ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief golden age of economic growth from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, the interwar years, the period of import substitution industrialization, and recovery from these policies. The economic history of Latin America begins with the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1492. With the decline in silver production that was occurring in the mid sixteenth century, economic activity migrated toward the production of agricultural commodities. The colonial economy of Latin America turned from mining gold and silver during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to the production of agricultural commodities. One of the oldest economic myths is that war is good for the economy. While it may be beneficial for certain industries, military conflicts are a poor substitute for production and trade under peaceful conditions. Unfortunately, the terms “debt” and “Latin America” are closely connected. The history of Latin American debt stretches back to independence.
