The period 1820-1870, commonly referred to as the 'lost decades', is widely regarded as the key moment in the opening of the gap between Latin America and the Unites States. We test this statement with a new export series and some tentative estimates of GDP trends. The overall performance of Latin American countries was quite good, although not outstanding. Mexico was hit by a foreign policy crisis, but the only real losers were the British and French colonies in the Caribbean. The emancipation of slaves caused a collapse in their exports, favoring other tropical countries, including Cuba and Brazil. Further South, independent countries such as Argentine and Chile increased their share of world trade. Overall, most of the divergence during the period 1820-1870 in the Americas was between tropical countries rather than between Latin America and North America.

中文翻译：

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美国的分歧：1820年至1870年，拉丁美洲和加勒比海地区失去了数十年的历史，解放了崩溃

1820-1870年通常被称为“失去的几十年”，被广泛视为拉美与美国之间差距拉开的关键时刻。我们用新的出口系列和一些GDP趋势的初步估计来检验这一说法。拉丁美洲国家的整体表现相当不错，尽管并不出色。墨西哥受到外交政策危机的打击，但唯一真正的失败者是加勒比海的英国​​和法国殖民地。奴隶的解放导致其出口下降，有利于其他热带国家，包括古巴和巴西。再往南，阿根廷和智利等独立国家增加了它们在世界贸易中的份额。总体，