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The Colonial Legacy: Basic Facts

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

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The Colonial Legacy: Basic Facts

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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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