The Age of Empire and Post-Colonial Colonialism: Concepts for a History of the Frontiers of Civilization in Latin America

The article gathers, discusses, and articulates a series of significant concepts for the historicization of the expansion of national States and imperial markets across independent Latin American territories and peoples, until the end of the 19th century. In order to highlight local peculiarities from a continental and transnational perspective, the study addresses the European imperialist drive as a common denominator in the transformation of indigenous and national sovereignties. On the basis of a conceptually selected documentary corpus, it discusses the pertinence of separating the concepts of sovereignty, national expansion and imperialism, internal and external borders, colonialism, and post-coloniality. Finally, it argues the need of a radical historization of sovereignty.