Natural Disasters and Comparative State-Formation and Nation-Building: Earthquakes in Argentina and Chile (1822-1939)

Natural disasters in Argentina and Chile played a significant role in the state-formation and nation-building process (1822-1939). This dissertation explores state and society responses to earthquakes by studying public and private relief efforts reconstruction plans, crime and disorder, religious interpretations of catastrophes, national and transnational cultures of disaster, science and technology, and popular politics. Although Argentina and Chile share a political border and geological boundary, the two countries provide contrasting examples of state formation. Most disaster relief and reconstruction efforts emanated from the centralized Chilean state in Santiago. In Argentina, provincial officials made the majority of decisions in a catastrophe’s aftermath. Patriotic citizens raised money and collected clothing for survivors that helped to weave divergent regions together into a nation. The shared experience of earthquakes in all regions of Chile created a national disaster culture. Similarly, common disaster experiences, reciprocal relief efforts, and aid commissions linked Chileans with Western Argentine societies and generated a transnational disaster culture. Political leaders viewed reconstruction as opportunities to implement their visions for the nation on the urban landscape. These rebuilding projects threatened existing social hierarchies and often failed to come to fruition. Rebuilding brought new technologies from Europe to the Southern Cone. New building materials and systems, however, had to be adapted to the South American economic and natural environment. In a catastrophe’s aftermath, newspapers projected images of disorder and the authorities feared lawlessness and social unrest. Judicial and criminal records, however, show that crime often decreased after a disaster. Finally, nineteenth-century earthquakes heightened antagonism and conflict between the Catholic Church and the state. Conservative clergy asserted that disasters were divine punishments for the state’s anti-clerical measures and later railed against scientific explanations of earthquakes.

Papel reproductivo y productivo de las mujeres esclavas en Costa Rica en el siglo XVIII

ResumenEste trabajo trata sobre la explotación sexual y económica que enfrentaron las mujeres esclavas en la provincia de Costa Rica durante el siglo XVIII. De ahí que se estudia su papel como reproductoras de mano de obra revisando la legislación emitida a este respecto. Así mismo se analiza su rol como productoras de riqueza examinando las diferentes funciones económicas que cumplieron, como mano de obra y mercancía. Además se hace referencia a los castigos a que fueron sometidas, a las enfermedades que sufrieron y a algunas de sus estrategias de resistencia ante la explotación y abuso de que fueron objeto.AbstractThis article is about the sexual and economic exploitation that female slaves faced in the province of Costa Rica during the eighteenth century. It studies their role as reproducers of slave labor reviewing the colonial legislation in this respect. It also analyzes their role as wealth producers examining the different economic functions that they fulfilled as labor force and merchandise. In addition it refers to the punishments, to the diseases suffered by these slave women, and to some of their strategies to survive the abuse and exploitation they faced