The impact of colonial socio-economic structures on the political structures of Latin America and briefly describe the ideas and circumstances that led to the independent movements in the continent.
The impact of colonial socio-economic structures on the political structures of Latin America and briefly describe the ideas and circumstances that led to the independent movements in the continent , Colonialism didn't , however, merely impact the event of these societies that did the colonising. Most obviously, it also affected the societies that were colonised. In our research we showed that this, again, had heterogeneous effects. this is often because colonialism ended up creating very distinct kinds of societies in several places. especially , colonialism left very different institutional legacies in several parts of the planet , with profoundly divergent consequences for economic development. the rationale for this is often not that the varied European powers transplanted differing types of institutions – in order that North America succeeded thanks to an inheritance of British institutions, while Latin America failed due to its Spanish institutions. In fact, the evidence suggests that the intentions and methods of distinct colonial powers were very similar . The outcomes were very different due to variation in initial conditions within the colonies. as an example , in Latin America , where there have been dense populations of indigenous people, a colonial society might be created supported the exploitation of those people. In North America where no such populations existed, such a society was infeasible, albeit the primary British settlers tried to line it up. In response, early North American society went during a completely different direction: early colonising ventures, like the Virginia Company, needed to draw in Europeans and stop them running off into the open frontier and that they needed to incentivise them to figure and invest. The institutions that did this, like political rights and access to land, were radically different even from the institutions within the colonising country. When British colonisers found Latin-American-like circumstances, for instance in South Africa , Kenya or Zimbabwe, they were perfectly capable of and curious about fixing what we've called ‘extractive institutions’, supported the control of and therefore the extraction of rents from indigenous peoples. In Acemoglu and Robinson (2012) we argue that extractive institutions, which strip the vast mass of the population of incentives or opportunities, are related to poverty. The impact of colonial socio-economic structures on the political structures of Latin America and briefly describe the ideas and circumstances that led to the independent movements in the continent it's also not a coincidence that such African societies are today as unequal as Latin American countries.
It wasn’t just the density of indigenous peoples that
mattered for the sort of society that formed. As we showed in Acemoglu et al.
(2001), the disease environment facing potential European settlers was also
important. Something that encouraged the colonisation of North America was the
relatively benign disease environment that facilitated the strategy of making
institutions to ensure European migration. Something that encouraged the
creation of extractive institutions in West Africa was the very fact that it
had been the ‘white man’s graveyard’, discouraging the creation of the sort of
‘inclusive economic institutions’ which encouraged the settlement and
development of North America. These inclusive institutions, in contrast to
extractive institutions, did create incentives and opportunities for the vast
mass of individuals .
Thus, even as colonialism had heterogeneous effects on
development within Europe, promoting it in places like Britain, but retarding
it in Spain, so it also had very heterogeneous effects within the colonies. In
some places, like North America, it created societies with much more inclusive
institutions than within the colonising country itself and planted the seeds
for the immense current prosperity of the region. In others, like Latin America
, Africa or South Asia, it created extractive institutions that led to very
poor long-run development outcomes.
The impact of colonial socio-economic structures on the political structures of Latin America and briefly describe the ideas and circumstances that led to the independent movements in the continent - The fact that colonialism had positive effects on development in some contexts doesn't mean that it didn't have devastating negative effects on indigenous populations and society.That colonialism within the early modern and modern periods had heterogeneous effects is formed plausible by many other pieces of evidence. for instance , Putnam (1994) proposed that it had been the Norman Conquest of the South of Italy that created the shortage of ‘social capital’ within the region, the dearth of associational life that led to a society that lacked trust or the power to cooperate. Yet the Normans also colonised England which led to a society which gave birth to the economic revolution. Thus Norman colonisation had heterogeneous effects too.
Colonialism mattered for development because it shaped the
institutions of various societies. But many other things influenced these too,
and, a minimum of within the early modern and modern period, there have been
quite few places that managed to avoid colonialism. These include China, Iran,
Japan, Nepal and Thailand, amongst others, and there's an excellent deal of
variation in development outcomes within these countries, to not mention the
good variation within Europe itself. This raises the question of how important,
quantitatively, European colonialism was, compared to other factors. Acemoglu
et al. calculate that, consistent with their estimates, differences in economic
institutions account for about two-thirds of the differences in income
per-capita within the world. The impact of colonial socio-economic structures
on the political structures of Latin America and briefly describe the ideas and
circumstances that led to the independent movements in the continent historical
settler mortality and indigenous population density in 1500 explain around 30%
of the variation in economic institutions within the world today. If historical
urbanisation in 1500, which may also explain variation within the nature of
colonial societies, is added, this increases to over 50% of the variation. If
this is often right, then a 3rd of income inequality within the world today are
often explained by the varying impact of European colonialism on different
societies. an enormous deal.
Finally, it's worth observing that our empirical findings
have important implications for alterative theories of comparative development.
Some argue that geographical differences are dominant in explaining long-run
patterns of development. In contradistinction, we showed that when the role of
institutions is accounted for, geographical factors aren't correlated with
development outcomes. the very fact that, for instance, there's a correlation
between latitude and geography, isn't indicative of a causal relationship. it's
simply driven by the very fact that European colonialism created a pattern of
institutions that's correlated with latitude. Once this is often controlled
for, geographical variables play no causal role. Others argue that cultural
differences are paramount in driving development. We found no role in the least
for cultural differences measured in several ways. First, the religious
composition of various populations. Second, as we've emphasised, the identity of
the colonial power. Third, the fraction of the population of a rustic of
European descent. it's true, of course, that the us and Canada filled up with
Europeans, but in our argument this was an outcome of the very fact that that
they had good institutions. it's not the numerical dominance of individuals of
European descent today that drives development.
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