In this excellently researched monograph, Thomas Fischer scrutinizes Latin America’s relationship with the League of Nations. Grounded on extensive research in mainly diplomatic archives in no less than 13 countries, the study is a showcase of the advantages of patient, multiperspective historical scholarship. Seven chapters, stretching over more than 420 pages, reconstruct the role of Latin America’s “weak states” in the League of Nations in painstaking detail.
Although many Latin American countries had remained neutral during the First World War, the majority of them soon became involved with the league. As Fischer demonstrates, Latin American diplomats considered their countries to be weak, and they hoped that the organization in Geneva would become a guarantor of sovereignty against potential encroachments by more powerful states. Although some governments, such as that of Baltasar Brum in Uruguay, believed that the league’s universalist claims were compatible with Pan- Americanism, Latin American politicians more commonly...
