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Persistence of Inequality in Latin America
August 31, 2009 Inequality

“Excessive” inequality seems not to have been brought by Columbus, nor by colonial powers for several centuries, but largely after independence in the 19th century:

Compared with the rest of the world, inequality was not high in pre-conquest 1491, nor was it high in the post-conquest decades following 1492. Indeed, it was not even high in the mid-19th century just prior Latin America’s belle époque. It only became high thereafter. Historical persistence in Latin American inequality is a myth.

That certainly surprised me. I learned otherwise when I was an undergrad.

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