Checkmate: What was a King's worth in nineteenth-century Latin America?

Daniel Sánchez-Piñol Yulee ()
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Daniel Sánchez-Piñol Yulee: Texas Tech University

Constitutional Political Economy, 2024, vol. 35, issue 2, No 2, 174-199

Abstract: Abstract I study the exogenous shock of Napoleon's invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in 1807. I argue that this event triggered different chains of events in Latin America. On the one hand, the Empire of Brazil remained under monarchical rule thanks to the exile of the royal court to Portugal's most significant colony. The continuity of the monarchical system provided legitimacy and political stability, thus minimizing violence in Brazil. On the other hand, Napoleon's capture and removal of the Spanish King created a vacuum of power resolved through violent secession and wars. I estimate the effects of removing the Spanish King using fatalities data from conflicts and applying difference-in-differences. I find that Continental Spanish America suffered 7.01 times more fatalities than its counterfactual. In addition, the Empire of Brazil was able to transfer the gains from relative peace to positive economic outcomes by outperforming Continental Spanish America in height, population growth, and income per capita.

Keywords: Political institutions and growth; Economic history; Economic development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s10602-023-09413-0

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