Introduction to Modern Economic Growth Non-Colonies Log GDP per capita in 1995 11 CHE JPN NOR DNK AUT SWE FIN GBR 10 GRC NLD BEL CZE SVK HUN POL THA TUR BGR HRV EST ROM RUS BLR LTU LVA KAZ MKD UKR UZB ITA ESP PRT KOR SVN FRA CHN ALB MDA 10 20 30 Urbanization in1500 Figure 4.7 No Reversal for the non-colonies: urbanization in 1500 and GDP per capita in 1995 for countries that were not part of the European overseas empire created “latitude specific” technology, such as heavy metal ploughs, that only worked in temperate latitudes and not with tropical soils Thus when Europe conquered most of the world after 1492, they introduced specific technologies that functioned in some places (the United States, Argentina, Australia) but not others (Peru, Mexico, West Africa) However, the timing of the reversal in the nineteenth century is inconsistent with the most natural types of sophisticated geography hypotheses Europeans may have had latitude specific technologies, but the timing implies that these technologies must have been industrial, not agricultural, and it is difficult to see why industrial technologies not function in the tropics (and in fact, they have functioned quite successfully in tropical Singapore and Hong Kong) Similar considerations weigh against the culture hypothesis Although culture is slow-changing the colonial experiment was sufficiently radical to have caused major changes in the cultures of many countries that fell under European rule In addition, the destruction of many indigenous populations and immigration from Europe are likely to have created new cultures or at least modified existing cultures in major 188