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This essay, part history of ideas and part history of international relations, examines Brazil's relationship with Latin America in historical perspective. For more than a century after independence, neither Spanish American intellectuals nor Spanish American governments considered Brazil part of ‘América Latina’. For their part, Brazilian intellectuals and Brazilian governments only had eyes for Europe and increasingly, after 1889, the United States, except for a strong interest in the Río de la Plata. When, especially during the Cold War, the United States, and by extension the rest of the world, began to regard and treat Brazil as part of ‘Latin America’, Brazilian governments and Brazilian intellectuals, apart from some on the Left, still did not think of Brazil as an integral part of the region. Since the end of the Cold War, however, Brazil has for the first time pursued a policy of engagement with its neighbours – in South America. Este ensayo, en parte historia de ideas y en parte de relaciones internacionales, examina el vínculo de Brasil con Latinoamérica desde una perspectiva histórica. Por más de un siglo después de la Independencia ni los intelectuales ni los gobiernos hispanoamericanos consideraron a Brasil como parte de ‘América Latina’. Por su parte, los intelectuales y gobiernos brasileños sólo tuvieron ojos para Europa y crecientemente, luego de 1889, para los Estados Unidos, con excepción por un interés en el Río de la Plata. Cuando Estados Unidos (especialmente durante la Guerra Fría) y por extensión el resto del mundo empezaron a considerar y tratar a Brasil como parte de ‘Latin America’, los gobiernos e intelectuales brasileños, aparte de la izquierda, aún no ubicaban a Brasil como una parte integral de la región. Desde el fin de la Guerra Fría, sin embargo, Brasil por primera vez ha perseguido una política de involucramiento con sus vecinos – en Sudamérica. Em parte história das idéias e em parte uma história das relações internacionais, este ensaio examina a relação do Brasil com a América Latina em perspectiva histórica. Por mais de um século após sua independência, intelectuais e governos da América Espanhola não consideravam o Brasil como pertencente à ‘América Latina’. Excetuando um interesse pelo Rio da Prata, por sua vez os intelectuais e governos brasileiros somente se voltavam para a Europa, e após 1889 progressivamente mais para os Estados Unidos. Uma vez que os Estados Unidos e consequentemente o resto do mundo começaram a perceber e tratar o Brasil como integrante da ‘Latin America’, particularmente durante a Guerra Fria, salvo alguns esquerdistas, governos e intelectuais brasileiros ainda não consideravam o Brasil como componente daquela região. No entanto, a partir do final da Guerra Fria, o Brasil tem buscado uma política de envolvimento pela primeira vez com os seus vizinhos – na América do Sul.

Bethell discusses the political climate in Brazil. If Brazil's still relatively new democracy fails to deliver not only economic benefits to the population as a whole but at least the beginnings of a more equitable distribution of wealth and power, it will always be fragile and will always struggle to command popular support.

It is in my case a particular honour to address the Royal Historical Society. As president of the Society for four years in the 1960s, Professor R. A. Humphreys, the first holder of the Chair of Latin American History in the University of London which I have been privileged to hold since 1986 (and, incidentally, my teacher both as an undergraduate and as a postgraduate student), gave a series of distinguished presidential addresses on aspects of British and United States policy towards Latin America, and Anglo-American rivalries in Latin America, during the nineteenth century. But it seems that I am the first historian of Latin America to present a paper to the Society on a specifically Latin American theme.

This chapter on the British contribution to the study of Brazil begins with a survey of the (relatively few) firsthand descriptions of Brazil under Portuguese colonial rule written by British (and Irish) visitors from the middle of the sixteenth century to the first decade of the nineteenth century.¹ The survey ends with the first comprehensive history of colonial Brazil written by an Englishman, who never visited Brazil: the poet Robert Southey. The second section is a survey of the (many) books on Brazil by British writers during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—from 1808 when the Portuguese court arrived

The importance of the years of political and social upheaval immediately following the end of the Second World War and coinciding with the beginnings of the Cold War, that is to say, the period from 1944 or 1945 to 1948 or 1949, for the history of Europe (East and West), the Near and Middle East, Asia (Japan, China, South and East Asia), even Africa (certainly South Africa) in the second half of the twentieth century has long been generally recognised. In recent years historians of the United States, which had not, of course, been a theatre of war and which alone among the major belligerents emerged from the Second World War stronger and more prosperous, have begun to focus attention on the political, social and ideological conflict there in the postwar period – and the long term significance for the United States of the basis on which it was resolved. In contrast, except for Argentina, where Perón's rise to power has always attracted the interest of historians, the immediate postwar years in Latin America, which had been relatively untouched by, and had played a relatively minor role in, the Second World War, remain to a large extent neglected. It is our view that these years constituted a critical conjuncture in the political and social history of Latin America just as they did for much of the rest of the world. In a forthcoming collection of case studies, which we are currently editing, the main features of the immediate postwar period in Latin America, and especially the role played by labour and the Left, will be explored in some detail, country by country.1 In this article, somewhat speculative and intentionally polemical, we present the broad outlines of our thesis.