ABSTRACT
In the five centuries since Columbus stumbled upon the New World in his quest for a western sea route to Asia, the colonies and subsequent countries of the Western Hemisphere have followed very different paths that have led to striking contrasts in their circumstances at the end of the twentieth century. Spain's and Portugal's former colonies, which had a century's head start and are half again more populous than the United States and Canada, are today roughly half a century behind them with respect to the maturity and stability of their political institutions, prosperity, and social justice. The English-speaking Caribbean countries, all former British slave colonies, are, with about 6 million people, tiny by comparison with the rest of the Hemisphere. What is sometimes referred to as the "Western Hemisphere idea" was first articulated by President James Monroe at the time the former Spanish colonies to the south were gaining their independence.
