A Brief Look at Porfirio Diaz

The research question that is being addressed is ‘How did the development of railroads between 1865 to 1929 impact the Mexican economy?’. The first source’s origin is a book that is titled The Civilizing Machine: A Cultural History of Mexican Railroads, 1876-1910 written by Michael Matthews. This source helped a lot in the process of gaining information because the information was written in a way that could be understood clearly. The purpose of this source is to inform the general public about what had happened during the age of railroads in Mexico. The value of this source is that there are a

Judas at the Jockey Club written by William H. Beezley provides an accurate description of a struggling and developing Mexico while during the rule of president Porfirio Diaz up until 1910. Being divided into three sections such as Sport & Recreation (elite class), Rocks & Rawhide in Rural Society (lower class) and the title itself Judas at the Jockey Club. Beezley covers the changing class of Mexico through the view of sports and leisure activities. I believe Porfirio Diaz allowed the social tensions to occur causing Mexicans to separate from unity even though destruction and chaos reigned much of Mexico before him. During the presidency of Porfirio Diaz its often remembered as a period of oppression and social degradation of freedoms in Mexico. Diaz has also been associated with the general decline of quality of life of an average Mexican and the decline of social welfare institutions. Diaz was a liberal whose sole goal was to modernize Mexico and put a stop to any ethnic uncivilized actions. Mexico during that time was in a crossroads of two very different cultures: the industrial and the traditional.

Industrial development began with the railroad, with the help of Republican governments, who provided subsidies, loans and tax exemptions to railroad corporations. Over 52,000 miles of railroad were laid all over the nation between 1854 and 1879. Railroads stimulated growth. They required many resources to build, such as coal, wood, glass, rubber, and brass. Most importantly, the railroad connected the country.

Díaz served as Mexican president until 1910. During his time in office, the Mexican economy and lifestyle were fairly successful; Mexico had good trade relations with the U.S. and other countries, and the wealthy landowners were making a sizeable profit. However, the huge population of laborers who worked to produce that success were suffering bitterly. Mexico

Sometimes great leaders must make sacrifices to be successful and rule their nation as intended to. Porfirio Diaz is one such. After Mexico became a new country Diaz took power in 1876 as a dictator. Many literalists saw this dictatorship as if the country would fail, but they failed to recognize the benefits of his rule. “The benefits of his rule with respect to peace, stability, prosperity, and modernization are often overlooked.” (The Porfiriato: The stability and Growth Mexico Needed) His leadership was exactly what Mexico needed at the time. “Lifting it out of over a century of constant civil war, anarchy, and chaos and into the modern, industrial world.” (The Porfiriato: The stability and Growth Mexico Needed) Porfirio Diaz changed the

The Transcontinental Railroad was one of the most ambitious engineering projects, economic stimulants, and efficient methods of transportation in the early United States. If completed, the United States would be truly be united from east to west. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Transcontinental Railroad helped develop new opportunities for many aspects of American life.

The era of the Porfiriato (1876-1911) came with the innovation of technology, political and economic development, revalue of social issues, and artistic renovation. However, these new profound developments were geared toward the middle and upper classes leaving the lower class overlooked and underdeveloped. Poor working and living environments, pay, diet, and recognition of Mexican culture and intellectuality are just some of the issues the lower class experienced during the Porfiriato. The social issues of the lower class had become hostile and unfair in an era of socioeconomic rehabilitation (Meyer 339-363).

I like the essay, “Mexican Deserve More Than La Mordida” written by Joe Rodriguez. With the upcoming presidential election, this essay really ignites my uncertainties and concerns on who would be the best candidate that will change such crooked and twisted government system. Overall, corruptions has been a very controversial issues, not just in Mexico—sadly— around the world. Some countries are brutally manifested and ferociously corrupted than others, but many countries are said—generally—to have “serious corruption problems.” Jose Rodriguez, is a man with a strong opinion and I personally admire and respect how he distinguish the bribery as way of Mexico’s corruptive manifestation.

In the first essay of Chapter 7 of “Major Problems in California”, the author Michael Kazin discusses how the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, “thrust California into a burgeoning national economy.” According to the author, “The completion of the transcontinental attracted entrepreneurs in large-scale farming, food processing, petroleum, and other extractive industries who created new markets.” While many believed railroads did not offer benefits, I believe railroads did offer benefits because, “By 1940, California led the nation in production of most crops, was the center of the international film industry, and the foremost manufacturer of ships and aircraft frames.” Also, according to Kazin, “An ever-increasing flow of

The secondary source is about Mexico in the late 1800s and its path to modernization. It states how president Diaz is an important figure in Mexico’s history due to the fact he was able to make Mexico great by achieving political stability and resolving disputes with foreign powers. There is a

Before the Mexican Revolution, Mexico was originally a colony of Spain. Division between social classes grew originally because the majority of the Spanish used the native Mexicans as slaves. This was the beginning of the resentment Mexicans-born Spaniards had toward Spain. A century after a group of peasants led by Father Hidalgo declared war and led a revolt against Spain, the people of Mexico rose up in rebellion again in 1910. The dictator at the time, Porfirio Díaz, greatly expanded Mexico’s industry and economy, yet made the people of Mexico suffer. The gap between rich and poor continued to grow as he neglected to improve the lives of the great number of peasants who lived in poverty.

The article I chose to read regarding Mexico’s head of government talked about how under Enrique Nieto Pena’s control, his party(The PRI) was responsible for numerous scandals involving graft and corruption. When he first got elected, the nation of Mexico saw drastic declines in homicide rates and unexplained disappearances of large groups of people such as the “Ayotzinapa 43 case”, in which 43 student teachers vanished without a trace, leading people to think they were killed. However, in the next 2 years homicide cases suddenly rose up which caused a lot of controversy leading people to suspect some sort of change to the police force system was present. Enrique was subject to a lot of criticism because he would use members of the PRI for his own interests.

Díaz Ordaz successfully created a peaceful image of Mexico internationally throughout the Olympic Games, in reality Mexico’s domestic political situation became much more shaky as his administration lost support throughout many sectors of society after the events in Tlatelolco. The loss of support was clear after Octavio Paz, Mexico’s ambassador to India, resigned in protest of the government’s repressive actions in Tlatelolco. The government’s actions as well as Paz’s resignation served as a setback to the legitimacy of the ruling regime. Paz was also an advisor to Ordaz’s administration as he worked closely with the government on the investigation of student movements throughout Mexico. Paz had always advised the President that rather than use force against the students, the government should hear the students demands for democratization. Díaz Ordaz did not take Paz’s advice, instead he (Ordaz) paid lip service when affirming that “poets sometimes have the most accurate intuitions,”(QUOTE) and his choice to violently crack down on the movement showed that Paz’s input was essentially ignored. The decision to deploy the military was met with anger by Paz and resulted in his resignation as advisor and ambassador for the Mexican government.

Most wealth in the colonial era started in the beginning of the nineteenth century, with agriculture being the main economic activity with the labor of indigenous and mixed-race peasants. The mid-nineteenth-century Liberal Reforma attempting to decrease the economic power of the Roman Catholic Church and to modernize and industrialize the Mexican economy. after the civil war and a foreign intervention, the late nineteenth century found political stability and economic prosperity during the presidential regime of General Porfirio Díaz. Mexico opened up to foreign investment and to foreign workers. the Foreign capital built a railroad network which was going to help the Mexican economy, by spreading regions of Mexico, major cities,

The most revolutionary features of the United States’ Industrial Revolution were the further development of railroads and the invention of the Atlantic cable in 1866 because trains allowed for products to be marketed nationally and brought urbanization to small towns and the cable allowed instant, international communication. 1) Eric Foner claims that “The growing population formed an ever-expanding market for the mass production, mass distribution, and mass marketing of goods, essential elements of a modern industrial economy.” (Foner, GML, 596), which also spread national brands and continued the transition of the economy. 2) Andrew Carnegie writes in Triumphant Democracy, “Railroads and highways connect him with the rest of the world, and