This article presents and discusses the hypothesis and results of Acemoglu and his colleagues, regarding the colonial origin of development, and reviews the main historical facts of that period to show the scope and limitations of his theory regarding Spanish-America. When the correlation European settlements - initial institutions - present institutions - present performance is framed in the political, economic and cultural facts of the colonial context, it is shown that it is a simplistic, biased and ethnocentric view of development.
