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142 results

Page 1 of 8

  • 3 - Enlightenment and the Ibero-American Revolutions

  • from Part I - Enlightenment and Culture
  • General editor Wim Klooster, Clark University, Massachusetts
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of the Age of Atlantic Revolutions
    Published online:
    20 October 2023
    Print publication:
    09 November 2023, pp 106-131

  • Summary

    Revolutions sprang from a variety of causes rather than simply from Enlightenment. Iberia and Ibero-America absorbed whatever Enlightened ideas or practices responded to political, economic and social necessities. The Spanish and Portuguese governments sought thereby to tighten imperial control. Individual reformers, often independently of government, regarded the new ideas as instruments of amelioration. International conflicts and revolutionary movements in the United States and France, as well as internal tensions, introduced new factors and pressures. These accompanied the strains on both the Spanish and Portuguese governments during the war years between 1793 and 1808. The Portuguese government escaped the political collapse and crisis of legitimacy which befell Spain and its empire, and managed to reconstitute itself in Brazil. The Enlightenment had contributed greatly to the critique of Royal absolutism in both empires and of metropolitan dominance. A range of influential Enlightened figures emerged in each of the component territories of both monarchies. The roots of Iberian Liberalism may be traced to their ideas and actions. A counter-critique attacked Enlightened ideas along with Liberal constitutional forms. The ensuing polemic and its political manifestation, especially after 1814-15, blamed revolutionary activity on the influence of the Enlightenment.

  • 7 - The Monopoly Party, 1940–2000

  • Brian R. Hamnett, University of Essex
  • Book:
    A Concise History of Mexico
    Published online:
    17 January 2019
    Print publication:
    31 January 2019, pp 320-389

  • Summary

    After the excitement of nationalization, supported by all contending groups, the accent continued to be on stabilization. The Party provided the unifying force across the country’s institutions in a federal system, despite opposition to it on the Right. The economy continued to grow in the 1940s and well into the 1960s, when it began to slow down. This occurred contemporaneously with the moral crisis of the Revolutionary Institutional Party, the monopoly party’s name after 1946, resulting from the repression of the student movement of 1968. Retaining power until the electoral defeat of 2000, the PRI managed to hold on despite the debt crisis of 1982 and accusation of electoral fraud in 1988. Greater emphasis on the private sector from the Alemán presidency (1942-52) onward was only sporadically interrupted by lurches to the Left between 1970 and 1982. Repairing finances and a depressed economy after 1982 culminated in the privatization measures under Salinas (1988-94). Slow responses to pressures for democratization finally led to the electoral defeat of the PRI in 2000.

  • 6 - Reconstruction, 1867–1940

  • Brian R. Hamnett, University of Essex
  • Book:
    A Concise History of Mexico
    Published online:
    17 January 2019
    Print publication:
    31 January 2019, pp 229-319

  • Summary

    Liberal triumph in 1867 could not solidify a lasting constitutional system or make federalism effective. After 1884, personal rule by the Liberal General Porfirio Díaz, a rival of Juárez, aborted the development of constitutionalism and by the 1900s created an insoluble succession question. Even so, peace enabled the recovery of the economy, the development of a railway network, and the expansion of tropical produce. A series of capable Finance Ministers, culminating in Limantour in the 1890s and 1900s, put Mexican finance in order and made the country attractive to foreign investors and developers. Pressure on land and water resources and on the labouring population, however, exacerbated social tensions. The impact of recession from 1907 combined with paralysis at the political top level over the succession question provided the opening for social revolution during the 1910s. This meant that the country would have to be reconstructed on a different institutional basis under the 1917 federal Constitution. Governments from 1920 onwards strove to recover the economic expansion and fiscal stability of the Díaz era. They moved away from personal rule into the long-lasting rule of a monopoly party, from 1929 onward. The most left-ward position was reached in 1938 with Cárdenas’s nationalization of the oil industry.

  • 9 - The Changing Face of the Republic, 2000–2019

  • Brian R. Hamnett, University of Essex
  • Book:
    A Concise History of Mexico
    Published online:
    17 January 2019
    Print publication:
    31 January 2019, pp 432-470

  • Summary

    Political developments and the structural difficulties of the economy are viewed in relation to one another. This and the following chapter links back to Chapter One, with which we opened the book. The emphasis is on the energy sector, especially in view of continued dependence on its revenues by the government. We look closely at the changing nature of Mexican society, especially since the political transformation of 2000. This includes an examination of the educational system, welfare provision, and the role of the labour unions. The competition of the rival parties – and the factions within it – is examined here. Continued expansion of the market economy is viewed in relation to the persistence of the large informal sector. The question of widespread poverty remains, plus the problem of how to eradicate it. We stress the continued vulnerability of the economy, despite radical development in technology and new industries.

  • 8 - Cultural Developments Since Independence

  • Brian R. Hamnett, University of Essex
  • Book:
    A Concise History of Mexico
    Published online:
    17 January 2019
    Print publication:
    31 January 2019, pp 390-431

  • Summary

    Cultural roots lay in the colonial era, but the struggle for Independence and the trauma of establishing a viable national, sovereign state, accounted for the early significance of historiography in Mexico. Bustamante, Alamán, Mora and others put down the strong foundations for a tradition what would later include Justo Sierra during the Díaz era. Although European influences and models remained powerful, the search for an authentic Mexican cultural expression had already begun with the novels of Lizardi and Inclán and the descriptive writings of Prieto. Altamirano after 1867 argued for a national tradition, which was also expressed on writings by Riva Palacio and Payno. Delgado became the first outstanding novelist, with Frías and Gamboa his pre-Revolutionary contemporaries. This was the period of the poetry of Othón, López Velarde, and Díaz Mirón. The Revolution of the 1910s and its subsequent upheaval led to the novels of Azuela and Guzman, but also to the strong reaction to the nationalism engendered by it. The novels of Agustín Yáñez and Juan Rulfo expressed the social and psychological impact of revolution and civil conflict. Octavio Paz and Carlos Fuentes reflected the search for a specific Mexican identity and subject matter. Music, art and architecture modelled contemporary styles on roots deep in the past. Mexican cinema flourished in the 1930s and 1940, but only revived again from the 1980s with its own international figures.

  • 2 - The Pre-Columbian Era

  • Brian R. Hamnett, University of Essex
  • Book:
    A Concise History of Mexico
    Published online:
    17 January 2019
    Print publication:
    31 January 2019, pp 29-76

  • Summary

    CHAPTER TWO: THE PRE-COLUMBIAN ERA New discoveries put indigenous-American history further back in time. Their long duration and lasting impact from at least the time of the Olmecs and Mayas had been extraordinary, as any exploration of archaeological sites and contemporary museums testifies. Indo-American countries such as Mexico have dedicated time and money to the reconstruction of their indigenous pasts before the colonial era, as part of national identities. Here we introduce these principal cultures, determining their chronology and impact. The Pre-Columbian cultures developed complex cosmologies, which explained the nature of the universe, the movement of time, and the relationship of humanity to the gods. Their architecture reflected this. Why cultures arose, how long they lasted, and why they fell still remain topics of debate. In central Mexico, the Teotihuacán culture, by no means the first in the region, lasted nearly a thousand years and had a huge impact on future societies like the Toltec and the Aztec. The Aztecs were relatively newcomers to the region, borrowing much from predecessors, brutally imposing their rule, and collapsing violently when the Spanish and their Indian allies destroyed their hegemony. .

  • 4 - New Spain, 1620–1770: Spanish Colonialism and American Society

  • Brian R. Hamnett, University of Essex
  • Book:
    A Concise History of Mexico
    Published online:
    17 January 2019
    Print publication:
    31 January 2019, pp 107-146

  • Summary

    The European Baroque profoundly affected New Spain’s artistic and architectural styles. Distinctive forms of Mexican Catholicism emerged in this period. The ideal of divinely instituted monarchy and the intimate alliance of Throne and Altar characterized Spanish-colonial rule. In practical terms, society was held together as much by the legal system as by patron-client relationships. The Laws of the Indies, codified in the 1680s provided the legal basis of Spanish rule and highlighted the king’s role as source of justice. Mercantile and financial networks dominated the processes of production, especially in the expanding mining sector. There was considerable disparity, however, between the condition of the majority of the population, large parts of it grouped in Indian communities and protected by the law, and the growing prosperity of the business classes. Considerable conflict developed over land and water rights and the condition of the labouring population. Royal and ecclesiastical institutions frequently adopted a mediating stance, though not always successfully. Spanish America survived largely intact the lowest point of Spanish power in Europe from the 1650s to the 1690s.

  • 10 - Mexico in the World: International Relations from 2000

  • Brian R. Hamnett, University of Essex
  • Book:
    A Concise History of Mexico
    Published online:
    17 January 2019
    Print publication:
    31 January 2019, pp 471-494

  • Summary

    Contemporary Mexico had become deeply ingrained in the international economy and belongs to a number of highly significant supra-national organizations. Not the least of these is the North Atlantic Free Trade Area in conjunction with Canada and the United States, although its future currently hangs in the balance. Similarly, the position of Mexicans resident in the United States remained largely unclear. The situation at the northern border also remained to be clarified. Mexico has deepened relations with European countries and with the rest of Latin America, including Cuba. It participates in a range of organizations spanning the Pacific Rim, in particular the Pacific Alliance including Colombia, Peru and Chile. Such relationships have resumed the traditional Mexican foreign policy of diversifying foreign relations away from exclusively the United States, a policy first developed during the Díaz period. Even so, Mexico’s relationship with its northern neighbour still remains paramount, though still characterized by repeated misunderstanding and lack of consistency. The up and downs of US politics further destabilize the already precarious balance of Mexican political and economic life.

  • 1 - Mexico in Perspective

  • Brian R. Hamnett, University of Essex
  • Book:
    A Concise History of Mexico
    Published online:
    17 January 2019
    Print publication:
    31 January 2019, pp 1-28
    • Chapter
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  • Summary

    I approach the examination of history through the vantage point of the present day. Mexico is North-American and Latin-American, and Atlantic, Pacific and Caribbean in its geographical setting and perspectives. It merges indigenous Meso-American with European roots to produce a distinctive civilization. It is an old country but at the same time new and dynamic. The historical struggles between law and illegality, constitutional government and disorder, democratization and arbitrary power continue, in varying forms, through to the present day. The struggle with and between drug-trafficking gangs testifies to this. Even so, shifting political alignments, party competition for power, and press freedom have contributed to a more open political system than under the long duration of the monopoly-party government from 1929 to 2000. Governmental limitations, economic imbalance, and difficult relations with the United States have all exacerbated internal tensions. Cross-border migration remains an unresolved issue between the two countries. The future of the North American Free Trade Area currently hangs in the balance.

  • 3 - The European Incursion, 1519–1620

  • Brian R. Hamnett, University of Essex
  • Book:
    A Concise History of Mexico
    Published online:
    17 January 2019
    Print publication:
    31 January 2019, pp 77-106

  • Summary

    A distinct Hispanized culture began to emerge, encompassing much of the Indian world on which it had initially been superimposed. Spanish rule, however, was not instantaneous after the fall of the Aztec dominion. It had to be fought for throughout the remainder of the sixteenth century, particularly in the territories northward beyond Aztec rule. The great incentive was silver, which proliferated in mining camps opened up as nuclei of settlement. The introduction of Christianity was difficult and contested. Even so, an ecclesiastical organization complemented the establishment of administrative and judicial institutions, all three binding the territory of ‘New Spain’ together. Similarly, mercantile networks linked the regions and joined New Spain to its European metropolis. A series of Hispanic foundations in the midst of areas of Indian settlement, such as Puebla, Oaxaca and Guadalajara complemented the transformation of the former Aztec capital into the centre of Hispanic power and wealth in Mexico City.

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