Editing History of Mexico (section)

==<span id="Porfiriato">Porfiriato (1876–1910)</span>==
{{Main|Porfirio Díaz|Porfiriato}}[[File:Porfirio Diaz.jpg|right|thumb|upright|Porfirio Díaz dominant Mexican political and military figure who served as President for much of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, characterized by his long rule and the modernization efforts known as the Porfiriato.]]
The rule of [[Porfirio Díaz]] (1876–1911) was dedicated to the rule by law, suppression of violence and modernization of the country. Diaz was a military commander on the liberal side in the 1860s who seized power in [[Plan of Tuxtepec|a coup in 1876]], established a dictatorship, and ruled in collaboration with the landed oligarchy. He maintained good relations with the United States and Great Britain, which led to a sharp rise in foreign direct investment, especially in mining. The general standard of living rose steadily. He adhered to a laissez-faire doctrine that primarily benefited the already privileged social classes. Diaz was overthrown by the Mexican Revolution of 1911 and died in exile.<ref>William Beezley, and Michael Meyer, eds. ''The Oxford History of Mexico'' (2nd ed. 2010) ch 13</ref>

This period of relative prosperity is known as the [[Porfiriato]]. As traditional ways were challenged, urban Mexicans debated national identity, the rejection of indigenous cultures, the new passion for French culture once the French were ousted from Mexico, and the challenge of creating a modern nation-state through industrialization and scientific development.<ref>Mark Overmyer-Velázquez, ''Visions of the Emerald City: Modernity, Tradition & the Formation of Porfirian Oaxaca, Mexico'' (2006)</ref> Cities were rebuilt with modernizing architects favoring the latest Western European styles, especially the [[Beaux-Arts architecture|Beaux-Arts]] style, to symbolize the break with the past. A highly visible exemplar was the [[Palacio Legislativo Federal|Federal Legislative Palace]], built 1897–1910.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Don M. Coerver |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YSred4NyOKoC&pg=PA22 |title=Mexico: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Culture and History |author2=Suzanne B. Pasztor |author3=Robert Buffington |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-57607-132-8 |page=22}}</ref>

Díaz remained in power by rigging elections and censoring the press. Rivals were destroyed, and popular generals were moved to new areas so they could not build a permanent support base. Banditry on roads leading to major cities was largely suppressed by the "[[Rurales]]," a police force controlled by Díaz, created during a process of military modernization. <ref name="jstor.org">John W. Kitchens, "Some Considerations on the "Rurales" of Porfirian Mexico," ''Journal of Inter-American Studies,'' (1967) 9#3 pp&nbsp;441–455 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/164802 in JSTOR] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916151822/http://www.jstor.org/stable/164802 |date=2016-09-16 }}</ref> Díaz was an astute military leader and liberal politician who built a national base of supporters. He maintained a stable relationship with the Catholic Church by avoiding enforcing constitutional anticlerical laws. The country's infrastructure was significantly improved through increased foreign investment from Britain and the US and a strong, participatory central government.<ref name="Coatsworth p 81">Coatsworth, "Obstacles to Economic Growth in Nineteenth-Century Mexico," p. 81</ref> Increased tax revenue and better administration improved public safety, public health, railways, mining, industry, foreign trade, and national finances. After a half-century of stagnation, where per capita income was merely a tenth of the developed nations such as Britain and the US, the Mexican economy took off during the Porfiriato, growing at an annual rate of 2.3% (1877 to 1910), which was high by world standards.<ref name="Coatsworth p 81" />

===Order, progress, and dictatorship===
[[File:Mexico City street market 1885.jpg|thumb|right|Mexico City street market]]

Díaz reduced the Army from 30,000 to under 20,000 men, which resulted in a smaller percentage of the national budget being committed to the military. The army was modernized, well-trained, and equipped with the latest technology. The Army was top-heavy with 5,000 officers, many of them elderly but politically well-connected veterans of the wars of the 1860s.<ref>{{cite book|author=Philip S. Jowett|title=The Mexican Revolution 1910–20|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8RYRRYEufokC&pg=PA27|year=2006|publisher=Osprey Publishing|pages=27–31|isbn=978-1-84176-989-9}}</ref>

The political skills that Díaz used so effectively before 1900 faded, as he and his closest advisers were less open to negotiations with younger leaders. His announcement in 1908 that he would retire in 1911 unleashed a widespread feeling that Díaz was on the way out and that new coalitions had to be built. He nevertheless ran for reelection and in a show of U.S. support, Díaz and [[William Howard Taft|William Taft]] planned a summit in [[El Paso, Texas]], and [[Ciudad Juárez]], Mexico, for October 16, 1909, a historic first meeting between a Mexican and a U.S. president and also the first time an American president would cross the border into Mexico.<ref name="Harris2009">{{cite book |last1=Harris|first1=Charles H. III|last2=Sadler|first2=Louis R.|title=The Secret War in El Paso: Mexican Revolutionary Intrigue, 1906–1920 |year=2009|publisher=University of New Mexico Press|location=Albuquerque, New Mexico|pages=1–17, 213|isbn=978-0-8263-4652-0}}</ref> The meeting focused attention on the disputed [[Chamizal dispute|Chamizal strip]] and resulted in assassination threats and other serious security concerns.<ref name="Harris2009"/> At the meeting, Díaz told [[John Hays Hammond]], "Since I am responsible for bringing several billion dollars in foreign investments into my country, I think I should continue in my position until a competent successor is found."<ref>{{cite book | last = Obrador| first = Andrés Manuel López| title = Neoporfirismo: Hoy como ayer | publisher=Grijalbo | year = 2014 | location = Berkeley, CA | isbn = 978-607-31-2326-6}}</ref> Díaz was re-elected after a highly controversial election, but he was overthrown in 1911 and forced into exile in France after Army units rebelled.

===Economy===
[[File:Mexican_Central_Railway_train.jpg|thumb|right|Mexican Central Railway train at station, Mexico]]

Fiscal stability was achieved by [[José Yves Limantour]], Secretary of Finance of Mexico from 1893 until 1910. He was the leader of the well-educated technocrats known as [[Científico]]s, who were committed to modernity and sound finance. Limantour expanded foreign investment, supported free trade, balanced the budget for the first time, and generated a budget surplus by 1894. However, he could not halt the rising cost of food, which alienated the poor.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Passananti | first1 = Thomas P. | year = 2008 | title = Dynamizing the Economy in a façon irréguliére: A New Look at Financial Politics in Porfirian Mexico | journal = Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos | volume = 24 | issue = 1| pages = 1–29 | doi = 10.1525/msem.2008.24.1.1 }}</ref>

The American [[Panic of 1907]] was an economic downturn that caused a sudden drop in demand for Mexican copper, silver, gold, zinc, and other metals. Mexico cut its imports of horses and mules, mining machinery, and railroad supplies. The result was an economic depression in Mexico in 1908–1909 that soured optimism and raised discontent with the Díaz regime.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Cahill | first1 = Kevin J. | year = 1998 | title = The U.S. bank panic of 1907 and the Mexican depression of 1908–1909 | journal = Historian | volume = 60 | issue = 4| pages = 795–811 | doi=10.1111/j.1540-6563.1998.tb01416.x}}</ref> Mexico was vulnerable to external shocks because of its weak banking system.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Mexico had few factories by 1880, but industrialization took hold in the Northeast, especially in [[Monterrey]]. Factories produced machinery, textiles, and beer, while smelters processed ores. Convenient rail links with the nearby US gave local entrepreneurs from seven wealthy merchant families a competitive advantage over more distant cities. New federal laws in 1884 and 1887 allowed corporations to be more flexible. By the 1920s, American Smelting and Refining Company ([[ASARCO]]), an American firm controlled by the Guggenheim family, had invested over 20 million pesos and employed nearly 2,000 workers smelting copper and making wire to meet the demand for electrical wiring in the US and Mexico.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Beato | first1 = Guillermo | last2 = Sindico | first2 = Domenico | year = 1983 | title = The Beginning of Industrialization in Northeast Mexico | journal = The Americas | volume = 39 | issue = 4| pages = 499–518 | doi = 10.1017/S0003161500050197 | jstor=981250| s2cid = 146818822 }}</ref>

===Education===
[[File:2686 women working in cigarette factory.jpg|thumb|upright|Making cigarettes in the [[El Buen Tono]] factory, Mexico City]]

The modernizers insisted that public schools and secular education should replace religious schooling by the Catholic Church.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Schell | first1 = Patience A. | year = 2004 | title = Nationalizing Children through Schools and Hygiene: Porfirian and Revolutionary Mexico City | journal = The Americas | volume = 60 | issue = 4| pages = 559–587 | jstor=4144491 | doi=10.1353/tam.2004.0072| s2cid = 145354431 }}</ref> They reformed elementary schools by mandating uniformity, secularization, and rationality. These reforms were consistent with international trends in teaching methods. To break the traditional peasant habits that were seen to hinder industrialization, reforms emphasized children's punctuality, assiduity, and health.<ref>{{cite book|author=Claudia Agostoni|title=Monuments of Progress: Modernization and Public Health in Mexico City, 1876–1910|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jYzWhnckLUcC&pg=PA158|year=2003|publisher=UNAM|page=158|isbn=978-0-87081-734-2}}</ref> In 1910, the [[National University of Mexico|National University]] was opened.

===Rural unrest===
Historian John Tutino examines the impact of the Porfiriato in the highland basins south of Mexico City. which became the Zapatista heartland during the Revolution. Population growth, railways, and concentration of land in a few families generated a commercial expansion that undercut the traditional powers of the villagers. Young men felt insecure about the patriarchal roles they had expected to fill. Initially, this anxiety manifested as violence within families and communities. But, after the defeat of Díaz in 1910, villagers expressed their rage in revolutionary assaults on local elites who had profited most from the Porfiriato. The young men were radicalized as they fought for their traditional roles regarding land, community, and patriarchy.<ref>John Tutino, "From Involution to Revolution in Mexico: Liberal Development, Patriarchy, and Social Violence in the Central Highlands, 1870–1915," ''History Compass'' (May 2008) 6#3 pp&nbsp;796–842.</ref>