Reading chapter five the Signs of Crisis in the Gilded Age was an interesting insight to affiliations that are often made with a crisis. The first connection I noticed was that people were associating growth in industry with conflict. It talks about how in Mexico the railway construction was always accompanied by minor conflict, specifically in rural communities. This rural conflict soon escalated into violence. The violence was intended to stop modernization itself. The document to Roosevelt by Ruben Dario discussion the United States as an ultimate power, a wealthy, fasted paced country that dominates the globe. He makes the United States sound like a cruel and controlling country, with only the aim of conquest. I found it interesting, how at the end of document it stated the United States might have almost everything, but they are lacking one thing and that was god. He indicates that maybe the United States is lacking religious connections and beliefs, and that it focuses too much on control and modernization. The second document the Plane de Ayala by Emiliano Zapata formulated propositions, which would end their oppression. In the twelfth proposition it discussion the idea of an election to organize the federal powers in Mexico. This idea would allow for a change in government, and the people to decide if they want to move towards a democratic society. I a curious if all the proposed steps were to occur, would Mexico truly move towards a democratic society. In my opinion for this to occur they need a leader who is truthfully devoted to creating a democratic society in Mexico. Not one who might lean towards these ideas, but in reality control the country in way similar to that of Diaz. In the next document, Excerpt from La raza cosmica by Jose Vasconcelos examines the human relationships of law. The author stated the relationships took place under three social stages; material or warlike, intellectual or political, and spiritual or aesthetic. I would be interested to hear his justification for choosing these select terms to represent the human relationships under the name of law. As, he states that they are representing a process that is “gradually liberating us from the domination of necessity” (158). Overall, in my opinion modernization is necessary for major change to occur in almost any nation, as ideas of liberation, modernity, and equality often follow when a society makes the attempt to become democratic. Although, there are few places in which this is not the case.