Juan Diego Jaramillo, whose position on the Colombian political spectrum is indicated by his choice of the essay that serves as introduction, has authored one of the most interesting treatments in recent years of British policy toward Latin American independence and Colombian (especially Bolívar’s) policy in return. His treatment of the former theme is fairly conventional diplomatic history, though based on unpublished as well as published British sources. On the latter, his sources are less original but his treatment more so, e.g., his thesis that what Bolívar mainly hoped to gain from the Panama Congress was not a Spanish American alliance/confederation (which in Jaramillo’s interpretation already existed), but a cementing of alliance with Great Britain. The Liberator’s desire to see Britain take independent Latin America under its protection has long been recognized, but Jaramillo gives it more emphasis than usual, while contrasting it with his distrust of the United States. (Jaramillo himself sprinkles his text with unfavorable references to North American statesmen of the period and later historians).
Jaramillo does not always adequately distinguish between the real and the perceived importance of British recognition of Latin American independence, as he goes about lauding the contribution of Foreign Secretary George Canning. Some of his interpretations of Bolívar are arguable too. Yet there is possibly no better summary of the mere facts of British policy in either English or Spanish, and the treatment of Bolívar is at any rate suggestive. The book also contains a bibliographic essay that should be a must for anyone working on the international relations of the period.
