Pan-American Conference - List of Pre-Pan-American Conferences

List of Pre-Pan-American Conferences

Pan-American Conferences trace their origins back to earlier Pan-American summits.The four Latin American Conferences took place prior to the Pan-American Conferences but were highly influential in the campaign to create the Pan-American Union. They are as follows:

Congress of Panama on June 22, 1826 in Panama City Initiated by Simon Bolivar (a Venezuelan political and military leader), the first Latin American Conference took place in Panama. Bolivar wanted to unite all of Latin America together in order to prevent invasion by the United States as well as other major powers at that time. However, the United States was permitted to send representatives – however, neither of them made it to Panama. Titled the Panama Congress, the countries agreed to unite together, convene with each other on a regular basis and provide financial and military backing to the treaty.

The Second Latin American Conference, December 1847 – March 1, 1848 in Lima, Peru The Latin American Conference in Lima, Peru was in response to two threats: the fear of Spanish designs upon South America’s west coast and the U.S. incursion into Mexico. Although the United States were in the middle of a war with Mexico at the time of the conference, the United States was permitted to send a representative to serve as a symbol of unity to the forces present outside of the Americas (mainly Europe).

The Third Latin American Conference on September 1856 in Santiago Although this conference only consisted of two meetings, it was called due to the worry that the Latin Americans had towards the United States regarding their want of more territory and this time the United States was not invited. There was an attempt at signing a Continental Treaty but it fell through due to disagreements between the delegates.

The fourth Latin American Conference on November 1864 in Lima, Peru Failed in its attempts to make any agreements regarding the intervention that had taken place by mostly European powers. At this time, there had been an increased amount of interaction between Latin America and the United States through the actions that the European powers took regarding the Dominican Republic, Mexico and the Chincha Islands.