Confederations as a Balancing Power Device: The Continental Treaty of Santiago (1856).

This paper studies the background, the context and the meanings of the Continental Treaty of Santiago negotiated in 1856 by the ministers of Chile, Ecuador and Peru, taking into consideration a protocol signed by Central American representatives in Washington and the negotiating position of Brazil. Two facets of the initiative are mainly considered: a) the objective of creating a Latin American Confederation, purpose inspired in three previous efforts, and b) the Confederation's role as the first concerted action against U.S. expansionism in the 1850s. Overall, the episode of Continental Treaty substantiates the hypothesis about nineteenth-century perception of the Confederation as a balance of power device in the Western Hemisphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]