Economic History take-home essay – Class 22
To what extent should inequality in Latin America be attributed to colonialism?
Théophile Toussaint
3025258@studbocconi.it
Word count: 1233 words including footnotes, not references
Latin America has been discovered in 1492 by Christopher Columbus and has been exploited by Spain and Portugal from this moment to 1825. Portugal colonized Brazil and Spain colonized all the west coast and Mexico. Nowadays, we consider that Latin America is the most unequal territory of the globe. But what is exactly an inequality, it is “the unfair situation in society when some people have more opportunities, money, etc. than other”. And we can note these inequalities if we pay attention to the mean of the Gini index in Latin America we can see that it is equal to 49.8 in 1998-1999 and the ratio of consumption of richest 20% to poorest 20% is 11.8 and if we compare it to the Industrials countries (GINI’s index =
Robinson, 2002; Institutions as a fundamental cause of long run growth
• Denis Cogneau Charlotte Guenard, 2003; Colonization, Institutions, and Inequality a Note on Some Suggestive Evidence
• Rafael Dobado González and Héctor García Montero Colonial, 2010; Origins of inequality in Hispanic America?
• The Economists, 2003; Inequality in Latin America: A stubborn curse
• E.H.P. Frankema, 2006; The Colonial Origins of Inequality:
The Causes and Consequences of Land Distribution
• Kelly Hoffman and Miguel Angel Centeno, 2003; The lopsided Continent: Inequality in Latin America
• Steve Maas, 2015; The Origins of Latin American Inequality
• Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2015; Latin American Inequality: Colonial Origins, Commodity Booms or a Missed Twentieth-Century Leveling?
• Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2009 ; Five Centuries of Latin American Inequality
• World Bank Latin American and Caribbean studies, Inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean: Breaking with
Mignolo, W. D. (2005). The Idea of Latin America (pp. 1-94). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Today I bring to your forefront of thought, the island of Hispaniola. This island is the namesake for the two countries who run the land, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Both nations hail from a joint introduction into the world market and post-European colonization, but as time progressed, each one had a different outlook to the world stage. The present day Dominican Republic and Haiti are worlds apart on an island which keeps them together. Their culture is separated by the colonial residuals that lay imbedded into their communities. They are on different sides of the spectrum of structural growth due to the resulting outcomes from decades of political ruling and policy making. On one side we have the second independent state of the Americas,
Gonzalez, Juan. Harvest of Empire a History of Latinos in America. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc, 2000.
Burns, E. B., & Charlip, J. A. (2007). Latin America: an interpretive history (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Burns, E. B., & Charlip, J. A. (2007). Latin America: an interpretive history (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Fernandez, Lilia. "Introduction to U.S. Latino/Latina History." History 324. The Ohio State University. Jennings Hall 0040, Columbus, OH, USA. Address.
Feagin, Joe R. “The First U.S Latinos: White Wealth and Mexican Labor.” Richard and Jean 67.
Galeano, Eduardo. Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. Translated by Cedric Belfrage. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1997.
Brazil is a vast country in South America that has experienced extreme wealth and income disparities since its independence in 1822. The uneven income distribution, combined with several other factors, is what accounts for millions of civilians living in impoverished conditions. The Northeast is the country’s most afflicted region, with an estimated 58% of the population living in poverty and earing less than $2 a day. The systemic inequality as well as lack of development and modernization has generated chronic poverty that has had detrimental effects on society in northeast and ultimately weakens Brazil.
Goodman, Donna. (2009, March 13). The struggle for women’s equality in latin america. Retrieved from http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/03/the-struggle-for-womens-equality-in-latin-america/
Cardenas, V., Kerby, S. (2012). The state of Latinos in the United States. Retrieved from www.americanprogress.org
Jaffe, A. J., R.M. Cullen, and T.D. Boswell. 1990. The Changing Demography of Spanish Americans. New York: Academic Press.
New York, N.Y., 1991. Bethell, Leslie. A. The Cambridge History of Latin America Vol. III. Cambridge University Press, London, England.
Inequality today is one of the most significant problems that America faces. According to Inequality.org in 2015 Household income of the top 0.1% of the population gained $6,747,439 while bottom 90% of the population got $34,074 (Inequality.org). The gap between incomes only continues to grow every year, which requires a change in social and economic policies of the country. However, it should be remembered that economic indicators can tell about working conditions, living conditions, nutrition, education of representatives of various groups of the population, but they can not show a picture of the realizability and opportunities to be successful in life for different groups of the population. That is why at the end
Scholars have debated not only the nature of Iberian colonialism, but also the impact that independence had on the people of Latin America. Historian Jaime E. Rodriguez said that, “The emancipation of [Latin America] did not merely consist of separation from the mother country, as in the case of the United States. It also destroyed a vast and responsive social, political, and economic system that functioned well despite many imperfections.” I believe that when independence emerged in Latin America, it was a positive force. However, as time progressed, it indeed does cause conflict.