This suite of documents includes Charles (Carlos) Calvo’s (1824–1906) letter to Napoleon III, the response from M. Thouvenel, Minister of the French Foreign Office, and the introduction to Calvo’s book, Recueil complet des traités, conventions, capitulations, armistices, et autres actes diplomatiques de tous les États d’Amérique latine compris entre le Golfe du Mexique et le cap d’Horn, depuis l’année 1493 jusqu’à nos jours, précédé d’un memoir sur l’état actuel de l’Amérique, des tableaux statistiques, d’un dictionnaire diplomatique, avec une notice historique sur chaque traité important (1862). In his introduction, Calvo makes it quite evident that Europe has blind ignorance about Latin America and that the continual beliefs that Latin America is still “wild” and “primitive” is fueled chiefly by three factors. The first factor is inadequate teaching provided by European schools; the second is the lack of competent, patriotic groups that could educate Europe; and the third factor is the “intolerable chattering of shallow writers who travel with their eyes closed,” who confine themselves to hotel rooms and writing novels in which Europeans are portrayed as heroes. Calvo then begins to describe how Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, among others, are far more advanced in their material and intellectual advancements, and that trade is livelier than it is in Europe (according to Calvo) and is the basis of their wealth, well-being, and civilization.