Introduction
The Europeans (Spain and Portugal) established colonies in Latin America in the 16th and 17th centuries and starting funding their own countries economic development through exploiting raw materials in the colonies (Gunder-Frank, 1966, p 20) The Colonial period lasted between 1492-1810 and contributed to shaping the modern Latin American economic, social and political environment Colonial powers engaged in shipment of raw materials and minerals to their counties without development of industries and implemented social changes like Christianity and new languages (Galeano, 2005) The colonization changed the demographic structures since many Native Latin American people perished from diseases like smallpox and other were forced to migrate from the native land The political system was based on patronage with only few elite whites allowed power and authority The native culture and religion was forbidden and courts were exclusively Spanish with the Priests occupying more wealth and rank in the society Latin America faced numerous complex dilemmas such as political instability, civil wars, revolutions, and regimes that came to power immediately at the end of colonization (Galeano, 2005) The progressive and democratic leadership has invested heavily in modernizing the economies through export-led policies and new foreign direct investments (Bértola, Castelnovo, Rodríguez and Willebald, 2009, p 470) Latin America has gone through turbulent economic and political history that has led to the current domestic economic expansion through integration to international trade markets, the current democratic governance and political stability Latin America is committed to full globalization and has a multi-cultural society that comprises of native individuals, Spanish, Latin Americans, Dutch, Indians and Portuguese (Galeano, 2005)
Colonization effects
Latin American countries like Mexico offered rich mining grounds and European colonizers believed they could prosper without building a diversified economy thus engaged in shipment of raw materials to Europe without developing the industry Mining was the leading economic activity for the Spanish empire and haciendas were established to act as supply food for port towns (Cardosoand Faletto, 1979) The haciendas were self-sufficient landed estate that reflected the pre-industrial era and mainly facilitated export trade with the colonizer country
Received on Sun Nov 29 2020 - 15:37:22 CET