MEXICO, HISTORY OF

history of the area from prehistoric times to the present. Additional reading Diccionario Porra de historia, biografa y geografa de Mxico, 5th rev. ed., 3 vol. (1986), is an encyclopaedic reference source. Peggy K. Liss, Mexico Under Spain, 15211556: Society and the Origins of Nationality (1975, reprinted 1984), studies the first 35 years of Spanish rule; other studies of the colonial period and the struggle for independence include Brian R. Hamnett, Roots of Insurgency: Mexican Regions, 17501824 (1986); Hugh M. Hamill, Jr., The Hidalgo Revolt: Prelude to Mexican Independence (1966, reprinted 1981); and Timothy E. Anna, The Fall of the Royal Government in Mexico City (1978). David J. Weber, The Mexican Frontier, 18211846 (1982), is a discussion of northern Mexico before the war with the United States in 1846. The Jurez era is covered in Walter V. Scholes, Mexican Politics During the Jurez Regime, 18551872 (1957, reprinted 1969). The late Jurez and Porfirian years are explored in Daniel Coso Villegas, Historia moderna de Mxico, 8 vol. in 9 (195574). The role of the rurales during the Daz regime is traced in Paul J. Vanderwood, Disorder and Progress: Bandits, Police, and Mexican Development (1981). Biographies of prominent political figures of the period include Ralph Roeder, Juarez and His Mexico: A Biographical History, 2 vol. (1947); Oakah L. Jones, Jr., Santa Anna (1968); Stanley R. Ross, Francisco I. Madero: Apostle of Mexican Democracy (1955, reissued 1970); Michael C. Meyer, Huerta: A Political Portrait (1972); William H. Beezley, Insurgent Governor: Abraham Gonzalez and the Mexican Revolution in Chihuahua (1973); and John Womack, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution (1969).Frank Tannenbaum, Mexico: The Struggle for Peace and Bread (1950), is important for its observations on the political and social situation at the beginning of the 20th century. The labour movement is treated in Ramn Eduardo Ruiz, Labor and the Ambivalent Revolutionaries: Mexico, 19111923 (1976); and Joe C. Ashby, Organized Labor and the Mexican Revolution Under Lzaro Crdenas (1967). For other analytical works, see W. Dirk Raat, The Mexican Revolution: An Annotated Guide to Recent Scholarship (1982). The relationship with Spain before World War II is discussed in T.G. Powell, Mexico and the Spanish Civil War (1981). Specific features of the revolution are analyzed in James W. Wilkie, The Mexican Revolution: Federal Expenditure and Social Change Since 1910, 2nd rev. ed. (1970). The aftermath is treated in Howard F. Cline, Mexico, Revolution to Evolution, 19401960 (1962, reprinted 1981); and Donald Hodges and Ross Gandy, Mexico, 19101982: Reform or Revolution?, 2nd ed. (1983), a Marxist interpretation. Later, comprehensive surveys include Michael C. Meyer and William L. Sherman, The Course of Mexican History, 3rd ed. (1987); and Daniel Coso Villegas et al., A Compact History of Mexico, 2nd ed. (1985; originally published in Spanish, 1973). Donald C. Briggs and Marvin Alisky, Historical Dictionary of Mexico (1981), is a brief but useful reference source. Independence Although Spain at first disavowed O'Donoj's recognition of Mexican independence, the date now recognized as that of separation of New Spain from Old Spain is in fact Aug. 24, 1821. The Mexican Empire, 182123 The first Mexican Empire spanned only a short transitional period from colony to republic. Independence had been the point on which republicans and conservatives alike could agree. The new constitutional monarchy shielded the conservatives from a Spanish government that had suppressed religious orders, tried clerical cases in civil courts, and decreed that the church could not acquire real property. Such a government was also palatable to the insurgents, whose major objective was independence. Iturbide became president of a council of regents, which convoked a Sovereign Constituent Congress. Deputies to the congress represented the intendancies, the name they retained during the empire. When representatives from the Central American intendancies, part of the old viceroyalty of New Spain, decided that their areas did not wish to remain part of the Mexican Empire, they were allowed to withdraw and to organize their own independent governments. On the evening of May 18, 1822, military groups proclaimed Iturbide Emperor Agustn I, and on the next day a majority in congress ratified the people's choice and recommended that the monarchy be hereditary, not elective. Agustn I was crowned in a long ceremony on July 21. The empire was recognized by the United States on Dec. 12, 1822, when the Mexican minister was officially received in Washington, D.C. But even then Agustn's power and prestige were already ebbing, and conflict soon developed between the military hero Iturbide and the primarily civilian congress. On Oct. 31, 1822, the Emperor dismissed congress and ruled through an appointed 45-man junta. The act, which was condemned by many as arbitrary, provided discontented military men with a pretext to revolt. Among their leaders was General Antonio Lpez de Santa Anna, whom Agustn had first promoted for services in the Army of the Three Guarantees. In Veracruz, Santa Anna proclaimed a Mexican Republic on Dec. 2, 1823, and was supported by old guerrillas. Other military men had similar plans. Agustn was forced to reconvene congress and to abdicate. In 1824 he returned from European exile but was arrested and shot. This first epoch of independent Mexican national life thus foreshadowed many problems of the succeeding republic.