Answer:
The idea that the expansion of European capitalism created Latin America's underdevelopment
Explanation:
Dependency theory is the notion that resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former. It is a central contention of dependency theory that poor states are impoverished and rich ones are enriched by the way poor states are integrated into the "world system".
The theory arose as a reaction to modernization theory, an earlier theory of development which held that all societies progress through similar stages of development, that today's underdeveloped areas are thus in a similar situation to that of today's developed areas at some time in the past, and that, therefore, the task of helping the underdeveloped areas out of poverty is to accelerate them along this supposed common path of development, by various means, such as investment, technology transfers, and closer integration into the world market. Dependency theory rejected this view, arguing that underdeveloped countries are not merely primitive versions of developed countries, but have unique features and structures of their own; and, importantly, are in the situation of being the weaker members in a world market economy.
Dependency theory no longer has many proponents as an overall theory, though some writers (Paul James, for example, author of "Post-Dependency: The Third World in an Era of Globalism and Late Capitalism") have argued for its continuing relevance as a conceptual orientation to the global division of wealth.
