Disraeli and South America

This article asks how Disraeli thought about South America. It argues that his constitutional theories, and his schemes of global politics, both dealt seriously with issues raised by the region, and especially by Spanish America. Disraeli’s engagement with these problems, the article contends, has implications for our understanding of his international political ideas, and his foreign policy positions. The article shows, in particular, that Disraeli periodically integrated Latin America into his attempts to project himself as a defender of England’s Atlantic interests. His case helps us start to make sense of the connections between British elite politics, and ‘informal empire’ in the geopolitical borderlands of South America.