This is the first book to
demonstrate the
crucial role that the urban masses played in
shaping political change as Mexico
struggled to become a stable,
independent nation state in the
nineteenth century.
Richard Warren examines the political world of Mexico City during the first tumultuous decades of the nineteenth century, from King Ferdinand VII's abdication of the Spanish crown in 1808 to the end of Mexico's first federal republic in 1836. He shows that the relationship between elites and the urban masses was central to Mexico's political evolution during the struggle for independence and in the decades thereafter.
As alternative political models were contested, the poor stepped into the political arena in both traditional and new forms, from riots to electoral campaigns. Warren explains how their presence influenced elite perceptions of the new nations's problems and potential solutions. Control of Mexico City, capital of both the old viceroyalty and the new nation, was essential to any group aspiring to national authority. Its population often served as the first wave of public opinion to respond to national policies.
Vagrants and Citizens: Politics and the Masses in Mexico City from Colony to Republic reveals important themes: the changing role of elections in the transfer of power at the municipal and congressional levels, and the place of electoral practices in the broader political culture; the relationship between the evolving concept of popular sovereignty, the political mobilization of the masses, and elite programs to put society back in order; and the conflict between the municipal and national governments over the distribution of authority and the role of the masses in this situation.
This volume sheds new light on this poorly understood era and shows the importance of the urban masses both as actors in their own right and as objects addressed in elite discourse and programs. Vagrants and Citizens: Politics and the Masses in Mexico City from Colony to Republic is ideal for courses on Mexican history and Latin American studies.
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