History Department

History 307 - Latin America – October 15, 2003

The Painful Birth of a New America: Mexico

I.      A deeply ambiguous inheritance

A.     PEACE à but à habit of violence; warlords; continuing violent conflict

B.      LIBERALISM à defense of individual rights;  but: slavery, peonage continue

C.      NATIONALISM à but à no national consensus;  rebellions, secession; civil wars

·          Bolivar’s “Gran Columbia” breaks up into Ecuador, Columbia, Venezuela

·          United Central America breaks up into Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua

·          Argentina & Brazil feud over Uruguay & Paraguay

D.     ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE à BUT à neo-colonialism as first Britain, then US, dominant LA’s economy

E.      REPUBLICAN VALUES (liberty, equality, fraternity, human rights, free economy, democracy, rule of law) à but à deeply embedded AUTHORITARIAN values (authority, hierarchy, coercion, privilege, controlled economy, oligarchy, elite except from rule of law)

·          Habit of turning to military for leadership

F.      ACTIVE CITIZENS? à heroic struggle for independence – but – most people still excluded from political process

 

II.  Case study: Mexico’s Violent road from colony to empire to republic to dictatorship

 A.     Colonial Mexico:

1.       Residence of Viceroy; large governmental-military establishment

2.      Haciendas - huge plantations based on unfree Indian labor

3.      Peninsular elite; Creoles; Growing Mestizo class; Very large Indian population

 

B.   Colonial Contradictions:

1.       Creoles v. Peninsulares - Mexico is very rich; many Spaniards eager to serve in gov’t, obtain land, etc.  But Creoles increasingly resent these “foreigners”.  Not a problem in 1500s, but especially by 1700s, there is a whole class of Creoles, with 200-year old “roots” in Mexico, who dislike taking orders from “Peninsulares.”

2.      Ambitious & Frustrated “Mestizos”

3.      Huge - and deeply angered - Indian population

 

C.    Stage One: 1810-1815 - Class War

1.       16 Sep 1810 - “Grito” of Dolores; Fr. Miguel Hidalgo; “Independence, Fernando, & Our Lady of Guadalupe!” - Indians seize confusion among elite as chance to rebel

2.      Mass Indian rebellion; march on Mexico City

3.      Jan 1811 - Creole-Peninsular elite unites; crushes Indians, Hidalgo shot

4.      1815 - Fr. Jose Maria Morelos revives Indian rebellion; executed

5.      Triumph of Conservatives

 D.   Stage Two: Crisis of 1820

1.       1820, King Fernando VII of Spain promises some “liberal” reforms (elections, constitution, independent courts, free speech, etc.) in an effort to end rebellion in Spain and in L.A.

2.      BUT - IRONICALLY - the Mexican elite is horrified - and rebels against Spain to PRESERVE CONSERVATIVE ORDER AT HOME

3.      1822 - MEXICAN CONSERVATIVES PROCLAIM INDEPENDENCE TO AVOID LIBERAL REFORMS

4.      AUGUSTIN de ITURBIDE becomes “Emperor” of Mexico

5.      Economic collapse; continuing Indian rebellions; Split among Conservatives (“hardliners” insist on preserving Plantation Society unchanged; “moderates” call for a few reforms)

6.      1824 - Iturbide overthrown & executed

 

E.      Stage Three 1824-1867: Military Dictatorship, War, Invasion, Defeat, Invasion, Civil War

1. Gen. Antonia Lopez de Santa Anna emerges as military dictator

·          1836 - Texas rebellion

·          1846-48 - Mexican-US War; Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) – Huge Territorial Losses for Mexico (Texas, NM, AZ; California)

·          1847-55 - “Caste War” (Mayan Indians rebel against Mexico City)

 

2.      1857-60: Three Years Civil War (Indians, republicans v. elite, conservatives)

 3.      1862-67 - FRENCH INTERVENTION; Maximillian & Carlotta

 

F.  1867-1876 - “Restored Republic”

·          BENITO JUAREZ - Mestizo; republican; pro-Indian; attempts modest reforms of exhausted Mexico

 

G. 1876-1911  Dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz