The export boom is a familiar story for other post-colonial countries. Once the Europeans were removed from government it was a matter of time before the local people began to optimize their resources for their own benefit and establish social hierarchies of their own – both race and gender based; however, this proved to be much more fluid than previously, as questions of progressiveness and modernity followed relatively quickly after. Dawson suggests that the autonomy of these new-formed countries naturally introduced a larger and more significant middle-class in the form of small business owners, lawyers and bureaucrats. While marginalized populations certainly existed, I think the ability of women to enter the workforce (albeit under many constraints) and the more liberal approach to democracy forced issues of race and gender to come into question very quickly after the effects of the export boom began to take form.

The term “order, then progress” Dawson uses to identify this period aligns closely with President Porfirio Díaz’s intention to first establish institutions and develop national wealth in an effort to have a fully functioning democratic state in the future. President Díaz effectively navigated the Mexican people through this time of rapid development and economic prosperity. Creelman portrays Díaz as having a genuine and thorough understanding of the needs of his country and his people.  He identified poverty and crime as the major obstacles for Mexican development, and during his presidency, instituted tougher law enforcement, more efficient public services, transportation for goods, strict limits to religious influence and made schools more accessible. In this time, a middle-class was established and GDP soared. I was most interested in his admiration for democracy, and ability to justify his position as democratic and in the best interest of the Mexican people. He explained to his American interviewer that the failure in democracy he feared was not the re-election of the same individual so much as the lack of opposition at any point in his leadership, which he attributed to his popularity and large network of supporters. The development of Mexico as a republic is extremely interesting as it offers the closest comparison to the United States and Canada as former colonies of Britain. In studying Latin American history, this evaluation helps to isolate and identify what was distinctly Spanish and what narratives are truly Latin American.