Social Development in Mexico: 1876-1911
Reform ideas that spread during 1855-1875, "the reform period," came to be implemented at the national level under the regime of Porfirio Diaz. In the reform period, the goal of modernizing Mexico, i.e. make it more like the United States and Europe, gained many adherents. To move toward this goal, several objectives were promoted by liberal politicians. One of them was the reduction in the power of the Catholic Church by redistributing its lands and curtailing its monopoly on religion, allowing freedom to other churches and religions to establish themselves. Another objective was to secularize education and implement modern curricula in the schools. A third objective was to promote capitalist economic development. Yet during the reform period, the implementation of the modernization agenda was sporadic and limited geographically. The reform period was chaotic, marked by civil wars, the rule of French imperialism (and the war to end it), and a weak central government (Vanderwood, 2000, 371-396). Porfirio Diaz supported liberal ideas. During his rule, he brought political stability to Mexico, strengthened the state, and moved to implement modernization objectives.
Behind the slogan of "Order and Progress" of the Diaz regime was an ideological infatuation with modernity. In adopting a positivist perspective, the government proclaimed to embrace rationality and science. From such view, science was intimately connected with modernity. Emphasis was placed not only in the importance of physical sciences and medicine, but also in social sciences like public administration, criminology and anthropology. Members of the upper classes flocked to foreign universities (Buffington & French, 2000, 424).
Attempts to modernize Mexico included social engineering. There were various efforts to homogenize a national, modern culture among the Mexican masses. The goal was to create a new, modern Mexican citizen with such attributes as love for country (in...
Huerta was very successful in helping Madero defeat Orozco's rebellion, eventually driving Orozco into the United States. However, Madero did not show the type of respect or appreciation that Huerta was expecting for his victory. On the contrary, Madero asked Huerta to account for campaign money. It was this slight that inspired Huerta to work against Madero. Of course, that slight alone would probably not have been sufficient to inspire
In 1944, she returned to Mexico City permanently. (Ugalde, 2007). Although American educated, Brenner's work demonstrates the profound influence that the Mexican Revolution has had on shaping her thinking and outlook on society. Her fundamental belief was that the revolution was inevitable due to the way the land owners and politicians were controlling the country. Thus, her sympathy was with the revolutionaries. (Ugalde, 2007). Her most significant books, which included such
Female Revolutionaries on the political battleground provided women with power and respect in terms of their mental skills as well. As seen above, women were able to operate on the basis of their accepted roles as caregivers and teachers in order to assume new, more unorthodox tasks for the purpose of the Revolution. The most radical and prominent departure from the traditional role of the Mexican woman was that of
This fearlessness is exemplary in the increasing awareness of all women; even those who appeared disassociated from the Revolution itself. Stephanie J. Smith (1), for example, mentions specific women from very different social backgrounds. These women became aware of new opportunities to obtain better lives by means of the judicial system. In addition, even the simplest of these persons demonstrated their considerable, although latent, intellectual prowess by arguing their
Swept Mexico About the Author The author of the book, Anita Brenner, who is also the writer of Idols behind Altars along with many other books on children, was born in Mexico and lived there for quite a few years. It was during the Spanish Civil War that she wrote dispatches from Spain for the New York Times as well as the Nation. Furthermore, for many years she even edited the
Revolution Through the Lens of Agricultural Industrialization The revolutions in Cuba, Mexico and Brazil Bahia as described and detailed in the three text From slavery to freedom in Brazil Bahia, 1835-1900 by Dale Torston Graden, Insurgent Cuba race, nation and revolution, 1868-1898 by Ada Ferrer and The Mexican Revolution: 1910-1940 Dialogos Series, 12 by Michael j. Gonzales all tell varied stories regarding the thematic development of revolution and change. Each has
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