Nation Building

Hy 238, Spring, 2011February, 2011

Order and Progress

• Railroads, avatars of “progress”• Silver and copper mines, old enterprises,

modernized by new sciences, especially steam.• Labor transformed into urban and/or

industrialized format. Henry Meiggs and Chinese coolies in Peru (p. 111)

• Intellectual foundations. Change better than continuity. Modernization meant new wealth and scientific progress.

The Positivists, 1• Auguste Comte• Social and political order linked

with material progress.• Different forms in different

countries (pp. 112-114).• “To achieve material progress,

one needed social and political order. To establish a true and enduring order, one needed to make material progress. They complemented each other perfectly in the view of Latin American positivists.” (p. 112)

The Positivists, 2

• Some elements.– Promote European immigration.– Juan Bautista Alberdi, Argentina, “to govern is to

populate.”– Modernize educational system—especially

successful in Chile– Abolition of slavery– Separation of Church and state

The Mexican Positivists

• The científicos• Emphasis on practical,

scientific way of organizing the world.

• Found a dictatorship—that of Porfirio Díaz, necessary for “order and progress” to take place.

• Welcoming foreign capital, ideas and initiatives.

Economic Transformations, 1• See statistics (text, pp. 114-

115) for remarkable economic growth in 2nd half of 19th century.

• Nitrates from Chile• Wheat and beef from

Argentina• Sugar from Cuba• Guano from Peru• Coffee from Costa Rica and

Colombia• Bananas from Central America

Economic Transformations, 2• Creation of new wealth• Deepening dependence on

Europe and U.S.• More unequal distribution of

wealth• Cities grew, banks founded,

railroads pushed into interior, industrialization commenced, telegraph and cable lines appeared, middle class began to develop, and in some countries, a flood of foreign immigrants.

Cultural Transformations

• Cities remodeled on European models, opera houses, parks, French architectural influence, etc.

• Railroads the avatars of modernization.

• In Peru, for example, railroads came on the heels of the guano/nitrates boom.

Henry Meiggs Railroad in Peru

Railroads

• Avatars of modernization (pp. 116-118).

• Along with railroads, came telegraphs, steamships, electricity, and other technological improvements.

• Railroad bridge, Jalisco

Railroad/Modernization Problems

• Wealth created, but unequally distributed

• Latin American became even more dependent on U. S. and Europe

• Helped produce some of the greatest social and political movements of the 20th century, such as the Mexican Revolution.

• Insert on “Dependency” (pp. 118-119)