Latin America’s resources: Blessing or curse?

Colombian crocodile: This pendant, made in pre-Columbian times from the gold alloy tumbaga, is one of the objects displayed at the British Museum during the exhibition of Colombian gold artefacts, which runs until March 23rd. (© Museo del Oro – Banco de la República, Colombia.) As this year may or may not ring in the end of the political union between Scotland and England established by the Act of Union in 1707, it is an appropriate time to remember that one of the key events leading to this Act happened in Latin America, at the Gulf of Darien, which is now on the border between Colombia and Panama as well as on the junction of Central and South America. Keen to keep up with the colonial powers, Scotland — then ruled by England’s King William III in personal union, but otherwise still a separate entity in political and financial terms — planned to establish a colony on the Caribbean coast near the narrowest part of the Central American land mass, with the idea to capitalise on the connection between the Atlantic and Pacific sea trade. Around 1,200 settlers left Scotland on five ships in 1698 and tried to establish a colony. Tropical diseases, food shortages and mismanagement led to a disastrous mortality. After just eight months, the survivors, numbering around 300, gave up and retreated back home. Meanwhile, a second wave of over 1,000 settlers set out, became demoralised when they found the colony deserted, and finally gave up after a siege by Spanish forces. All the way through the project, King William refused to provide any kind of assistance, as he feared that establishing the colony might upset Spain, which laid claim to the entire region. The enterprise had been backed by around a quarter of the money circulating in Scotland. Its failure exacerbated existing economic problems and left the Act of Union as the only option for Scotland to avert economic collapse at home and participate in imperial successes around the world.