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Mexico: From 1810 to 1910

The Break from Spain

The Bourbon monarchy: Carlos IV's abdication; Napoleon's brother Joseph on the Spanish throne, 1808.

Mexican criollo reaction: "El Grito" on 15 September 1810.  The banner of the Virgen de Guadalupe; battles in Bajío and Jalisco; Hidalgo captured, executed 1811.  José María Morelos of Michoacán, another priest warrior, captured and executed by Spaniards in 1815.

A conservative "nativistic" movement: the role of "indios" vs. mestizos and criollos.

Augustín de Iturbide, criollo military leader, took possession of Mexico City in September 1821. He had the goal to revive the colonial system and expand it to include Central America (1822-1823).

Independence: Caudillos and Caciques

Antonio López de Santa Anna (Texas independence, Alamo), served as President off and on, 1833 to 1853.  Not a good field general; he lost Texas, lost to U. S. Marines in 1846-1848 in central Mexico.

Federalism and Centralism

Tensions between regionalism and nationalism in 19th century economic and social development --  the landed aristocracy and the emerging merchant-industrial class (bourgeoisie).

The local level authorities (caciques), a patronage system

Liberal Reforms

Benito Juárez (Zapotec from Oaxaca), President 1854-1862; nationalization of Church properties and its unintended consequences -- emergence of great haciendas and rural powers; more suffering of rural dwellers and the urban poor under liberalism and its reforms, especially loss of protections provided by colonial laws.

Caste War of Yucatán (1850s onward)

French Empire

Archduke Maximilian of Austria (1867-1872); Battle of Puebla on Cinco de Mayo (5th of May)

Dictatorship

Porfirio Díaz (1872-1910), professional development with liberalism and positivism "los científicos" -- railways, highways, water projects, large plantations and ranches, mining.  The "rurales" as armies of oppression in the countryside. Tiendas de raya (company stores)

By 1910, 90% of Indians had lost  their rights to lands.

Growing Influence of the United States in the 19th century

Independence of Texas in 1836 and its annexation into USA; the invasion of Mexico and the "Niños Héroes" of Chapultepec Castile in Mexico City.  Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) and loss sof half of Mexico's national territory (though little of its population and developed infrastru8cture); Gadsen Purchase, for railways, in 1853

Joint ventures, especially in northwest mining (workers' strike in 1906 at William Greene's Cananea mine in Sonora)

Yaqui insurrections (1828; 1873 onwards) in Sonora