Michael Riekenberg’s book on ethnic wars in nineteenth-century Latin America is organized around three sets of issues: (1) the distinguishing traits of nineteenth-century Latin American ethnic wars; (2) the modes of ethnic violence employed in Latin America during the nineteenth century; and (3) the transformations of Latin American ethnic wars during this period. Riekenberg succeeds very well in responding to these questions, offering new interpretations and insights.
Before addressing these issues in four case studies, the author lays out his theoretical framework, namely, the distinction between ethnic revolts and ethnic wars. Ethnic revolts were common in Latin America during the colonial period and occurred mainly as reactions to oppression. Ethnic wars, on the other hand, emerged as a consequence of changing patterns in the relationship between state and local or regional (ethnic) communities, transformations that were unfolding with considerable force in the early nineteenth century. When spatial organization as another...
