"1917 in Latin America: Between Pan-Americanism and anti-imperialism"

MARÍA INÉS TATO

Wellington

Simposio; The myriad faces of war: 1917 and its legacy Symposium; 2017

WHAM, Massey University Te Kunenga Ki Pūrehuroa, Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira, The University of Auckland Te Whare Wānanga o Tāmaki Makaurau y Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage

1917 was a decisive year in diverse sceneries of the FirstWorld War, contributing to the globalization of the conflict. Although thatdate tends to be automatically identified with the Russian revolution, theimpact of this outstanding event was neither immediate nor direct everywhere.The dynamics of different spaces of the world were determined by many otherfactors happening simultaneously, the influence of which on local experiencesof the war differed from one latitude to another.In Latin America, the entry of the United States intothe conflict was the more significant event, which triggered importantdevelopments in the diplomatic, economic, political and cultural fields. TheUnited States displayed an active campaign to align the countries of thesubcontinent behind her foreign policy, led under the motto of Pan-Americanism.As a result, most Latin American states severed diplomatic relationships withor declared war against the German Empire, in the context of rough internaldebates.This paper aims to analyse the impact of the UnitedStates? entry into the war on the Latin American intellectual field. It willtackle with two main reactions unleashed by that event. On the one hand, it ledmany intellectuals to support the notion of continental unity under theAmerican leadership, reinforced later by the so called ?Wilsonian moment?. Onthe other hand, it also gave rise to the contestation of the Americaninterferences in the subcontinent?s domestic affairs; to the revival ofanti-imperialism, a vigorous ideological trend appeared after theSpanish-American War of 1898; and to the proposal of Latin American unity.