Imperial Skirmishes: War and Gunboat Diplomacy in Latin America

by Andrew Graham-Yooll and Andrew Yooll-Graham

Book Overview

Notorious for its recent military dictatorships, South America is less well known for its wars. But since the dawn of independence in the early nineteenth century, the continent has witnessed a series of conflicts, some short and small-scale, others long-lasting and extensive. Many such conflicts amounted to little more than sabre-rattling and cost little human life. But not all hostilities were small or trivial. More than 400,000 troops and civilians...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566564484
• ISBN13: 9781566564489
• Release Date: June 2002
• Publisher: Olive Branch Press
• Length: 194 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Great apetizer for a grand feast

Andrew Graham-Yooll takes his readers through a rapid, breath-taking ride through the wild world of 19th and early 20th Century Latin American military history. While this period involves a great deal of "gunboat diplomacy" in the sense of outside powers imposing their will through force, the title is a bit of a misnomer in that Graham-Yooll provides good thumbnail sketches of the various inter-state wars of the period as well. Obviously, no single volume can do justice to such a vast subject. This book will leave the reader for a hunger to delve deeper.

An engaging and very informative history

Imperial Skirmishes: War And Gunboat Diplomacy In Latin America by Andrew Graham-Yooll (Senior Editor, "Buenos Aires Herald") is an engaging and very informative history of South American wars and conflicts from the 1800s down to the late twentieth century. Wars and "gunboat diplomacy" between Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay are presented in this carefully researched, well written, and very highly recommended account, one which clearly presents both the causes and the effects of human conflict upon the nations of the southern continent.