Latin America so far from “God” and so close to the United States of America: US foreign policy as an obstacle to the development of South America in Eduardo Pradoe Manoel Bomfim

Abstract

The present article seeks to point out the obstacles to the autonomous development of the South American continent, exploring the formulations of two intellectuals of Brazilian Social Thought: the Sergipe physician, Manoel Bomfim (1868-1932) and the jurist from São Paulo, Eduardo Prado (1860-1901). Both intellectuals pointed out in their first historical-sociological works: The American Illusion (published by Prado in 1893) and The Latin America: evils of origin (published by Bomfim in 1905) reflective elements pertinent to think of such dimensions (namely, imperialism practiced by the United States of America, together with the former colonies of European exploration in the south of the continent) as an element that in the past, although articulated with other elements constitutes an important explanatory key to reflect, certain internal maladjustments in these liberated republics of its first metropolises, but that never really were free of the threat neighboring to the north of the continent. In this sense, the central object of the article is to make a comparison between the postulates of both intellectuals whose reflections were developed in the first decades of our First Republic. In this way, his reflections on US imperialism guide us to elucidate similarities and differences in his reflections and to think critically about the possibilities for development in Latin America without external interference.