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The Colonial Legacy in Latin America: Historical Roots and Economic Impact

Explore the impact of colonial history on Latin America's development, focusing on reasons for settling, key institutions like Encomienda, Church, and State, and debates on colonizers' role in underdevelopment today. Dive deep into historical legacies for a comprehensive understanding. Recommended readings for further insights.

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The Colonial Legacy in Latin America: Historical Roots and Economic Impact

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  1. The Colonial Legacy: Basic Facts Lecture 2 Week 1

  2. Structure of this class • The region’s shared history shaped its current development • Reasons for settling in Latin America • Institutions: - Encomienda - Church - State • Conclusion: Colonizers to be blamed for underdevelopment?

  3. Spain and Portugal in Latin America in the 16th Century Treaty of Tordesillas signed in 1494: Brazil granted to the Portuguese

  4. Reasons for settling in Latin America

  5. Institutions

  6. Labor under encomienda system

  7. 2. The Catholic Church

  8. 3.- The State

  9. Institutions’ power erosion Geographical distance & weakening Iberian powers • Centralization via “the house of trade” became untenable • Monitoring trade became increasingly difficult as volumes increased • Revenues collapsed • Ineffective and increasingly complicated tax structures • Upsurge of smuggling and corruption

  10. Colonizers’ legacy to be blamed for underdevelopment today? Two alternative views: • (1) Yes! *Engerman, Stanley, and Kenneth Sokoloff (1984), and*Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson (2001) • (2) No! *Coatsworth, John H. (1998), Bulmer-Thomas, Victor (2003) So, for next class: Review today’s lecture material very quickly in Topic 2: Cardoso, Eliana, and Ann Helwege (1992) Chapter 2: Historical Roots, Sections 1 – 4,pp. 23 – 37; Franko, Patrice (2003), Chapter 2: Historical Legacies, Patterns of Unequal and Unstable Growth. (pp. 29 – 36), and Gibson, Charles (1966), Spain in America, Harper Colophon Books. Chapter 3:Encomienda, Chapter 4: Church and Chapter 5: State. • And read starred material topic 3 on (1) above.

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