CAREER: Long-Run Development and the Legacy of Spanish Colonialism in Latin America

James Mahoney 00093754这个职业研究项目探讨了西班牙殖民主义和拉丁美洲长期发展之间的关系。这一课题福尔斯比较历史研究的传统。 比较历史分析在处理国家发展的广泛问题时尤其得到很好的研究，在这些问题中，宏观过程和时间顺序是解释的核心。 来自15个拉丁美洲国家的历史数据将被用来调查西班牙殖民渗透在18世纪和经济，社会和政治发展水平在20世纪有趣的负相关性。 西班牙殖民帝国在殖民时期渗透最深的地区，如墨西哥、秘鲁、玻利维亚和危地马拉，被认为是世纪拉丁美洲最不发达的国家。 与此相反，那些西班牙人渗透最少的地区，如阿根廷、乌拉圭、智利和哥斯达黎加，被认为在世纪成为拉丁美洲最发达的国家。 将利用现有的定量数据来源来检验这种关系，以衡量拉丁美洲不同国家的殖民渗透程度和发展水平。 衡量殖民渗透的标准包括贸易、人口、黄金生产、预算和工资的统计数据。 衡量发展的标准包括人均国内生产总值、婴儿死亡率、出生时预期寿命和民主的统计数据。 还将完成对拉丁美洲殖民后期史学的广泛阅读。该提案的教育部分包括为学生提供研究机会，作为研究助理;创建一个导师计划，将本科生与研究生联系起来;开发一个新的关于“殖民遗产”的研讨会课程，并将该项目的各个部分纳入目前关于方法和发展的课程。

James Mahoney00093754This CAREER research project explores the relationship between Spanish colonialism and long-run development in Latin American. The project falls with the comparative-historical research tradition. Comparative-historical analysis is particularly well studied for addressing broad questions of national development in which macro processes and temporal sequences are central to the explanation. Historical data from 15 Latin American countries will be used to investigate the intriguing negative correlation between Spanish colonial penetration in the eighteenth century and levels of economic, social, and political development in the twentieth century. Those regions of the Spanish colonial empire that were the most heavily penetrated during the colonial period, such as Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, and Guatemala are hypothesized to have emerged as the least developed countries of Latin American in the 20th century. In contrast, those regions that were the least penetrated by the Spanish, such as Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, and Costa Rica, are hypothesized t have become the most developed countries of Latin American during the 20th century. This relationship will be testing by using existing quantitative data sources to measure level of colonial penetration and level of development for the different countries of Latin America. Measures of colonial penetration include statistics on trade, population, bullion production, budgets and salary. Measures of development include statistics on gross domestic product per capita, infant mortality rate, life expectancy at birth, and democracy. Extensive readings on the historiography of late colonial Latin America will also be completed. The education component of the proposal consists of providing research opportunities for students as research assistants; creating a mentor program which links undergraduate with graduate students; and developing a new seminar course on "Colonial Legacies" and integrating sections of the project into a current course on methodology and development.