An outline, era by era

Mexico

Mexican-American War, Reform era, Porfiriato

Late Modern Era / 19th Century · ~1800 – 1914

Mexico in the nineteenth century passed from a Spanish colony to an independent republic that struggled to hold together. After independence in 1821 it saw an empire, a republic, constant changes of government and the loss of about half its territory to the United States in the Mexican-American War (1846 to 1848).

The Reform era of the 1850s and 1860s, led by liberals such as Benito Juárez, curbed the power of the Catholic Church and the army, and produced the Constitution of 1857. It survived a civil war and a French-backed empire under Maximilian. After 1876 Porfirio Díaz ruled, directly or through allies, until 1911. This period, the Porfiriato, brought railways, foreign investment and order, but also repression and deep rural inequality. It ended in the Mexican Revolution.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. Texas breaks away and is annexed

    Event

    What happened

    American settlers move into Mexican Texas from the 1820s, and in 1835 and 1836 many Texans rebel against the centralist government of Antonio López de Santa Anna. Santa Anna takes the Alamo in March 1836 but is defeated and captured at San Jacinto in April. Texas declares independence, and the United States annexes it in 1845.

    The rest is history

    Mexico never recognised Texan independence and treated annexation as a cause for war. A dispute over the border, whether it lay on the Nueces River or the Rio Grande, sharpened the quarrel. In 1846 US troops under Zachary Taylor moved into the disputed zone, and fighting began in April. The Mexican-American War followed.

    Sources

    1. BookFehrenbach, T. R. Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans. New York: Macmillan, 1968.

  2. The Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

    Event

    What happened

    US forces take northern Mexico and California in 1846 and 1847. General Winfield Scott lands at Veracruz in March 1847 and occupies Mexico City in September. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed on 2 February 1848.

    The rest is history

    Mexico gave up Texas claims, California and New Mexico, roughly half its territory, and received 15 million dollars. The defeat shook Mexican politics and discredited the conservatives and the army. It pushed a new generation of liberals toward reform. Santa Anna lost power for good in 1855. Some US critics, including Ulysses Grant later, judged the war unjust.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Treaty between Mexico and the United States, signed 2 February 1848.
    2. BookEisenhower, John S. D. So Far from God: The U.S. War with Mexico, 1846-1848. New York: Random House, 1989.

  3. The Revolution of Ayutla

    Event

    What happened

    In March 1854 Juan Álvarez and Ignacio Comonfort proclaim the Plan of Ayutla against Santa Anna's dictatorship. The revolt spreads, and Santa Anna leaves the country in August 1855. A liberal government takes office, including Benito Juárez as minister of justice.

    The rest is history

    The new government issued the Ley Juárez, which curtailed church and military courts, and the Ley Lerdo of 1856, which forced the sale of corporate lands. A constituent congress then wrote the Constitution of 1857. These measures opened the Reform era and provoked conservative resistance.

    Sources

    1. BookHamnett, Brian. Juárez. London: Longman, 1994.
    2. BookKnowlton, Robert J. Church Property and the Mexican Reform, 1856-1910. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1976.

  4. The War of the Reform

    Event

    What happened

    Conservatives reject the Constitution of 1857, and civil war breaks out in January 1858. Two governments rule, the conservatives in Mexico City and the liberals under Juárez, who moves to Veracruz. In 1859 the liberals issue the Reform Laws, separating church and state and nationalising church property. The liberals win in late 1860.

    The rest is history

    The war ended the church's political and economic dominance, though it left the country exhausted and in debt. In 1861 Juárez suspended payment on foreign debts. That decision gave Britain, Spain and France a pretext for intervention.

    Sources

    1. BookHamnett, Brian. Juárez. London: Longman, 1994.
    2. BookBazant, Jan. Alienation of Church Wealth in Mexico. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970.

  5. The French intervention and Maximilian's empire

    Event

    What happened

    In late 1861 Britain, Spain and France land troops at Veracruz over unpaid debts, and only France stays to fight. French forces are beaten at Puebla on 5 May 1862 but take Mexico City in 1863. Conservatives offer the throne to Archduke Maximilian of Austria, who arrives in 1864.

    The rest is history

    Juárez kept a government moving in the north and the south. With the US Civil War over and French support withdrawn in 1866 and 1867, Maximilian's empire collapsed. He was captured at Querétaro and shot on 19 June 1867. The republic was restored, and Juárez's victory became a founding national story.

    Sources

    1. BookHanna, Alfred Jackson, and Kathryn Abbey Hanna. Napoleon III and Mexico. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1971.
    2. BookHamnett, Brian. Juárez. London: Longman, 1994.

  6. The Plan of Tuxtepec and Díaz takes power

    Event

    What happened

    Porfirio Díaz, a liberal general in the war against the French, rebels against Juárez in 1871 and against his successor Lerdo de Tejada in 1876 under the Plan of Tuxtepec, which opposes presidential re-election. His forces win at Tecoac in November 1876 and he enters Mexico City. He is elected president in 1877.

    The rest is history

    After a four-year term by Manuel González, Díaz returned in 1884 and the rule against re-election was altered. He stayed until 1911, building a regime of order backed by rural police and political bargaining. His rule, the Porfiriato, saw rapid railway growth and foreign investment. It also saw land concentrated in large estates and harsh repression.

    Sources

    1. BookKatz, Friedrich. The Life and Times of Pancho Villa. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998.
    2. BookKnight, Alan. The Mexican Revolution. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

  7. Railways and the Porfirian economy

    Event

    What happened

    Mexico had only a few hundred kilometres of railway in 1876. Under Díaz, foreign and domestic capital build lines to the US border and to the ports, and about 19,000 kilometres are in service by 1910. Mining, oil, export farming and industry expand, and the government settles old foreign debts.

    The rest is history

    Growth linked Mexico to world markets and strengthened the state. Yet many villages lost land to estates and survey companies, and wages stayed low. These strains, together with disputes within the elite, helped set the stage for the revolution of 1910.

    Sources

    1. BookCoatsworth, John H. Growth against Development: The Economic Impact of Railroads in Porfirian Mexico. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1981.
    2. BookKuntz Ficker, Sandra. Empresa extranjera y mercado interno: El Ferrocarril Central Mexicano. Mexico City: El Colegio de México, 1995.

  8. The end of the Porfiriato

    Event

    What happened

    In 1908 Díaz tells the journalist James Creelman that Mexico is ready for democracy. Francisco Madero then publishes a book against re-election and runs against him. Díaz has Madero jailed in 1910, and Madero calls for revolt in the Plan of San Luis Potosí.

    The rest is history

    Revolts led by Pascual Orozco and Pancho Villa in the north and by Emiliano Zapata in the south grew rapidly. Díaz resigned in May 1911 and sailed for France. The Mexican Revolution that followed lasted for years.

    Sources

    1. BookKnight, Alan. The Mexican Revolution. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
    2. PrimaryPlan de San Luis Potosí. Political manifesto issued by Francisco I. Madero, October 1910.

  9. The Alamo and Davy Crockett's last stand

    Popular belief

    The legend

    In the popular story, Texan defenders at the Alamo, led by Travis, Bowie and Davy Crockett, fight to the last man against Santa Anna's army. Travis is said to have drawn a line in the dirt and asked all who would stay to cross it.

    The rest is history

    The siege and the fall of the mission on 6 March 1836 are real, and nearly all the defenders died. The line-in-the-sand tale first appears decades later, in 1873, and has no contemporary support. Crockett's death is debated: some accounts say he fell fighting, others that he was taken prisoner and executed. Many defenders were Tejanos or immigrants, and the Alamo is remembered differently in Mexico, as a lost province's defeat.

    Sources

    1. BookLord, Walter. A Time to Stand. New York: Harper, 1961.
    2. BookTinkle, Lon. 13 Days to Glory: The Siege of the Alamo. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1958.

  10. The Niños Héroes at Chapultepec

    Folk tale

    The legend

    On 13 September 1847, as US troops storm Chapultepec Castle, six teenage cadets refuse to surrender. One, Juan Escutia, is said to have wrapped himself in the Mexican flag and leapt from the walls to keep it from capture.

    The rest is history

    The battle was real, and cadets of the Military College did fight and die there. The patriotic tradition names six young heroes, but the record is less tidy: not all were teenage cadets, since Juan de la Barrera was a young army officer, and Escutia's status and role are disputed. The names and the flag leap took shape later in the century, and historians doubt details such as Escutia's jump. The story became a central patriotic tale, with a monument built in the 1880s and a larger one in 1952. It is remembered as a symbol of national resistance after the defeat.

    Sources

    1. BookEisenhower, John S. D. So Far from God: The U.S. War with Mexico, 1846-1848. New York: Random House, 1989.
    2. BookBauer, K. Jack. The Mexican War, 1846-1848. New York: Macmillan, 1974.

  11. Cinco de Mayo is Mexican Independence Day

    Popular belief

    The legend

    Many people, especially outside Mexico, believe that Cinco de Mayo marks Mexico's independence from Spain.

    The rest is history

    Independence is celebrated on 16 September, recalling Miguel Hidalgo's call to revolt in 1810. Cinco de Mayo marks the victory of Mexican troops under Ignacio Zaragoza over the French at Puebla on 5 May 1862. The win was a morale boost rather than a decisive one, as France took Puebla and Mexico City the next year. It is a regional holiday in Puebla, and more widely observed in the United States.

    Sources

    1. BookHanna, Alfred Jackson, and Kathryn Abbey Hanna. Napoleon III and Mexico. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1971.

  12. Santa Anna and the Leg

    Folk tale

    The legend

    Santa Anna is said to have lost a leg in battle against the French and then given it a full state funeral, only for a mob to drag the relic through the streets.

    The rest is history

    The core is true. Santa Anna lost his leg in the Pastry War at Veracruz in December 1838. In 1842 the leg was dug up and reburied with ceremony in Mexico City. After his fall in 1844 a crowd dug it up and dragged it through the streets. Later, during the US invasion, American soldiers captured his artificial leg in 1847, and it is still held in Illinois.

    Sources

    1. BookFowler, Will. Santa Anna of Mexico. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007.
    2. BookCosteloe, Michael P. The Central Republic in Mexico, 1835-1846. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

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