State and Nation Formation in Pre-Revolutionary Mexico

Introduction

In 1821, Mexico gained its independence after a lengthy struggle with Spain. In 1910, it experienced a vast revolution. In the years in between, Mexicans struggled to establish a stable state and to define the nation. In the standard narrative, the first half of Mexico’s 19th century was characterized by political instability, economic failure, and international disgrace in the form of the loss of territory in the Mexican-American War and finally the French occupation. The second half of the century then saw the restoration of republicanism, establishment of strong government, and phenomenal economic growth. The deep economic and political inequities that accompanied that growth prompted dissatisfaction, unrest, and ultimately revolution. In this narrative, the history of the 19th century in Mexico easily becomes the history of the Mexican Revolution, and by extension a story of the failure of the 19th-century state and of 19th-century nation building. In recent years, several trends have combined to counter this teleology. First, increasing attention has been paid to the politics of the first half of the century, seeking to make sense of the seeming chaos, to place early attempts at state formation in context, and to emphasize the importance of a more thorough understanding of these years for the trajectory of Mexican history. Second, historians have come to consider a far broader cast of characters when they investigate state and nation formation; they have recognized the beliefs and actions of indigenous people, peasants, soldiers, urban plebeians, and women as crucial to understanding 19th-century politics. Finally, historians increasingly seek to understand Mexico in the broader context of global history, and to locate the trajectory of the 19th-century state and nation in comparative; transnational; and international political, economic, and cultural frameworks. The result has been a significant expansion of what counts as state and nation formation, and with it the destabilization of long-standing teleologies.

General Overviews

Overviews of 19th-century politics offer differing interpretations of the prevailing conflicts of the era. Cosio Villegas 1955–1974 sees a stark contrast between the constitutional liberalism of the restored republic and the authoritarian liberalism of the Porfiriato, while Guerra 1985 argues for a liberal continuum across the century that the work sets against an underlying religious traditionalism. A more recent and very accessible classroom volume, MacLachlan and Beezley 2010 stresses conflicts within liberalism and between Mexico and the United States. Wasserman 2000, another broad survey, introduces the centrality of local autonomies and subaltern politics that has been crucial to the study of this period. Connaughton, et al. 1999 offers a selection of essays that speak to questions of political legitimization across the century.

Connaughton, Brian, Carlos Illades, and Sonia Pérez Toledo, eds. Construcción de la legitimidad política en México en el siglo XIX. Mexico City: El Colegio de México, 1999.
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This collection of essays addresses the long history of state formation through studies of institutions, groups, and events. Organized around the concepts of ideology, discourse, and hegemony, it reflects a revisionist approach to the 19th century.
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Cosio Villegas, Daniel, ed. Historia Moderna de México. 9 vols. Mexico City: Editorial Hermes, 1955–1974.
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Long the classic text on the history of Mexico, this series was written between 1955 and 1974 and includes volumes on politics, economics, and society in the restored republic and the Porfiriato. The volumes celebrate constitutional liberalism and implicitly criticize a perceived mid-20th-century drift back to Porfirian policies and structures.
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Guerra, Francois-Xavier. Le Mexique: De l’Ancien Régime à la Révolucion. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1985.
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This book covers the period stretching from the late 18th-century Bourbon Reforms to the revolution. Guerra presents this as a history of struggle between tradition and modernity, with liberalism, the Porfiriato, and the Revolution all set against an underlying holistic, corporate, and religious Mexican society. Also available in Spanish as México: Del antiguo regimen a la revolución (2 vols., Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1988 and 2000).
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MacLachlan, Colin M., and William H. Beezley. Mexico’s Crucial Century, 1810–1910: An Introduction. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010.
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In this book, written primarily for classroom use, the authors focus on ideological conflict and what they interpret as the detrimental relationship of Mexico with the United States.
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Wasserman, Mark. Everyday Life and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Mexico: Men, Women, and War. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2000.
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An accessible survey that argues for the importance of local autonomies and popular action for the political history of the Mexican nation in this era. Focuses in particular on the experiences and actions of women.
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Primary Materials and Edited Source Collections

There is still only a small amount of published primary material available for 19th-century Mexico, and less in English. Dublán and Lozano 1876– and Tena Ramírez 1982 are crucial sources for legislation. Mateo 1877 is a compilation of legislative debates. Raat 1982 is a classroom reader in English that focuses on the 19th century.

Dublán, Manuel, and José María Lozano, eds. Legislación Mexicana: Ó, Colección complete de las disposiciones legislativas expedidas desde la independencia de la república. Mexico City: Imprenta del Comercio, á cargo de Dublán y Lozano, hijos, 1876–.
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Complete collection of laws passed on the federal level in Mexico from independence onward.
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Mateo, Juan A. Historia Parlamentaria de los congresos mexicanos de 1821 á 1857. Mexico City: Vicente S. Reyes, 1877.
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Collection of published congressional debates.
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Raat, W. Dirk, ed. Mexico: From Independence to Revolution, 1810–1910. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982.
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Reader intended for classroom use. Comprised of both a selection of primary sources and interpretive essays. One of very few places to find primary sources for the era in English.
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Tena Ramírez, Felipe. Leyes Fundamentals de México 1808–2005. Mexico City: Editorial Porrúa, 1982.
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Collection of Mexican constitutions and other foundational documents.
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Contemporary Histories

Traditionally, historians have portrayed early-19th-century Mexican politics as a contest between liberals and conservatives. While this assertion has been significantly refuted (see, in particular, Fowler 1998 [cited under Federalism and Centralism] and Fowler and Morales Moreno 1999 [cited under Political Ideology]), the works of the primary proponents of these positions remain central texts for the study of politics. Two seminal contemporary histories, Alamán 1942 and Mora 1950, represent conservatism and liberalism, respectively. Sierra 1969 is a central intellectual expression of support for the authoritarian and modernizing regime of Porfirio Díaz in the last quarter of the century.

Alamán, Lucas. Historia de Méjico desde los primeros movimientos que prepararon su independencia en el año do 1808, hasta la época presente. Mexico City: Editoria Jus, 1942.
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The author, who served as the Minister of Interior and Exterior Relations and founded Mexico’s first development bank, the Banco de Avio, is generally known as the father of Mexican conservatism. This five-volume work, written between 1849 and 1952, presents a generally favorable view of Spanish heritage and warns against excessive popular participation.
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Mora, José María Luís. México y sus Revoluciones. Mexico City: Editoriál Porrúa, 1950.
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Mora is often seen as the counterpart to Alamán and the “father of Mexican liberalism.” In this book, written in 1836, he explores the late colonial and early republican history of Mexico, and advocates the active use of state power to build a liberal nation, free of corporate institutions and from what he saw as the pernicious influence of the church.
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Sierra, Justo. The Political Evolution of the Mexican People. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1969.
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The author was an important educational reformer during the Díaz regime, and is often thought of as the primary intellectual of the Porfiriato. A positivist, he saw Mexican history as evolutionary and progressive. He also embraced the idea of the Mexican people as the result of a synthesis of European and indigenous origins. This history, originally published as Evolución política del pueblo mexicano, was written between 1900 and 1902, on the eve of the Mexican Revolution.
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National Political History in the 19th Century

Mexican politics in the 19th century were subject to constant and often drastic change, and the confusing series of events has often led to a dismissal of these politics as essentially bankrupt or irrelevant. Increasingly, though, historians have sought to make sense of the political experience of the era and to argue for its centrality to the longer story of state formation. Some have focused on the foundational moments of Spanish liberal rule and independence. Others have sought to reorient the historiography away from a split between liberalism and conservatism and toward one between federalism and centralism. The Mexican-American War inevitably looms large both as a moment of failure to maintain national territory and as a turning point in politics. The second half of the century saw the beginnings of liberal form, its interruption in the French intervention, and its restoration, followed by the advent of authoritarian rule and stability under Porfirio Díaz.

Spanish Constitutionalism and Independence

The long Mexican independence process, which stretched from 1808 to 1821, and its significance have always been highly contested. In particular, the question of what exactly was under contention in these years is subject to debate. Anna 1978 and Rodríguez O. 2012 both address the question of whether rebels were fighting for independence or autonomy. The works also confront the oft-made claim that Mexican independence was inherently conservative, aiming to maintain the status quo while achieving self-rule, a question also addressed in Benson 1966, which focuses on Mexican participation in Spanish liberalism. Van Young 2001 shifts the narrative from high politics to popular participation, and challenges the assertion that rural plebeians engaged directly with the ideas fueling the larger independence movement.

Anna, Timothy. The Fall of the Royal Government in Mexico City. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1978.
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Detailed account of the Spanish government between 1808 and 1821. Argues that Mexican independence must be considered as a process that resulted in a fragile compromise; although the Spanish essentially won the war, they lacked the legitimacy to continue to rule.
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Benson, Nettie Lee, ed. Mexico and the Spanish Cortes, 1810–1822: Eight Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1966.
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Classic collection of essays examining the election of Mexican deputies to the liberal Spanish Cortes and the specifics of their participation. Important for understanding the debate over the “conservative” nature of the Mexican elite and Mexican independence.
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Rodríguez O., Jaime E. “We Are Now the True Spaniards”: Sovereignty, Revolution, Independence, and the Emergence of the Federal Republic of Mexico. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2012.
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The culmination of the author’s lifelong study of this subject, this book argues that Mexican independence was the result not of an anticolonial rebellion but rather of a longstanding struggle for autonomy in New Spain. Also challenges the notion of deep-seated Mexican conservatism.
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van Young, Eric. The Other Rebellion: Popular Violence, Ideology, and the Mexican Struggle for Independence, 1810–1821. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001.
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A revisionist account of the independence process that shifts attention away from high politics and toward the rural masses. Argues that popular participation was highly localist and focused on protection of community and autonomy rather than political engagement with the larger movement for independence.
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Federalism and Centralism

The image of the “forgotten years” of the first half of the 19th century has long been one of chaos, anarchy, and political failure, but careful reconstructive work has made it increasingly possible to discern identifiable processes and to offer analysis of both the events of these years and their significance to the broader question of Mexican nation and state formation. In particular, historians have sought to understand the complex relationship between states and the nation as the federal government swung back and forth between federalist and centralist administrations. Bazant 1991 provides a general survey. For the first federal republic, Costeloe 1975 offers a crucial narrative of politics at the center, and Anna 1998 and Vázquez 2003 tackle the problem of fragmentation within the nation. Costeloe 1993 provides a clear narrative of elite politics during the central republic. Fowler 1998 calls into question the traditional division of Mexican politics into liberalism and conservatism, and Rodríguez O. 1994 calls for a broad view of this era that links it to the latter years of Spanish colonialism. Costeloe 1978 is a study of the relations between church and state in the wake of independence.

Anna, Timothy. Forging Mexico: 1821–1835. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998.
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A study of the first federal republic that argues against the assertion that federalism was responsible for Mexican instability in the early 19th century. Argues for the centrality of the states and regions to the nation-formation process and to the formation of Mexican nationalism.
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Bazant, Jan. “From Independence to the Liberal Republic, 1821–1867.” In Mexico since Independence. Edited by Leslie Bethell, 1–48. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
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General survey introduction to the events of this era.
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Costeloe, Michael P. La primera república federal de México: Un estudio de los partidos políticos en México independiente. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1975.
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One of the first works to systematically describe politics during the first republic. Based primarily on contemporary newspapers, shows that most political contention occurred within a very small elite circle and downplays the significance of popular participation. Also covers the early importance of future president Antonio López de Santa Anna.
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Costeloe, Michael P. Church and State in Independent Mexico: A Study of the Patronage Debate 1821–1857. London: Royal Historical Society, 1978.
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By exploring the controversy over who should exercise the colonial prerogative of the state to present ecclesiastical appointments, Costeloe provides a broader history of the move toward the separation of church and state in Mexico in the context of anticlerical liberalism.
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Costeloe, Michael P. The Central Republic in Mexico, 1835–1846: Hombres de Bien in the Age of Santa Anna. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
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Picks up the narrative of Costeloe 1975, providing a detailed account of this decade of centralist government. Argues against the image of this as an era of chaos by revealing that the cast of characters remained remarkably continuous throughout.
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Fowler, Will. Mexico in the Age of Proposals, 1821–1853. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1998.
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This book takes on the notion that politics in early-19th-century Mexico divided neatly into liberalism and republicanism. Through a study of Mexican ideologues, the author provides a nuanced and thorough categorization of Mexican political ideas and a clear chronology of shifts over time in both ideas and political alliances.
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Rodríguez O., Jaime E., ed. Mexico in the Age of Democratic Revolutions, 1750–1850. Boulder, CO: Lynne Reinner, 1994.
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This collection of essays takes a long view, insisting that any understanding of Mexico’s first independent half-century should begin with the reforms that the Spanish government instituted in the late colonial period. Essays include regional studies of the Bourbon Reforms and the independence wars, analyses of the origins of federalism, and histories of the conflict between church and state.
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Vázquez, Josefina Zoraida, ed. El establecimiento del federalismo en México (1821–1827). Mexico City: El Colegio de México, 2003.
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Collection of essays, each analyzing the establishment of federalism in one Mexican state. Argues overall that federalism, far from being a blind imitation of the United States system, had deep roots in Mexico’s Spanish colonial past.
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The Mexican-American War

The Mexican-American War was a staggering defeat for Mexico and its government. While there is not an enormous amount of work that addresses the war from the Mexican perspective, there are some important exceptions that attempt to understand the war in the context of the formation of the nation and the state. Vázquez 2000 is a thorough introduction. Brack 1975, Henderson 2007, and Santoni 1996 all explore the origins of the decision in Mexico to go to war in the context of the complex internal politics of Mexico. Velasco Márquez 1975 addresses the role of the press. DeLay 2008 is a transnational history that focuses on Native American wars in the area that would become disputed territory.

Brack, Gene M. Mexico Views Manifest Destiny, 1821–1846: An Essay on the Origins of the Mexican War. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1975.
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An examination of attitudes in Mexico toward the United States based on newspapers, pamphlets, and correspondence. Focuses in particular on the effect of United States racism toward Mexicans and its links to the nationalist response.
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DeLay, Brian. War of a Thousand Deserts: Indian Raids and the U.S.-Mexican War. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008.
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Offers a unique perspective on the war by approaching it through the long history of conflict between the Mexican and United States governments and the Native Americans living in what was then northern Mexico. Argues that these long wars left this region vulnerable to US incursions.
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Henderson, Timothy J. A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and Its War with the United States. New York: Hill and Wang, 2007.
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One of very few general histories of the war in English that takes the Mexican perspective as the central subject. Argues that Mexico went to war because of the fundamental weakness of the government and its need to restore national honor.
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Santoni, Pedro. Mexicans at Arms: Puro Federalists and the Politics of War, 1845–1848. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1996.
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Study of internal politics in Mexico in the years leading up to the war. Argues that an inability to reach consensus within the government contributed to the ineffective defense against the United States.
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Vázquez, Josefina Zoraida. “War and Peace with the United States.” In The Oxford History of Mexico. Edited by Michael C. Meyer and William H. Beezley, 339–370. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
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A thorough introduction to the history of the war that addresses both United States and Mexican perspectives from one of Mexico’s leading historians of this era and of the war.
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Velasco Márquez, Jesús. La guerra del 47 y la opinión pública (1845–1848). Mexico City: SepSetentas, 1975.
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A careful study of Mexico City newspapers during the war. Explores questions of the relationship between the press and the government, political factionalism in the press, and the influence of journalism.
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The Reform, the Second Empire, and the Restored Republic

After the disaster of the Mexican-American War, it was clear to many in Mexico that the state and the nation needed rethinking. Liberal constitutionalists emerged victorious in the War of the Reform (1854–1855), a new constitution was passed in 1857, and the struggle continued through a period of European intervention. The central historiographical trend since the mid-20th century has been to call into question a romantic view of reform-era politics as democratizing and popular and to consider the reform as a predecessor to the authoritarian Porfiriato. Sinkin 1979 is an early work to take this approach, and Vanderwood 2000 is a general survey that shows the longevity of this argument. Hamnett 1994 approaches the subject through a biography of Benito Juárez. Pani 2001 offers an analysis of Mexican support for the European intervention and the Second Empire. Sanders 2014 offers a counterpoint to the antiromantic story about the reform, arguing for it as part of a uniquely broad-reaching transregional republicanism.

Hamnett, Brian. Juárez. London: Longman, 1994.
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Biography of Benito Juárez, president of Mexico between 1858 and 1872 and central figure of the reform. Stresses the practical nature of reform-era government, Juárez’s central aim of preserving the constitutional republic, and the regionally specific nature of Mexican liberalism.
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Pani, Erika. Para mexicanizar el Segundo Imperio: El imaginario politico de los imperialistas. Mexico City: El Colegio de México, 2001.
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One of very few serious explorations of the motivations behind many Mexican elites’ support for the empire. In placing the empire firmly in the context of 19th-century liberalism and late-19th-century authoritarianism, this book calls into question the notion of the empire as a purely foreign imposition.
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Sanders, James E. The Vanguard of the Atlantic World: Creating Modernity, Nation, and Democracy in Nineteenth-Century Latin America. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014.
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With Mexico as one of its central case studies, this book argues for the existence of a unique “American republican modernity” (p. 5) in mid-century Latin America. Examines the Mexican reform as evidence of a moment in which a broad and inclusive republicanism—broader than anywhere else in the world—became dominant in the region.
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Sinkin, Richard. The Mexican Reform, 1855–1867: A Study in Liberal Nation-Building. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979.
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An early revision of romanticized notions of the reform as a movement focused on popular participation and democracy. Stresses the elitist nature of the movement and its failure to improve conditions for the majority of the population, but also its crucial role in the consolidation of Mexican nationalism.
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Vanderwood, Paul. “Betterment for Whom? The Reform Period: 1855–1875.” In The Oxford History of Mexico. Edited by Michael C. Meyer and William H. Beezley, 371–396. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
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General survey of the reform era and the European intervention. Stresses the limited nature of the reform government’s transformation of society.
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The Porfiriato

When Porfirio Díaz seized the Mexican government in 1876, he ushered in a long period of political stability and rapid economic growth. Because the Mexican Revolution toppled his regime, postrevolutionary historiography has been overwhelmingly critical of the Porfiriato as politically authoritarian and as allowing excessive foreign economic influence. More recently, historians have begun more systematic studies of the regime that seek to place it more firmly in the longer context of 19th-century history. Buffington and French 2000, González 2000, and Kuntz Ficker and Speckman Guerra 2010 are thorough revised introductions to the era. Garner 2001 is a biography of Díaz.

Buffington, Robert M., and William E. French. “The Culture of Modernity.” In The Oxford History of Mexico. Edited by Michael C. Meyer and William H. Beezley, 397–434. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
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General survey of the years of the Díaz presidency, focusing not only on political but also, in particular, on cultural history and questions of social control.
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Garner, Paul. Porfirio Díaz. Harlow, UK: Longman, 2001.
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Exhaustive biography of Díaz that seeks to demystify the individual and contextualize both the man and his regime. Counters both the postrevolutionary vilification of Díaz and the more recent attempts to rehabilitate his image in the context of neoliberalism.
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González, Luis. “El Liberalismo triunfante.” In Historia general de México. 633–706. Mexico City: El Colegio de México, 2000.
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González’s chapter in the substantially revised 2000 edition of this seminal history of Mexico, written for the Colegio de México.
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Kuntz Ficker, Sandra, and Elisa Speckman Guerra. “El Porfiriato.” In Nueva historia general de México. Edited by Erik Velásquez García, Enrique Nalda, and Pablo Escalante Gonzalbo, et al., 487–536. Mexico City: El Colegio de México, 2010.
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In yet another revision of the Historia General, the authors offer an essentially new survey of the era.
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Political Ideology

Mexico’s 19th-century politics have long been seen as dominated by the conflict between liberalism and conservatism. Recent scholarship, however, has emphasized that the lines between them were not quite so stark. Hale 1968 and Hale 1989 offer careful examinations of early liberalism and late 19th-century positivism, respectively. Fowler and Morales Moreno 1999 approaches conservatism in the liberal context. Rodríguez O. 2005 brings together a number of prominent scholars to provide a century-long exploration of liberalism and constitutionalism.

Fowler, William, and Humberto Morales Moreno, eds. El conservadurismo mexicano en el siglo XIX. Puebla, Mexico: Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, 1999.
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Liberalism has attracted far more attention than conservatism in Mexican history; this edited volume seeks to counter that tendency. The essays collectively approach conservatism not as a reactionary opposite to liberalism but rather as a strain of broad liberal thought that was centralist, developmentalist, and usually proclerical.
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Hale, Charles A. Mexican Liberalism in the Age of Mora, 1821–1853. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1968.
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Written in 1968, this book revolutionized the study of Mexican political ideology, complicating the long-assumed opposition of liberalism and conservativism and systematically countering the argument that Mexican liberalism was derived primarily from French and English sources. Clearly traces the central liberal theme of the dismantling of corporate privileges and identifies the limitations of Mexican liberalism when it came to confronting the indigenous population.
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Hale, Charles A. The Transformation of Liberalism in Late Nineteenth-Century Mexico. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989.
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This follow up to Hale 1968 explores the positivist intellectuals, known as “científicos,” who informed the regime of Porfirio Díaz. Documents the replacement of reform-era constitutional liberalism with the “scientific politics” of order and progress.
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Rodríguez O., Jaime E., ed. The Divine Charter: Constitutionalism and Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Mexico. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.
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This edited volume traces the history of liberalism in Mexico from the Spanish constitutionalist era through the Porfiriato. Includes a section on economic liberalism that is particularly useful for understanding the links between ideology and practical policy.
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Popular Politics and Insurrection

Without doubt, the study of popular politics and the significance of popular action to state and nation formation have been the fastest-growing fields of historical enquiry for Mexico since the late 20th century. Historians have come to consider an enormous new cast of characters—indigenous people, mestizos and mulattos, peasants, the urban poor, artisans, women, and soldiers—as central to our understanding of nation and state formation. Moving from a longstanding assumption that these people were not cognizant of larger political processes of the 19th century, historians have shown myriad ways in which they confronted change, both through resistance and through active engagement.

General and Canonical Works

Before the 1990s, insurrection was the subaltern activity that received the most attention. Reina 1980 and Tutino 1986 offer comprehensive explorations of 19th-century revolts. Fowler 2012 explores the larger culture of revolt across Mexican social and economic classes. Thomson 1991 and Mallon 1995 transformed the field by sparking the production of work that looked carefully at the way that subaltern people engaged with national and regional politics, and in particular with liberalism.

Fowler, Will, ed. Malcontents, Rebels, and Pronunciatos: The Politics of Insurrection in Nineteenth-Century Mexico. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012.
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This collection of articles explores the motives behind the numerous “pronunciamientos” against the government across the 19th century. It is notable for its attempt to address this way of doing politics as central to the process of state formation, and for its inclusion of a broad range of actors who participated.
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Mallon, Florencia E. Peasant and Nation: The Making of Postcolonial Mexico and Peru. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995.
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This comparison of Mexico and Peru argues that popular groups participated actively and consciously in nation-state formation in the 19th century. Focuses in particular on indigenous groups in Puebla and Morelos. This book, which was provocative and controversial when it came out, contributed enormously to the shift toward considering popular groups in the study of nations and states in Latin America, and in Mexico in particular.
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Reina, Leticia. Las rebeliones campesinas en México, 1819–1906. Mexico City: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 1980.
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An early attempt to describe peasant rebellions over the entire century, this book is particularly valuable for its reproduction of numerous military documents from the era.
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Thomson, Guy P. C. “Popular Aspects of Liberalism in Mexico, 1848–1888.” Bulletin of Latin American Research 10.3 (1991): 265–292.
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This pioneering article seeks to explain the ascendance of a liberal consensus in Mexico in the middle of the 19th century by exploring widespread popular support. It argues that without such support, such a consensus would not have been possible. This article introduces the notion of “popular liberalism,” and calls explicitly for historians to take on these questions.
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Tutino, John. From Insurrection to Revolution: Social Bases of Agrarian Violence, 1750–1940. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986.
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A study of rural violence over the long 19th century. A largely structuralist and materialist treatment that argues that peasant insurrection depended on four variables—material conditions, autonomy, security, and mobility.
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Indigenous People, Campesinos, and Plebeians to the 1850s

A number of works addressing the first half of the 19th century explore popular engagement with a new set of ideas—federalism, liberalism, republicanism, sovereignty—that were introduced into Mexico beginning in 1812. Annino 1999 explores the electoral expansion that came with Spanish liberalism, arguing that it was a foundational experience that created contradictions between ideology and governability. Several regional studies, including Caplan 2009, Ducey 2004, Escobar Ohmstede 1998, Guardino 1996 and Guardino 2005, Guarisco 2003, and Warren 2001 address these processes in regional and urban studies that contribute both to the narrative of popular engagement and to our understanding of federalism, which produced important local specificities. Indigenous people, who had to navigate a transition from corporate structures that acknowledged their unique position to an assumption of individual citizenship, often take center stage. Rugeley 2009 and Smith 2012 offer compelling counterpoints to the story of engagement with liberalism, focusing instead on the development of a widespread culture of violence in Yucatán and the origins of conservative allegiances among peasants in the Mixteca Baja, respectively.

Annino, Antonio. “Ciudadanía ‘versus’ gobernabilidad republicano en México: Las orígenes de un dilema.” In Ciudadanía política y formación de las naciones: Perspectivas históricas de América Latina. Edited by Hilda Sabato, 62–93. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1999.
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Argues that with the 1812 promulgation of the Spanish constitution of Cádiz, which vastly expanded electoral rights, a notion of citizenship was born. As Spanish colonial subjects and later Mexicans, including popular groups, embraced this idea, it created problems of governability that lasted through the 19th century.
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Caplan, Karen D. Indigenous Citizens: Local Liberalism in Early National Oaxaca and Yucatán. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2009.
DOI: 10.11126/stanford/9780804757645.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Comparative study of the southern states of Oaxaca and Yucatán. Argues that local people and local governments created regionally specific ways of doing politics within the broader liberal framework. Pays particular attention to the ways that liberalism challenged colonial notions of indigenous particularity, prompting the creation of hybrid notions of citizenship.
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Ducey, Michael Thomas. A Nation of Villages: Riot and Rebellion in the Mexico Huasteca: 1750–1850. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2004.
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Study of the Huasteca region (which includes parts of Veracruz, San Luís Potosí, México, and Hidalgo), focusing on peasant violence. Argues for the importance of peasant engagement with ideas about nation, republic, and citizenship for a broader history of state and nation formation.
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Escobar Ohmstede, Antonio. De la costa a la sierra: Las Huastecas, 1750–1900. Mexico City: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, 1998.
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A detailed study of indigenous people in the states of Hidalgo and Veracruz from the late colonial period to the turn of the 20th century, addressing political, social, economic, and religious change.
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Guardino, Peter F. Peasants, Politics, and the Formation of Mexico’s National State: Guerrero, 1800–1857. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996.
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Explores popular politics in what would become the state of Guerrero. Introduces the notion of “popular federalism” and traces the links between the interests of peasants and elites as central to the process of state and nation formation. Pays particular attention to the independence process and the Revolution of Ayutla.
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Guardino, Peter F. Time of Liberty: Popular Political Culture in Oaxaca, 1750–1850. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005.
DOI: 10.1215/9780822386568Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Study of the shift to republican government in Oaxaca’s capital city of Antequera and the rural indigenous region of Villa Alta. Explores the shift from corporate-based to ideologically based politics and the consequent development of factional, partisan, and electoral politics, arguing for the importance of the emergence of a popular political culture after independence.
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Guarisco, Claudia. Los indios del valle de México y la construcción de una nueva socialbilidad política 1770–1835. Zinacantepec, Mexico: El Colegio Mexiquense, 2003.
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This study approaches politics among indigenous people both under liberal Spanish administration and the early Mexican state in the valley of Mexico through the lens of political sociability. It argues that a synthesis between older and newer forms of participation developed in these years.
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Rugeley, Terry. Rebellion, Now and Forever: Mayas, Hispanics, and Caste War Violence in Yucatán 1800–1880. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2009.
DOI: 10.11126/stanford/9780804760485.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A study of political violence and the generalized cultural of violence that developed in Yucatán in the 19th century—including, but not limited to, the Caste War. Speaks in particular to the rise of late-19th-century dictatorship as a response.
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Smith, Benjamin T. The Roots of Conservatism in Mexico: Catholicism, Society, and Politics in the Mixteca Baja, 1750–1962. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2012.
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While this book covers a much longer period, it offers an important counterpoint to the discussion of “popular liberalism” by tracing the appeal of conservative politics among nonelites in one Mexican region. For the first half of the 19th century, the book explores support in the Mixteca for centralism. It introduces the idea of “provincial conservatism,” an initially local phenomenon that eventually became linked to national ideologies and practices.
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Warren, Richard A. Vagrants and Citizens: Politics and the Masses in Mexico City from Colony to Republic. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2001.
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An exploration of the urban popular classes in Mexico City from 1808 to the mid-1830s. Through a study of elections, popular riots, and celebrations, shows clearly that the popular classes were initially active participants in urban politics but later withdrew as they became cognizant of their declining influence. Also addresses elite leaders’ engagement with and concerns about the popular classes.
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Indigenous People, Campesinos, and Plebeians, 1850s and onward

The mid-19th-century reform aimed to transform Mexico into a modern liberal nation. Early uncritical celebration of the process was countered with accusations of exclusivity and damage to popular groups, both of which were exacerbated with the onset of the Porfirian regime. More recently, historians have sought to interpret popular engagement with the reform process. Again, regional studies have been important. Thomson and LaFrance 1999 and McNamara 2007 explore the Puebla Sierra and Oaxaca, respectively, both highlighting the importance of military service to the widespread appeal of liberalism. Purnell 1990 and Purnell 2002 offer fine-grained analyses of the process of land privatization that the reform set in motion, arguing for its centrality to how local people built a relationship with state and nation. Chassen-López 2004 is one of the only broad studies of a Mexican region through both the reform era and the Porfiriato. Brittsan 2015 and Vanderwood 1998 both offer windows into popular politics that go beyond liberalism: Brittsan by addressing the appeal of conservatism, and both by exploring local attachment to the church and religion.

Brittsan, Zachary. Popular Politics and Rebellion in Mexico: Manuel Lozada and La Reforma, 1855–1876. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2015.
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An exploration of the career of Manuel Lozada, a rebel from the state of Jalisco who led peasants in support of the Catholic church and a conservative agenda during the War of the Reform. An important counterpart to studies of popular liberalism, this book brings its insights to the study of the popularity of conservatism.
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Chassen-López, Francie. From Liberal to Revolutionary Oaxaca: The View from the South, Mexico, 1867–1911. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004.
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A comprehensive study of the economic, social, and political history of the state of Oaxaca. Aims to bring the heavily indigenous south of Mexico, long thought to be peripheral to state and nation formation, into the center of the discussion. Gives particular attention to indigenous politics and issues of gender.
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McNamara, Patrick J. Sons of the Sierra: Juárez, Díaz, and the People of Ixtlán, Oaxaca, 1855–1920. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007.
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A study of popular politics in the Sierra de Ixtlán, the region of Oaxaca where both Benito Juárez and Porfirio Díaz emerged. Traces the unique relationship of this mestizo and indigenous area to the Liberal state, but places it in the broader context of peasants’ ability to gain advantage through participation in military and political processes.
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Purnell, Jennie. “‘With All Due Respect’: Popular Resistance to the Privatization of Communal Lands in Nineteenth-Century Michoacán.” Latin American Research Review 31.1 (1990): 85–121.
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Archivally based article about the process of land privatization in indigenous communities that followed passage of the 1856 Ley Lerdo and continued through the century. With Purnell 2002, provides a close-to-the-ground reading of the process.
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Purnell, Jennie. “Citizens and Sons of the Pueblo: National and Local Identities in the Making of the Mexican Nation.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 25.2 (2002): 213–237.
DOI: 10.1080/01419870120109467Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Using land privatization in Oaxaca as a case study, makes an argument for the mutually constitutive nature of local and national identities.
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Thomson, Guy P. C., and David G. LaFrance. Patriotism, Politics, and Popular Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Mexico: Juan Francisco Lucas and the Puebla Sierra. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1999.
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Traces the career of Juan Francisco Lucas, a National Guard commander who gained the allegiance of a broad range of popular groups during the War of the Reform. Argues that this kind of engagement with popular groups was essential to the triumph of liberalism.
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Vanderwood, Paul. The Power of God against the Guns of Government: Religious Upheaval in Mexico at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998.
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An exploration of the 1891 revolt in the town of Tomochíc, Chihuahua, in the context of a range of religiously inspired movements against the Porfirian state in the modernizing north of the country.
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Women, Gender, and the State

Dore 2000, while a survey of the role of the state in gender issues in all of Latin America, is an excellent introduction to the way that the state approached women over the long 19th century. For the early 19th century, Arrom 1985 provides a broad study of urban women that touches on issues of politics and political participation, and Pani 2006 describes gendered notions of citizenship and their consequences for women in public life. Guardino 2014 addresses gender issues in both the United States and Mexico during the Mexican-American War in the framework of citizenship. Fowler-Salamini and Vaughan 1994 is an edited volume on rural women that includes several regional 19th-century studies. Porter 2003 and Blum 2009 both stretch from the late 19th century into the revolutionary era. The former examines women workers in industrializing Mexico, and the latter addresses Porfirian policies toward work, women, children, and families. See also Modernization, Nationalism, and State Building.

Arrom, Silvia. The Women of Mexico City, 1790–1857. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1985.
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A pioneering study that reconstructs the lives of a wide range of Mexican women in the capital city in the turbulent first half of the 19th century. Examines the ways that women engaged with politics, and the ways that male elites approached the role of women in society, in particular in the context of liberalism.
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Blum, Ann S. Domestic Economies: Family, Work, and Welfare in Mexico City: 1884–1943. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009.
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The first half of this book focuses on the Porfiriato. Using the records of welfare institutions, Blum examines Porfirian policies toward the poor, families, children, and work. The second half of the book extends this story into the postrevolutionary era. Overall, argues for the centrality of family policy to both class formation and the development of the state.
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Dore, Elizabeth. “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Gender and the State in the Long Nineteenth Century.” In Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America. Edited by Elizabeth Dore and Maxine Molyneux, 3–32. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000.
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While this essay addresses women and gender over all of Latin America, it is an excellent introduction to 19th-century trends that is very useful to historians of Mexico. Discusses how the liberal state both opened opportunities and imposed new constraints on women’s lives.
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Fowler-Salamini, Heather, and Mary Kay Vaughan. Women of the Mexican Countryside, 1850–1990: Creating Spaces, Shaping Transitions. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1994.
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Edited volume that includes several essays on women’s roles in the countryside in the 19th century. Essays by Francie Chassen-López, on women in rural Porfirian Oaxaca, and Florencia Mallon, on gender and resistance in mid-century Puebla, are particularly relevant.
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Guardino, Peter. “Gender, Soldiering, and Citizenship in the Mexican-American War of 1846–1848.” American Historical Review 199.1 (2014): 23–46.
DOI: 10.1093/ahr/119.1.23Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A study of masculinity in the United States and Mexico during the war, with particular attention to its role in the armed forces and in the military draft.
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Pani, Erika. “‘Ciudadana y muy ciudadana’? Women and the State in Independent Mexico.” Gender & History 18.1 (2006): 5–19.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0424.2006.00411.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examination of notions of citizenship in independent Mexico, focusing on women’s participation in public life. Argues that dominant notions of the new Mexican citizenship were essentially male and thus excluded women.
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Porter, Susie. Working Women in Mexico City: Public Discourses and Material Conditions, 1879–1931. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2003.
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Examines the significant entry of women into the industrial workforce during the Porfiriato and into the revolution. Focuses on both women’s experiences and actions and on shifts in discourses on gender, work, and family.
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The State and the National and International Economies

Numerous historians have sought to understand the relationship between state policy and economic development. They have also focused on the large question of how and why Mexico’s 19th-century economic history looks different from that of the United States, and on the consequences of these differences. Coatsworth 1978 offers a broad appraisal of the entire 19th century. Potash 1983, Tenenbaum 1986, and Salvucci 2009 address the economic and political instability of the earlier 19th century. There has been more attention to the economics of the Porfiriato, when Mexico’s economy grew rapidly. Haber 1989, Coatsworth 1981, and Maurer 2002 all address aspects of the Porfirian system, paying special attention to the links between economic strategy and the involvement of the state. Weiner 2004 is a study of Porfirian market ideologies. Haber 1997 is a collection of essays aimed at countering longstanding “dependency” analyses of the 19th century aimed explicitly at explaining differences between Mexico, Brazil, and the United States. See also Mexico, the United States, and International Trade.

Coatsworth, John H. “Obstacles to Economic Growth in Nineteenth-Century Mexico.” American Historical Review 83.1 (1978): 80–100.
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An evaluation of Mexico’s economy during the 19th century that aims to explain Mexico’s long-term dependence on foreign technology, investment, and consumers, arguing that Mexico’s early-century instability precluded industrial development in the years when it advanced the United States and Europe.
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Coatsworth, John H. Growth against Development: The Economic Impact of Railroads in Porfirian Mexico. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1981.
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An examination of the development of railroads in late-19th-century Mexico. Particularly notable is the author’s discussion of the links between railroad development, the concentration of land ownership, the rise of commercial agriculture, and agrarian instability.
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Haber, Stephen. Industry and Underdevelopment: The Industrialization of Mexico, 1890–1940. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1989.
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This book addresses the development of the Mexican manufacturing sector during the Porfiriato and into the revolutionary period, focusing on the level of the firm. Argues that the sector was oligopolistic and inefficient, and ultimately dependent on state protection.
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Haber, Stephen, ed. How Latin America Fell Behind: Essays on the Economic History of Brazil and Mexico. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997.
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This collection of essays addresses the question of why Mexico and Brazil lagged behind the United States in the 19th century. Addresses transportation, public finance, and capital markets. Framed as a rebuttal to dependency theory and a model for a new economic history.
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Maurer, Noel. The Power and the Money: The Mexican Financial System, 1876–1932. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2002.
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Study of the state’s construction of a system of “crony capitalism” in Porfirian Mexico. Argues that while this system can be understood historically in the context of ill-defined property rights, the lack of the rule of law, and the need to legitimize the state, it was ultimately inefficient and vulnerable.
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Potash, Robert A. Mexican Government and Industrial Development in the Early Republic. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1983.
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Originally published in Spanish in 1959. This book explores the development bank set up by Lucas Alamán in 1830 that funded Mexican entrepreneurs for twelve years.
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Salvucci, Richard J. Politics, Markets, and Mexico’s ‘London Debt’: 1823–1887. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
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A comprehensive study of the debt contracted with Great Britain in 1823. Stresses how foreign borrowing was essential for the survival of the nation. Also considers the debt in political context, arguing that political ideology was not as important a consideration in financial decision making as the collection of revenue.
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Tenenbaum, Barbara A. The Politics of Penury: Debt and Taxes in Mexico, 1821–1856. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986.
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Examination of the fiscal systems of the early national period, emphasizing the state’s inability to secure adequate revenue for the state. Posits fiscal problems as the central reason for state instability in this era. Also examines the crucial role of both foreign and domestic moneylenders in ensuring the state’s survival.
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Weiner, Richard. Race, Nation, and Market: Economic Culture in Porfirian Mexico. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2004.
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Explores the elite discourse about markets during the Porfiriato and the links to state programs. Argues in particular that disdain for the indigenous population and doubts about its ability to modernize prompted liberals to abandon pure market ideologies and promote state intervention.
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Mexico, the United States, and International Trade

There has long been interest in the role of US investment and economic influence in both the rise and fall of the Porfirian state. Hart 2002 and Schell 2001 examine US residents and business interests in Mexico largely through the lens of US imperialism, while Kuntz Ficker 2007 aims to counter narratives of imperialism or dependency. Wasserman 2015 offers a multifocused examination of Mexican and foreign collaboration. Beatty 2015 examines the question of technology transfer as central to Mexico’s late 19th-century transformation. See also the State and the National and International Economies.

Beatty, Edward. Technology and the Search for Progress in Modern Mexico. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2015.
DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520284890.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Explores the history of technology transfer in late-19th-century Mexico. Through three case studies—sewing machines, glassblowing, and silver and gold refining—examines the process of economic modernization. Argues that limitations with assimilating these technologies led to continued dependence on foreign experts.
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Hart, John M. Empire and Revolution: The Americans in Mexico since the Civil War. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002.
DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520223240.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A wide-ranging study of US business interests and US citizens resident in Mexico in the latter half of the 19th century, arguing for the importance of their presence for understanding nationalist impulses behind the Mexican Revolution. Also addresses questions of unequal development and the role of the US business community in crafting justifications for it.
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Kuntz Ficker, Sandra. El comercio exterior de México en la era del capitalismo liberal, 1870–1929. Mexico City: El Colegio de México, 2007.
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A comprehensive study of Mexican foreign trade during the era of export-led development. The author aims to counter narratives of imperialism and dependency, arguing that foreign trade was largely beneficial for Mexico.
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Schell, William. Integral Outsiders: The American Colony in Mexico City, 1867–1911. Wilmington, DE: SR Books, 2001.
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A study of the small but powerful community of US citizens in Mexico City, including first investors and eventually small entrepreneurs and workers. Argues for the importance of this community for US investment overall, for its influence on the US government, and for the US government’s use of the community.
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Wasserman, Mark. Pesos and Politics: Business, Elites, Foreigners, and Government in Mexico, 1854–1940. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2015.
DOI: 10.11126/stanford/9780804791540.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examines the creation of an “elite-foreign enterprise system” in which the national and local states and foreign and local business interests participated.
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Modernization, Nationalism, and State Building

A large and growing number of historians have concerned themselves with the way that the Mexican government, especially the Porfirian state, deliberately aimed to modernize the nation, legitimize their rule, and produce a new Mexican nationalism. They have focused on the adoption of foreign models, the suppression and control of the lower classes, and consequent resistance. Beezley 2004 is a classic introduction to cultural notions of modernity and progress. Agostoni 2003 addresses both public hygiene and monument building. Buffington 2000 examines the criminal and penal systems. Tenorio-Trillo 1996 is a study of Mexico’s participation in various World’s Fairs. Craib 2004 covers cartography and land surveying, and is unique in stretching further back into the 19th century. While much of this work tends to focus on Mexico City, Craib 2004 focuses on Veracruz and Overmyer-Velázquez 2006 expands the story to Oaxaca City. See also Women, Gender, and the State.

Agostoni, Claudia. Monuments of Progress: Modernization and Public Health in Mexico City, 1876–1910. Calgary, Canada: University of Calgary Press, 2003.
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This study of Porfirian Mexico City focuses on drainage projects and the building of monuments. Argues that Porfirian officials and hygienists were engaged in a project of modernizing Mexico City as a symbol of their commitment to progress in an attempt to legitimize their rule. Also offers a thorough discussion of existing Spanish- and English-language historiography on these subjects.
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Beezley, William H. Judas at the Jockey Club and Other Episodes of Porfirian Mexico. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004.
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Originally published in 1987, this is a classic appraisal of what the author calls the “Porfirian persuasion” toward efficiency and progress and its manifestations in Mexico City. Mostly a cultural history, this remains a good introduction to the broad context of Porfirian elite ideas and popular resistance.
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Buffington, Robert M. Criminal and Citizen in Modern Mexico. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000.
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Study of the criminal and penal systems in late-19th- and early-20th-century Mexico. Argues that these systems were the primary mechanisms for excluding large parts of the populace from national life.
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Craib, Raymond B. Cartographic Mexico: A History of State Fixations and Fugitive Landscapes. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004.
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A history of mapmaking and land surveying from the middle of the 19th century to the postrevolutionary era. Focuses on the way that the state used these processes to establish control over an often recalcitrant landscape and populace.
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Overmyer-Velázquez, Mark. Visions of the Emerald City: Modernity, Tradition, and the Formation of Porfirian Oaxaca, Mexico. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006.
DOI: 10.1215/9780822387886Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examines the Porfirian modernization process in Oaxaca City, with special attention to the Catholic church and to the regulation of prostitution. Expands the story of state- and elite-led modernization and plebeian resistance to a provincial city.
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Tenorio-Trillo, Mauricio. Mexico at the World’s Fairs: Crafting a Modern Nation. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996.
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Through a study of Mexican exhibitions at World’s Fairs from the mid-19th century to the 1920s, the author examines the elite-led construction of a modern Mexican nationalism. Based on a foreign notion of progress and modernity, this nationalism was exclusionary and bolstered by the Porfirian state.
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