The Creation of Modern Mexico, From the Arrival of the Spanish to the Present

An impressive and confident history of Mexico from the Aztecs to the present, Paul Gillingham’s Mexico: A 500-Year History is at once well-written and yet also somewhat unbalanced. The central theme, one of Mexico as a particularly hybrid society that has confronted major challenges and, in doing so, had better results than citizens of the United States generally allow for, is argued through with conviction. This begins with the start of Spanish America. There is a very impressive section on the Spanish conquest that brings out its violence and destructiveness, but also the very heavy dependence of the Spaniards on native cooperation, and the extent to which existing elites remained significant. Spanish Mexico is presented as, in part, a matter of islands of control.

There is a similar account of Christian conversion, with violence again to the fore, notably in the deliberate large-scale destruction of indigenous religious practices and personnel. At the same time, the impression given is very much one of the superficial character of Christianization and, again, of a hybrid creation in which very much remained from before. This is unsurprising because, as Gillingham points out, there were relatively few missionaries and many rapidly died. (It was the missionaries who were the key agents of change; the parish priests proved far less active.)

More generally, despite the disastrous effects of a range of new diseases on the native population, with Gillingham being particularly descriptive of smallpox, the Spaniards remained a marked minority. As a result, the ethnic mix was very different from that of English North America. There, a high survival rate among European immigrants ensured a reasonable gender balance, which, in turn, increased the European population. The situation was very different in the English Caribbean and for the Spaniards. Only so many wanted to settle, many pushed on to South America, and there were more convenient opportunities in Spanish Italy and the Spanish Netherlands.

Gillingham is very good on subsequent revolutions, beginning with the struggle for Mexican independence in the 1810s and early 1820s. His interest clearly picks up as he approaches the twentieth century, yet there is no rush through earlier centuries but, instead, an effective account that makes clear the variations within the country. As Gillingham points out, Mexico was geographically extremely hard to rule and, indeed, contain.

There is also due attention to circumstances, as with the civil war that broke out in 1858: “Signing up or getting killed was not much of a choice when a new army came to town. . . . [E]lite positions hardened as the war aged.” Ethnic complexities were also a factor, and, as he notes, restricted the appeal of radical ideologies and movements.

Throughout, by both Spain and by Mexico, once the latter became independent, there was a harsh treatment of indigenous people, for example the Yaqui. Furthermore, before and after independence, Mexico remained “a tenuous federation of turbulent provinces and unruly frontiers.” Instead of establishing stable self-governance, the independence struggle further encouraged a militarism that weakened civil society, notably challenging the peaceful functioning of politics and the rule of law. A divided Mexico, in turn, provided the United States with multiple opportunities for expansion or pressure, and these increased the divisions within Mexico.

The war of independence had seen the disruption of the colonial state and the rise of caudillos—regional chieftains who used control over land and armed clients to seek a form of power that was personal rather than institutional. They played a role in local resistance to federalist aspirations, as did the greater prominence of guerrilla bandits. Indeed, in 1848 at the end of the Mexican–American War, there was some support for the continued presence of American troops as a means to maintain order.

Repeatedly, regional power bases affected the possibility of addressing political instability, whether through civil war or with less violence. In 1861, writing on one such Mexican civil war, Lord John Russell, the British Foreign Secretary, referred to “a bitter struggle between two violent factions, equally cruel, unjust and unprincipled.” That, of course, is not Mexico’s public myth, but there is a need to assess the moral failings of both sides in such conflicts.

Brutality comes up to the present, with the army throwing shot prisoners out of aircraft over the Pacific in the 1970s, while torture was a typical feature of counterinsurgency warfare. There was also much corruption. Gillingham, nevertheless, is clear about his preferences and inclinations—ideology may be too strong a word—which are shared by many who write on the field:

Mexico was unusually free-spending and smart in pumping resources into education, public health, and medicine, particularly under the leftist governments of the 1930s, 1950s, and 1970s. It was surpassed only by Cuba’s revolutionary healthcare system, which followed the same precepts.

This promise is presented as wrecked by drugs: “The business of getting recreational drugs to American consumers took provincial Mexico back to the mass dying, child soldiers, and everyday atrocities of the revolution.”

A criminal dystopia emerges, for which much, much blame is placed on the United States. Gillingham also tries to contextualize Mexico’s problems in terms of the multiple political weaknesses of America or Britain, with recourse to bland universals—“patriarchy sustained by violence”—and in a historical mode that mocks superlatives in general but nevertheless labels Mexico “the first truly global society.”

While pretty typical of the field, these views are questionable, at times highly so, but at least Gillingham does not hide his preferences. More critically, the discussion of post-2000 drug violence drives out or down other possible topics, not least economic and environmental developments. There is also need for a better-formed cultural history of Mexico; the extent to which there were many other “truly global” societies is neglected; some of the specifics are simply wrong, for example on the Peace of Westphalia and on British agrarian changes; and the style of the writing, and even the content, can verge into hyperbole.

There is also a need for contextualization among other Latin American countries. Moreover, it would be useful to see the discussion of relations between the United States and Mexico brought together and up to date; the relationship between the countries’ current administrations allows for a degree of nuance rather than rhetoric. There is also room to assess the possible implications of developments in relations with China. In short, there's much here to question. But also much to admire, and a book worth reading.

Our Reviewer: Jeremy Black, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Exeter, is a Senior Fellow of the Center for the Study of America and the West at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He is the author of an impressive number of works in history and international affairs, frequently demonstrating unique interactions and trends among events, including The Great War and the Making of the Modern World, Combined Operations: A Global History of Amphibious and Airborne Warfare, and The War of 1812 in the Age of Napoleon. Works he has previously reviewed here include Empireworld: How British Imperialism Shaped the Globe, Why War?, Seapower in the Post-Modern World, Mobility and Coercion in an Age of Wars and Revolutions, Augustus the Strong, Military History for the Modern Strategist, The Great Siege of Malta, Hitler’s Fatal Miscalculation, Superpower Britain, Josephine Baker’s Secret War, Captives and Companions. A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World, War and Power: Who Wins Wars—and Why, The Pacific’s New Navies, No More Napoleons, Republic and Empire. Crisis, Revolution, America’s Early Independence, The Fate of the Day, The Maginot Line: A New History, The Nuclear Age. An Epic Race for Arms, Power and Survival, and Daring to Be Free: Rebellion and Resistance of the Enslaved in the Atlantic World.

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