GOVT 227 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: James Ensor, Washington Consensus, Neoliberalism
4 Apr 2016
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Document Summary
The second week of readings introduced us further to latin america"s colonial past as well as the repercussions of that era. Prior to the arrival of european colonizers there were three major civilizations across latin america. Descendants of the mayan empire, which dated back to 500 bce, developed a robust society, and collapsed 1500 years later, can still be found in southern mexico and guatemala. Aztecs took the reins from them and built a society that rested upon slave labor until they were defeated after the arrival of columbus. In what are modern ecuador, peru and chile the incas built a society that was conquered by the spanish in the 1500s. Once spain and portugal established their colonial presence through force, Catholic vigor and the promise of riches drew an influx of primarily men to the colonies. For 300 years the monarchies controlled a system that relied heavily on an imported bureaucracy that was loyal to the crown.
