This paper presents the transformations of Latin American-European relations
over time as an interdependent unequal relationship. These relations have been
shaped by exports of commodities, including the enrichment of European
foodways with indigenous Latin American crops and the environmentally
destructive extraction of natural resources and commercial export agriculture.
The transformation under colonialism led not only to the settlement of
Europeans in Latin America but also to the Atlantic slave trade. The
consequence of these relations of domination even today is a limited
acknowledgement of Latin America as being more than an extension of Europe.
With the end of European immigration to and from Latin America, the role of
the United States has grown instead, and increasingly developments in Latin
America have also taken on their own dynamics, decoupled from Europe. In the
coming decades, relations with China which have grown rapidly in commerce and
commodity exports are likely to transform the role of Europe in the region yet
again
