THE NEW WORLD OF THE GOTHIC FOX
203
armies. The Spanish Crown intended the colonial government of the
Spanish Indies to be civilian, bureaucratic and dependent on the
metropolis, so that it could provide an institutional bulwark against the
possible seigneurial pretensions of the settlers. The recurring intervention
by the military in Latin American politics is emphatically a post–
Napoleonic phenomenon very distant indeed from the colonial
tradition. The little Corsican's comment about the marshall's baton
inside every corporal's knapsack was heard very clearly, and gave
respectability to the countless quasi-democratic, populist adventures of
the men on horseback. These held the promise of truly revolutionary
swift and decisive social ascent, otherwise traditionally associated with the
slow and unpredictable result of life spent in cloisters or lecture rooms. A
self-proclaimed chieftain could ride his horse into parliament and become
President overnight, but this echoed the Napoleonic, not the colonial,
political moment. While it is true that the
Reconquista
produced a class
of unusually grasping and insolent warlords, vastly more important is to
note that their relentless and efficient suppression was one of the most
important of Ferdinand and Isabella's domestic political achievements.
Yes, I can affirm that I am immensely less impressed with the military
bequest of the
Reconquista
than with the philosophical and cultural
prowess justly associated with the Counter-Reformation.
David Scott Palmer: I
am fascinated by this discussion, because it is
concerned with the freshest, long-standing, culturally-based approach to
understanding Latin America. Permit me to make three observations in
this regard. One is that those of us who are concerned with this ap–
proach tend to fall prey to the charge of cultural determinism, if we are
not very careful about the way we lay things out. If we base our analysis
on the historical context that gives rise to the cultural modalities, which
in turn help us understand, in general terms, these New World
phenomena, I believe that we are on sounder intellectual ground. The
second concern has to do with using culture as an explanation for
economic forces; this is a shorthand way of describing a central part of
our analysis. But we should not overlook the intervening set of variables,
those related to political institutions. In other words, history as mediated
through political institutions affects and gives rise to economic
institutions. They in turn affect the wider society, which responds in
ways affecting political institutions. So the cycle plays on, shaping and
being shaped by historical forces in the process.
My third concern relates to Dr. Arias's observations. I share his tren–
chant critique for a variety of reasons, and yet believe that his generaliza-
