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On Thursday, October 18, 2024, the É«½ç°É hosted Dr. Jenny Guardado for a fascinating discussion on her forthcoming book, The Venal Origins of Underdevelopment in Spanish America. Dr. Guardado is an assistant professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Latin American Studies and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. She holds a PhD in Political Science from New York University and has held academic positions at the University of Chicago and Princeton University. Dr. Guardado’s research delves into the political and economic mechanisms underlying armed conflict, corruption, and economic development. 

Her book explores the relationship between office-selling – or trading colonial offices for money – and the outcomes of Spanish colonialism. It focuses on the Spanish Empire in the Americas, highlighting both its obvious legacies – language, culture, religion, etc. – and its less obvious effects, such as economic geography, regional hierarchies, and population distribution, to explain stark economic and developmental variation within states. She examines the spatial organization and personnel policy of the Spanish Empire and finds that the office-selling from 1670-1750 led to the deterioration of the colonial administration. As a result, a combination of elite collision, self-dealing, and indigenous displacement fostered ethnic segregation, violent conflict, and political exclusion.

Dr. Guardado concluded her talk by outlining the detrimental effects of venality in the Spanish Empire, including social conflict, segregation, and long-term institutionalization of extraction. She also reminded the audience that colonial legacies shape the current political landscape within and across states. Her work effectively exposes these legacies, providing a foundation for future work in rectifying the damage.