My paper is part of a larger project that looks at the political, cultural and ideological discourses that have played a role in the history of Latin American ideas of international law. In the nineteenth century, the notion of a "Latin American" international law was a widely promoted and accepted theory among the region's political leaders and intellectuals. I will discuss Andres Bello's (1781-1865) writings on international law as part of his integral project of national consolidation and the forming of a regional identity. Bello was and continues to be one of the most influential intellectuals of Latin America., thus his civilizing project was foundational in many ways. He proposed the "ordering" of a Latin American society via three routes: the ordering of thought via language, literature and philosophy; the ordering of national affairs via civil law, education and history; and the participation of the new nations in the world order via international law and diplomacy. Towards this last goal, in 1832 Bello published the first systematic treatise on international law in independent Spanish America and taught the first university course in international law. His book titled "Principles of the Laws of Nations" in the first edition and later "Principles of International Law" in editions of 1844 and 1865 was the main textbook in international law throughout Latin America and was fundamental in forming many generations of international lawyers. I will show how Bello's work tried to forge a (Latin) American point of view on what he considered the insufficiencies of a "European international law" and how this purpose was connected to his larger cultural project on what the new nations of the Americas should become.