Os empréstimos estrangeiros e o aparelhamento das economias sul-americanas (1860 – 1935).

Abstract

Between 1850 and 1920 the world has experienced unprecedented changes in economic and social relations. In the whole planet occurred an economic closeness among nations, previously freed from shackles of colonial pacts. These countries, supported by the technical advances, enlarged their international network of contacts. In this expansionist movement, remote economies should be included in the new forms of financial relations, characterized by lack of market exclusivity, plenty of capital and redefinition of properties and limits. Changes were progressive and different formats of relations were considered backward, antagonistic and an obstacle. In this context, Latin American economies, with colonial heritage, passed by a radical change in their structural bases in such a way that bonds were created or strengthened to sustain the phase that capitalism reached. Among several features of this new stage of the capitalist mode of production, the main factor of interest in this work is the export of capital. Considered here as a key element that transformed the Latin American nations. The alterations aimed to prepare the economies to the receiving of capital flows that, from then, promoted the internal development. Even considering the continuous process involved, we choose to select the Paraguayan War (1864-1870), the War of the Pacific (1879-1883) and the Chaco War (1932-1935) while temporal cut, but also as important turning points of the economic transformations underway. Despite of the particular characteristics of war period, mainly marked by the change in many ways, our work aimed to compare these changes during the conflict. Thus, we confronted occurrences out of the conflict in order to evaluate if these changes were significant and led to a condition of economic dependence.