Lecture 11: Can exploitation explain The Rise of the West

1
Lecture 11 Can exploitation explain The Rise of
the West?
2
Introduction

• First, a review of the course so far answers to
  the following questions
• Why was there so little growth before 1800?
• The Malthusian World (or Trap)
• Why was there a turning point around 1800?
• The Agricultural/Commerical/Industrial Revolution

3
Introduction

• The final question we will turn to is the
  following
• Why was there a take-off for only some countries
  after 1800?
• The concept of the Great Divergence.

4
Introduction

• The Great Divergence refers to the fact that
  starting from similar levels of economic
  development in 1500, certain countries started
  pulling away from the pack.
• Maybe before, but definitely after 1800.

5
(No Transcript)
6
(No Transcript)
7
(No Transcript)
8
(No Transcript)
9
Exploitation

• But much of the economic interaction of nations,
  especially outside of the European core, was not
  conducted on purely voluntary grounds.
• This has led many to claim that the Rise of the
  West came at the expense of the Rest.

10
Exploitation

• Frank has long called for a reassessment of
  European economic achievements.
• Western development and Third World
  underdevelopment are opposite faces of the same
  coin.

11
Exploitation

• Massive individual fortunes won this way which
  some have tried to relate to subsequent
  developments in Western Europe.
• However, long-run effects hard to decipher.

12
Exploitation in the extreme

• This indeterminacy (especially with regards to
  exploiter nations) can be illustrated with the
  example of African slavery.

13
Involuntary flows from Africa chronology and
consequences

• Long-standing precedent of slavery in much of the
  Old World, most notably from East Africa to the
  Middle East from the 700s.
• Combination of harsh conditions and sheer
  magnitude of the slave shipments from Africa to
  the New World set it apart.

14
Involuntary flows from Africa chronology and
consequences

• Figures remained low through the 1500s,
  reflecting
• 1.) a low level of European settlement in the
  New World and

15
Involuntary flows from Africa chronology and
consequences

• But figures steadily rise with
• 1.) rising Old World demand for tropical
  products, 2.) the expansion of areas of
  settlement, and 3.) the inability to exploit
  native labor.
• Thus, the shipments figures climbed from 70,000
  in the 1500s to
• -1.4 million in the 1600s
  - -

16
Involuntary flows from Africa chronology and
consequences

• Most of the flows centered on South America (in
  particular, Brazil) and the Caribbean.
• Fully three-fourths of the 11 million slaves
  shipped from Africa to the New World.

17
Involuntary flows from Africa chronology and
consequences

• Differing resource endowments has been used to
  explain the divergence in economic outcomes in
  the Americas.
• Specifically, Engerman and Sokoloff have argued
  that
• a.) lack of land suitable for plantation
  agriculture and
• b.) initial institutions (English vs Spanish
  administration)
• can explain economic differences today.

18
Involuntary flows from Africa chronology and
consequences

• A lack of land suitable for plantation
  agriculture encouraged settlement by free labor
  
• Implies low level of inequality and, thus, the
  provision of public goods and democracy compare
  three areas of the US/Canada, the Southern Cone,
  and the rest of Latin America.

19
Involuntary flows from Africa chronology and
consequences

• There is also an emerging literature on the
  economic consequences of slavery on Africa.
• Nunn matches the origin of slave shipments to
  demographic collapse.

20
Empire

• At the same time, the past 500 hundred years
  which marks the beginning of the Great Divergence
  also coincided with the rise and fall of empires.
  
• And accompanying this waxing and waning was the
  process of European overseas colonization.

21
Empire

• Not an unprecedented turn of events.
• What was somewhat different was the global extent
  of some of the new empires
• the Russian spanning Europe and the length of
  Asia,
• the Spanish who spanned the whole of Europe/New
  World/Asia,
• and the English which spanned all continents
  before World War I.

22
Empire

• In this regard, the 19th century was particularly
  important
• 1.) the collapse of the Portuguese Spanish
  Empires in the 1820s,
• 2.) the consolidation of formal empire in India
  and informal empire in China,

23
Globalization Empire

• As a consequence in 1913 fully 90 of Africa and
  65 of Asia was under European control.
• The leader here was Great Britain which
  controlled colonial areas of 13 million square
  miles inhabited by 450 million people.
• This from an island of 94,000 square miles with
  45 million people.

24
Empire
25
Exploitation

• Of course, the 19th century spread of
  colonization coincides with the Great Divergence.
• Leaves us with the question of which was