An introduction to Latin American economics : understanding theory through history Chapter 1. The Land They Found Chapter 2. Adapting to a New World Chapter 3. Colonial Latin America Chapter 4. The First Century of Independence Chapter 5. Industrialization Chapter 6. Alternatives Chapter 7. The Commodity Boom of the 1970s Chapter 8. The Lost Decade of the 1980s Chapter 9. Emerging Markets and Financial Crises Chapter 10. The Rise of China and the Decline in Inequality Chapter 11. Crosscurrents: Translatinas Remittances and the Novel Coronavirus. This textbook serves as an introduction to the major economic topics and events in Latin Americas history from the settling of the region by indigenous Americans and then Europeans Africans and Asians to the economic consequences of COVID 19. Each chapter concentrates on a particular period for example pre Columbian America the 1980s debt crisis the 21st Century decline in income inequality and introduces the concepts needed to understand the events of that period. These concepts include theories such as Dutch Disease and Dependency Theory policies such as import substituting industrialization and neoliberalism and analytical tools such as the circular flow of income and the foreign exchange market. Descriptive data are used to illustrate these concepts: for example Latin America’s current account balance during the 1970s and 1980s shows the impact of the debt crisis while the relationship between money supply growth and inflation in Argentina during the 1980s and 1990s shows the impact of expansionary monetary policy and convertibility. With its focus on Latin American economic history and on the key concepts for understanding that history this book can serve as the core textbook for an introductory course on Latin American Economics or as a complementary text for an introductory course in Latin American Studies or a social science course on Latin America.