too weak to manage conflicts withing the dominant classes until agro/mineral export development provided them with the physical and institutional resources to do so.

Challenging the dependency theory approach to the origin of underdevelopment in Spanish America, this book argues that internal political and economic factors led the nations of the region to become dependent and underdeveloped during the nineteenth century. Dr. Friedman focuses on Peru and Argentina in the aftermath of their wars of independence to show how underdevelopment and dependency resulted from a crisis of the state brought about by the loss of legitimacy of Spanish colonial rule. Class conflicts had been effectively managed by the colonial state; its collapse, Dr. Friedman demonstrates, created conditions of intense inter- and intra-class conflicts, chiefly political in nature, which weak post-independence governments found impossible to restrain. Left with little authority, legitimacy, or control over internal resources, the fledging Peruvian and Argentine states turned to external sources for the capabilities with which to begin the process of consolidating their internal power. By the last half of the nineteenth century, both Peru and Argentina had chosen a course that led to their integration into the international economy as dependent nations.

"Clearly laid out in this book is an insightful interpretation of a pivotal era in world history. The turbulent history of the independence movements is set forth with attention to key figures and their ideologies, regional differences, and the legacy of the wars of independence."--BOOK JACKET.

Economic research study of obstacles to economic development in spanish-speaking developing countries of South America - covers agrarian reform, social structure, economic structure, the structure of trade, foreign investment, the role of USA, the effects of the nationalization of foreign enterprises, the balance of payments, inflation, economic integration, regional planning, industrialization, etc. References and statistical tables.