Completing civilization: Creole consciousness and international law in nineteenth-century Latin America

Abstract

Contemporary studies of international law have revealed the connection between the discipline's civilizing discourse and its parallel expansion. However, they have studied the concept of civilization mainly in relation to the European colonization of Africa, Asia and the Pacific. This chapter hopes to add to the discussion by examining postcolonial Latin America, where ideas of civilization were central to the new nations' emergence as participants in, and contributors to, international law.