Figure 1.--

The Americas laid unknown between Europe and America undiscovered for millenia. At the time that nomadic Siberian hunters crossed Bearing Straits into the Americas, their technology and hunter-gather economic activity was basically the same as humans in other areas. The Paeolithic/Agricultural Revolution developed independently, but more slowly in the Americas than the Old World, although they did come up with the two most important croups--corn and the potato. There are various theories about this including the north-south axis of the contunents, the lack of draught animals, and other ideas, but the most important may have been the isolation of the Americas. Major civilizations emerged in Meso-America and South America, but nor in what are the two major Noerth american counrries--the United States and Canada. South America would be colonized and developed by the Catholic powers (Portugal and Spain). North America would be settled by Protestant England. The result was starteling different outcomes. South America like Spanin and Portugal languished while North America, especially the United States in the space of only a century exploded into the world major industrial power. There are various reasons for this. Latin America was governed by royal decree. There were no local governing institutions allowed. Portuguese and Spanish law governed. Latin America was affected by the Inquisition which not only had religious impacts, but impacts on ways of thought and inquiry. Other aspects of conservatuve Catholocism influenced the region. There were no public education systems and much of its population, the Native Americans, reduced to serfdom. North America was very different. Local systems of democratic self government emerged in the English colonies from an early point. English Common Law dominated the legal system. North America was influenced by the Enligtenment which encouraged inquiry and debate. Public education systems emerged in the English colonies, actually before England itself. Slavery developed in the United States, mostly the southern states, but in the North a system of free labor dominated. Adam Smith had published Wealth of Nations in the same year that America had declared independence (1776). And not country adopted the principle of capitalism more thourougly than the new United States. After the Wars for independence, the United States economy developed very rapidly while few Latin American countries made much progress. A new difference appeared. Socialist ideas became increasingly popular anong the Latin American inteligencia even before countries of the region had even attempted capitalism. As a result many Latin American countries adopted socialist, statist development policies with little success. Cuba adopted the most radical pursuit of socialism and exoerienced abject faiure. Venezuela folloed suit and even with vast oil revenue failed. Other countries adopted market reforms like Chile and Brazil and achieved some success. There has been nothing like the successes achieved in Asia by the Asian Tigers, China, and India. We are ot entirely sure why. We suspect it is the widespread belief in socialis, throughpout the region. Notably the principal opposition parties in Venezuela are socialist parties.

Created: 11:34 PM 8/27/2017
Last updated: 11:35 PM 8/27/2017