Page:Historia Verdadera del Mexico profundo.djvu/240

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Maximilian Empire lasted less than three years, in part because the United States at the end of the Civil War, demanded the departure of the french army, partly because Napoleon III needed troops to defend himself against dangerous Prussian neighbors, given that the Franco-Prussian war in Europe already was in the horizon, and in part due to the permanent fight from the liberal creoles through generals Mariano Escobedo, Ramón Corona and Porfirio Díaz.

"Mexico modern history begins with a fall and ends with another. It begins in July 1867, at the collapse of the Maximilian Empire, and concludes in May 1911, when the government of Porfirio Díaz collapses. This history spans forty-four years, which, however, is usually divided in two epochs. The initial of barely ten years (1867-1876), is called the Restored Republic. The second, thirty-four years (1877-1911), was named the porfiriato." (Daniel Cosío Villegas. 1973)

Finally the liberal creoles succeeded. They will paradoxically be two Oaxacan, one of deep indigenous lineage; Benito Juárez García and the other, Porfirio Díaz Mori, mestizo, but with an undeniable indigenous heritage, they would fulfill the creole dream that initiated in 1824. The dream of creating a modern nation like those of Europe.

The model was french, financing and technology from France, England and Germany. Mexico turned to "modernization", which was nothing else than a new europeanization. Those who paid the cost were mainly indigenous people, with their natural resources and mestizo peasants, with their cheap labor.

"The formula of "little politics, a lot of administration" successfully worked during long years because the country was eager for peace and wanted to improve their economic status, and because Porfirio showed that he could maintain peace and knew how to boost the national economy. In the end, however, it became increasingly more ungrateful, until provoking the Madero revolt.

There has never been in the world an egalitarian society in which wealth is shared in exactly equal proportion between each and

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