The Reconquest of the New World. PABLO TORAL: Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2001.

Abstract

This book examines the phenomenon of Spanish companies’ foreign direct investment in Latin America during the 1990s, demonstrating that it really does constitute a significant reconquest of that part of the New World, which had been lost by Spain in the wars of independence in the 1820s. The book takes this very striking argument and supports it with a reasonable set of information about the Spanish banks, electric companies, telecom company, and oil company, which have indeed taken leadership of these sectors in Latin America. One can debate whether or not this constitutes a real reconquest, but the very visible fact is that key Spanish firms now are the leaders in several Latin American service sectors, and in the oil business.