Colonization, Early Institutions and the Origin of State Capacity and Democratization

Introduction

My research project proposes studying the origin of state capacity, democracy, and political dynasties using the colonial conquest of Latin America as a natural experiment. Much of the recent work on comparative politics and development uses large historical events as fruitful experimentation laboratories. However, the colonial experience looks more similar to a "bundle treatment" than a single treatment. It is difficult to disentangle the role of differences in legal origin from the influences of human capital, etc.

Methodological Approaches

To try to overcome this problem, past empirical approaches use a variety of methods, including:

1. Case studies
2. Panel data
3. Country-fixed effects
4. Instrumental variables

I will try to move one step further in this debate by considering the initial years of the Spanish colonization of Latin America as a natural experiment.

Advantages of the Methodological Approach

My methodological approach has four advantages:

1. Initial Knowledge: Since I only analyze the initial years of colonization, my empirical strategy is based on the fact that the initial conquerors had no knowledge of the land that they intended to conquer.

2. Single Colonial Power: In working with the colonization of Latin America, we only have one colonial power, Spain, which avoids the traditional problems of diversity of legal origins.

3. Rich Documentation: The contracts (“Capitulaciones”) that the conquerors signed with the King before embarking to America, and before even knowing anything about the land that they would conquer, along with other documents from the Archivo de Indias, provide very rich details on the rules that governed the early institutions (power to tax and rule, the use of military power, the treatment of indigenous groups, etc.).

4. Subnational Level Information: Finally, these documents contain information to locate the initial settlements at the subnational level.

The colonization of the Americas and the information contained in the “Capitulaciones” found in the Archivo de Indias provides a unique opportunity to advance the debate on these crucial questions.