Coloniality of power: the formation of eurocentrism as a standard for world power through the colonization of America

Abstract

It begins with the understanding that the tradition of political and juridical culture in Latin America is a reflection of a historical process of coloniality, exploitation, dependence, and exclusion of multiple societal segments. Thus, we made a study starting from the three aspects that made possible the domination of the north on the countries of the global south: eurocentrism, as a cultural matrix; colonialism, as an institutional matrix; and capitalism as an economic matrix. It goes through the understanding of the formation of modernity, based on eurocentrism and the process of colonization of the continent. Then we analyzed the new power pattern. And, finally, we seek to address economic dependence as a product of coloniality. In this way, the objective of the present work is to understand what has been called the coloniality of power, as a product of the Iberian invasion of the American continent. For this, we used historical and dialectical materialism as a method to aid in the verification of fundamental and secondary contradictions in Latin America and in the differentiation of the various stages of development of these contradictions and phenomena. We used bibliographical references as a research instrument, highlighting the texts of Aníbal Quijano, Enrique Dussel, and Walter Mignolo, with attention to those related to the coloniality of power.