The expression “Latin America, ” whose origin is still hotly disputed, ¹ at
first had little more than geographical significance–it referred to all those
independent countries south of the Río Grande in which a language de-
rived from Latin (e.g., Spanish, Portuguese, and French) was predominantly
spoken. In this original meaning, the only characteristics common to the
countries of Latin America were their location in the Western Hemisphere
and the origins of their language. In many respects the differences between
the countries were considered to be as important–if not more so–as what
they shared.

These differences–whether of size, population, ethnicity, natural re-
sources, climate, or level of development–are still very important, but it
has also become clear that the republics are held together by much more
than geography and language. The shared colonial experience, as divisions
above all of the Spanish or Portuguese empires, was crucial in shaping the
economic and political destinies of the new republics after independence.
The pattern of development in the nineteenth century, based on the export
of natural resources to the industrialized countries, reinforced this sense of
a shared past.

Thus there is real meaning to the phrase “Latin America, ” and the factors
in common are stronger than those that bind the countries of Africa, Asia,
or Europe. Furthermore, the membership of the Latin American club has
been fairly stable since independence, with relatively few additions or sub-
tractions as a result of border changes, secession, or annexation (see Map 2 and map 3 );
indeed, the boundaries of Latin American states, although often
the source of interstate conflict and still not entirely settled, ² have changed
much less in the past 150 years than have frontiers elsewhere.

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