Modern Mexico: an overview and the Bourbon “Revolution in Government”

Guy Thomson, Room H338g.p.c.thomson@warwick.ac.uk

Lecture plan

Mexico and Mexican History: where we are going

Bourbon New Spain

Useful texts Brian Hamnett, A Concise History of Mexico

Gilbert Joseph and Timothy Henderson (eds), The Mexico Reader: History, Culture and Politics (Duke, 2002)

Other good general histories:

Michael Meyer and William L. Sherman, The Course of Mexican History (numerous re-editions)

Michael Meyer and William Beezley, The Oxford History of Mexico (OUP, 2000)

For the 19th C:

Mark Wasserman, Everyday Life and Politics in 19th Century Mexico: Men, Women and War (2000)

Other sources

Website for maps of :http://

www.emersonkent.com/map_archive/mexico_states_today.htm

AM208 Library Course Extracts

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/main/electronicresources/extracts/am/am208

Mexico and Mexican History

- “Many Mexicos” (Lesley Byrd Simpson, Many Mexicos, (1942): - vast empty spaces & distances between settlements, mountains, climates,

peoples....

Hence, Mexico, like US and Canada, was naturally federalist

- Yet, strong central tradition (“Fuera de Mexico todo es Cuautitlán”) : Toltecs, Aztecs, Spanish, Conservatives/Monarchists, PRI....

- Mexican history is a dialogue – often violent - between Centre and Regions. Current war on Narcos most recent phase of this.

Relief Map of Mexico

Periodisation (Hamnett’s)

• 1519-1821, Kingdom of New Spain. RC Church, State, Settlers, Indians & Slaves build Spanish colonial order : Veracruz-Mexico City-Acapulco commercial axis with roads (caminos reales) to tierradentro (to mines and bolsones – pockets - of colonisation such as Guadalajara). Mines were the motor, yet complex, dynamic, baroque society emerged

• 1770-1867 Destabilisation and Fragmentation of Colonial Order – late colonial boom, wars of independence... civil and foreign wars ....economic decline...territorial dismemberment ....La Reforma....2nd Empire and its defeat...

• 1867-1940 Reconstruction: rise of Liberal Party, economic modernisation/open door to US, Revolution of 1910-1919 prompted re-adjustment to Liberal model, cultural and economic nationalism, anticlericalism and corporatism.

Periodisation

• 1940-2000, Rule through Monopoly Party (PRI= Partido Revolucionario Institucional), facing challenge after 1968 student massacre & from social movements intensifying with neo-liberal turn after 1983 (the second “oil crisis”)

• 2000- ? , PAN (= Partido de Accion Nacional) & Disintegration, decentralisation and revived Federalism (passing the buck) mirrored by Narco-regionalism.....

Regions you will need to know- The North until Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 1848 (thereafter

“greater Mexico”)Texas, New Mexico, New California.

- The North post 1848: Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi

- North-West Centre: Nayarit, Colima, Jalisco, Michoacán- Bajío: Aguascalientes, Guanajuato & Querétaro- Centre: Mexico, Morelos, Hidalgo, Puebla, Veracruz- The South: Guerrero, Oaxaca, Tabasco, Yucatan, Campeche

& Chiapas

Three historical stuggles

• Spanish/Catholic/Corporate heritage /(M’s first modernisation) versus Liberalism/secularism/individualism (M’s second modernisation)......neither triumph

• Imperialism/Informal imperialism (Spain, GB, US) : external field of power: invasions, interventions, US “peaceful annexation”, neo-liberalism (Museo de la Intervenciones in Convento de Churubusco)...is Mexico still a colony ?

• Colonialism/post-colonialism: continuing internal civilising mission under republicanism & Liberal constitutionalism: the 19th C fear of “Caste War”, Nationalism, indigenismo and the Mexican revolution: for whom ? 1980s: voice of the “subaltern”, multi-culturalism, respect for “usos y costumbres” .... a success ?

Carta Etnográfica de México, Antonio García Cubas, 1854

Bourbon New Spain 1700-1821

- Turning point:1700-12 War of Spanish Succession: Change of Dynasty and Style/Substance of Government: David Brading, Miners and Merchants in Bourbon Mexico Ch 1“Revolution in Government” :

- Habsburg New Spain 1519-1700 (Charles V 1516-1556) : Corporative, separate autonomous spheres, monarch as symbol of justice

- Bourbon New Spain 1700-1821 (1700-1746 Phillip V, Charles III Naples 1734-59, Spain 1759-1788): enlightened despotism, centralisation, rationalisation, secularisation, economic liberalism....

- Independent Mexico inherited Bourbon project: “moderado” Liberalism, (Conservativism after 1847)

“Defensive Modernisation”- Bourbon “Defensive Modernisation” : American

wealth would reverse Spain’s decline, Creoles and Habsburg corporations – Creole elite, Creole towns, Church, Indian communities – seen as too powerful.

- Creoles removed from Audiencias (executive courts): sale of office abolished ...

- Provinces become Intendancies: Creole autonomy (cabildos/town councils) challenged by active Intendants (basis for later federalism, Creoles re-asserting provincial control)

“Defensive Modernisation”- Defence of the Northern frontier: colonisation via missions,

presidios (forts) and military colonies (project continues after 1821)

- Provincial Militias: creoles compensated for loss of power with ranks and uniforms (basis for later militarisation of politics)

- Church & State: secularisation of religious orders (expulsion of Jesuits in 1767), reform of liturgy (fewer festivals) and assault on popular religion, enlightened bishops and liberal Catholicism....project continues until mid-19th C (Mexico between 1821 & 1857 was officially a “Catholic Nation”)

“Defensive Modernisation”- Economic & Intellectual Reforms: Academies, learned

Societies (Sociedades de Amigos del Pais) freer thought and freer trade: Creoles also benefit....

- Indian communities reformed: abolition of “repartimientos” (forced trade)1785, Indian nobility down-pegged/commoners promoted, secular schooling,

- Consequences : economic boom....Mexico’s 2nd Silver Age, Alexander Von Humbodt, A Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain (1804, 5 Vols.)

1808 Imperial Crisis• While Mexico prospered, Spain and its empire entered a crisis...

• Arose from Spain’s Alliance with France 1776-1808 & Wars with GB resulting bankruptcy of the Spanish state and military defeat at Trafalgar on 21 October 1805

• Spain’s subsequent shift to alliance with Britain prompted Napoleon’s invasion in 1808 and capture of Spanish king

• 2 May 1808 Madrid uprising against the French accompanied by formation of anti-French juntas throughout the Empire ...

Insurgency and Independence- 1808-1814, Creoles seek autonomy through the Cortes (parliament)

of Cádiz and the Constitution of 1812- New Spain’s crisis of September 1808

- i)Mexico’s Creoles rally around Viceroy José de Iturrigaray to form a junta to represent Mexico’s provinces

- ii)Audiencia and Consulado (merchants’ guild) of Mexico City depose Viceroy

- September 16, 1810 , “el Grito de Dolores” : provincial Creoles take up arms behind Miguel Hidalgo: sparks mass uprising...taste of things to come (John Tutino, From Insurrection to Revolution)

- October 22 1814, Congress of Anahuac proclaims Constitution of Apatzingan

Counter-insurgency and Independence

- 1814-1820, “Counter-Insurgency” Restoration of absolutism under Ferdinand VII (Mexico’s Creoles lead counter-insurgency)

- 1820-21, Liberal revolution in Spain prompts counter-insurgent leader Agustin de Iturbide to proclaim Plan de Iguala and Army of Three Guarantees (Independence, Church and Army, Spaniards and Mexicans)

- attracts insurgent chief, Vicente Guerrero by promising restoration of Constitution of 1812

Priests and the InsurgencyMiguel Hidalgo y Costilla José María Morelos y Pavón

Emperor Agustín de Iturbide, 1821– July 1824

Vicente Guerrero, 1782-1831

From Empire to Federal Republic, 1821-1824

• Representation: corporate or individual?• Monarchy or Republic ?• Congress confronts President• Provinces confronts Centre• Antonio López de Santa Anna’s Plan de Veracruz.

Province’s rise up behind Plan de Casa Mata• Federal Constitution: República de los Estados

Unidos de México (1824)