Oil and Coffee: Latin American Merchant Shipping from the Imperial Era to the 1950s (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780313308390)

Latin Americans as sailors? This remark caused laughter among 19th-century foreign observers, particularly British observers. Yet, Latin Americans did struggle to create important merchant fleets, an effort largely ignored outside the region. This book rescues Latin American shipping from oblivion. In a chronological narrative, it presents the most important events in the emergence of Latin American shipping. While focusing on the shipping companies, the book also roams widely into governmental policy, foreign relations, and naval affairs.

Divided into two parts, the book opens with a brief summary of the age of sailing ships, then traces the history of the first steamship companies, focusing on Brazil and Chile until 1914. Part I then goes on to analyze the impact of World War I and the Great Depression. Part II considers World War II and U.S. surplus ships. New issues in Latin American shipping, arising in the 1950s, will be discussed in another volume.

Author: Rene de la Pedraja
ISBN-10: 031330839X
ISBN-13: 9780313308390
Publisher: Praeger
Language: English
Published: 09/24/1998
Pages: 208
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.03lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.50d