Porfiriato Flashcards
Alan Knight
A. “Unprecedented peace and stability”
B. “a flawed peace, based on recurrent repression as well as popular consensus”
C. “nevertheless, the continuity of government, local and national, and the absence of serious civil war, contrasted with the endemic political conflict of the fifty years after independence”
Freidrich Katz: three basic policies of Porfirian rule
(1) concessions to foreign (esp US) interests, granted concessions of every kind on extremely generous terms
(2) rapprochement with Eu, attempt to balance out US influence
(3) maintenance of internal stability at any price
Freidrich Katz
application of harsh policies strengthened the Mexican state until 1900, however also laid the basis for one of the most profound social upheavals to take place in 20th century L Am
Paolo Riguzzi
emphasises great contradictions of Mexican modernity during Porfiriato: industries but no industrialisation, banking system but little long-term credit, salaried labour that coexisted with coercive labour
Jeannie Purnell
peasants in Michoacán responded with a complex mixture of resistance, negotiation, and accommodation in the face of increasing state pressure to carry out privatisation of communal lands (implementation of Ley Lerdo)
When was Creelman interview published? In which magazine?
February 1908
Pearson’s Magazine
Translation published in El Imparcial (most influential pro-government newspaper in Mexico)
impact of Creelman interview
A. Díaz announcement that he was stepping dow
B. Failure to actually step down
C. Confused the regular workings of the Mexican political system
D. Led to the emergence of independent movements during 1909 (previously no independent groups of national importance)
Creelman: “the master…
…and hero of Modern Mexico”
Creelman: “the dramatic and impressive contrast…
…between his stern, autocratic government, and his stirring tribute to the democratic idea”
Creelman: “iron rule has converted the warring, ignorant, superstitious, and impoverished masses…
…of Mexico…into a strong , steady, peaceful, debt-paying and progressive nation”
Díaz in Creelman: “I shall…
…not serve again”
Díaz in Creelman: “This nation is
…ready for her ultimate life of freedom”
Díaz in Creelman: opposition
“I welcome an opposition party in the Mexican Republic”
Creelman’s description of “Mexican Indians”
“care little for politics”
“They are accustomed to look to those in authority for leadership instead of thinking for themselves”
Bio of John Kenneth Turner
A. member of LA Socialist Party
B. travelled to Mexico with leaders of anarchist Mexican Liberal Party
Editors of The American Magazine…
“A great Mexico-Díaz myth has been built by skilfully applied influence upon journalism”
Turner’s description of Creelman’s article
“famous laudatory article”
Turner: “he built up a system all his own a system in which he personally was…
…the central and all-controlling figure, in which his individual caprice was the constitution and the law”
Turner: “he created a machine and…
oiled the machine with the flesh and blood of a people”
Turner on the Yaquis
“The Yaquis are being exterminated and exterminated fast”
Turner on Yucatan slaves
comparison to southern slaves prior to Civil War, “always the result has been in the favour of the black man”
When was Manuel Gonzalez Mexican leader?
1880-4
Katz on Gonzales
considered the most corrupt and least able of Díaz’s proteges, and therefore a weak rival
Díaz as liberal dictator?
A. necessary corrective to political indulgence and social anarchy carried out by constitutionalist liberals of early republic for over 50 years
B. political stability created necessary conditions for economic development
significance of Díaz’s promise of eventual establishment of democracy?
particularly important reaffirmation of liberal principles that still functioned as the touchstone of political legitimacy
rate of GNP?
1884-1900: phenomenal 8%
how many railways constructed?
19,000km
impact of railways on Laguna?
“the Miracle of Laguna”
profound economic development following arrival of “machines of progress”
region became showcase of Porfirian development
small cotton-cultivating region became one of Mexico’s most important agricultural, commercial, and industrial regions, linked with local, national, and international economies
penny press of Mexico City illustrated ambivalences and ambiguities inherent to modernity, EXAMPLE?
El Chango (1904): "Death in Electric Form" condemned new streetcars and "their daily heaps of mutilated victims"
examples of economic sectors geared towards exports
henequen, sugar, coffee
impact on economic sectors geared towards exports
attracted foreign and domestic capital that encouraged modernisation of all aspects
examples of economic sectors geared towards local and regional markets
corn and wheat
impact on economic sectors geared towards local and regional markets
resisted innovatino
liberal thought on Mexican backwardness?
A. belief that communal property was the main sources of backwardness in Mexico
B. Catholic Church and indigenous communities attacked as juridically privileged property-holding corporations
C. impeded economic progress, curtailed individual liberty, and prevented development of strong national identity rooted in a common sense of citizenship in liberal political order
Porfirian policy towards Yaquis
A. policy of confiscation and distribution of indigenous lands
B. confiscated lands exploited by investors for both mining and agricultural use
C. Yauis impoverished by new series of wars against Mexican government
Robert Buffington & William French
“The prophets of modernity had promised material wealth and security. The former was misdistributed and conditional; the latter was a lie”
John Womack on Díaz
“pathetically obsessed with fixing his place in Mexican history”
Representations of Díaz
sublime statesman or colossal criminal
Methods of Autocratic Rule
(1) prevented election of political opponents to Mexican Congress
(2) counteracted possible uprisings by appointing military commanders to oversee civilian officials
(3) upgraded position of jefe politicos to command police and auxiliary armed forces in local district
(4) previously combative opposition press largely muzzled
Impact of railways on Mexico
(1) contributed to physical and legal unification of economic space
(2) possible to overcome major constraints of Mex geography
Uneven structural development
(1) southern regions of Oaxaca, Chiapas and Michoácan remained in state of stagnation
Coerced Labour
(1) Turner: Yucatan and Merida majority of economic relationships non-monetary and coerced, nominal pay set against fictitious debt
(2) however regionally specific, only affected south and south-east
María Elena Díaz
(1) satiric penny press of Mexico City represented politicisation of Mexican popular culture
(2) influential in disseminating revolutionary ideas
