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1890-1920 a Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School REVOLUTION AND THE INDUSTRIAL CITY: VIOLENCE AND CAPITALISM IN MONTERREY, MEXICO, 1890-1920 A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History By Rodolfo Fernández, M.A. Washington, DC November 22, 2013 Copyright 2013 by Rodolfo Fernández All Rights Reserved ii REVOLUTION AND THE INDUSTRIAL CITY: VIOLENCE AND CAPITALISM IN MONTERREY, MEXICO, 1890-1920 Rodolfo Fernández, M.A. Thesis Advisor: John Tutino, Ph.D. ABSTRACT Revolution and the Industrial City makes two major contributions to the field: it expands our understanding of the structure of the global economy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and it inserts the strategic, economic, and political value of Monterrey into the histories of the Mexican revolution. Specifically, this study analyzes international networks of trade, violence and social relations along the U.S.-Mexico border, focused on the city of Monterrey. The analysis begins by rethinking Monterrey’s origins under Spanish colonial rule and its transformation into the leading city of the Mexico-U.S. borderlands in the 1850s and 1860s. The study then details how Monterrey became a unique industrial city in the continental interior, making textiles for regional markets, steel for expanding Mexican railroads, beer and the glass to contain it for Mexican consumers, and refined silver for export to the U.S.—a precocious industrialization consolidated around 1900. The analysis turns to the challenges of sustaining industrial capitalism in the face of serial crises: a devastating flood in 1909, the political crises rooted in Monterrey that led to the outbreak of revolution in 1910, and the uncertainties of years of political and social conflict mostly away from the city in 1910-1914. Finally, this dissertation examines the culminating year of 1915, when an alliance forged by Pancho Villa, the Madero family, and General Felipe Ángeles worked to ground a revived revolutionary faction in the industrial economy of Monterrey. The attempt confirmed the pivotal importance of the northern iii industrial city and the fragility of industry in a time of revolution. The alliance could hold the city, but its opponents used mobile rural warfare to cut transport links, blocking supplies of raw cotton, mineral ores, and coal while limiting access to markets in Mexico and the U.S. While set during the early twentieth century, Revolution in the Industrial City is based on research that begins in the colonial period and introduces a new vision of the nineteenth century. Sources used in this study range from Foreign Service documents in Washington and London to state and municipal archives in northeastern Mexico. iv Through much of the time I spent researching this dissertation, I enjoyed the financial support of CONACyT and Georgetown University. I want to thank everyone in Georgetown’s Department of History for their intellectual and material support. In particular, I want to thank Katherine Benton-Cohen, Bryan McCann, David Painter, and especially John Tutino; his time and patience guided me through this project and his insight strengthened my work. My colleagues in the Latin American History Research Seminar (LAHRS) provided me with invaluable feedback in the classroom, in our seminars, and in happy hour. I also want to thank my students in Georgetown, Brandeis, and Tufts because they pushed me to be curious, creative, and ambitious. Finally, I have to recognize the difficult and indispensible labor of all those librarians and archivists who do great things with limited resources. I want to dedicate this dissertation to my grandfather who taught me to love history, to my mother who taught me to love writing, and to my sister who has shared so much with me. I especially want to dedicate my work to my beautiful wife Debbie. This project only exists because of her. For years, she has been my intellectual partner, my companion, my editor, my inspiration, and my friend. I am lucky to share my life with her. Many thanks, Rodolfo Fernández v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 Reassessing the importance of Monterrey in Mexican history ........................................ 4 Chapter Breakdown ......................................................................................................... 8 Chapter I. Commerce, conflict, and adaptation on a Colonial Frontier, 1496-1850 ....................................................................................................................................... 17 Explorations and first settlements .................................................................................. 21 The Zavala reforms ........................................................................................................ 30 New attempts at reform: the late colonial period ........................................................... 41 Breakdown of peace in northeastern Mexico ................................................................ 48 The war for the North American Borderlands ............................................................... 54 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 59 Chapter II. Bordering on capitalsim: the rise of urban-industrial Monterrey, 1850-1908 ..................................................................................................................... 61 Santiago Vidaurri and the emergence of a new order .................................................... 65 The U.S. Civil War and the early capitalization of Monterrey ...................................... 74 Infrastructure construction and industrializing frenzy ................................................... 77 Local politics and the rise of Bernardo Reyes ............................................................... 87 The Mexican smelting boom of the late nineteenth century .......................................... 91 Economic growth and urban expansion ....................................................................... 110 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 117 vi Chapter III. Converging crises: disaster and political breakdown in the capitalist city ............................................................................................................................... 119 Challenges to Reyes ..................................................................................................... 122 Gerónimo Treviño’s revenge: the decline of Reyes .................................................... 126 The 1909 flood in San Luisito ..................................................................................... 130 Aftermath of the flood ................................................................................................. 136 Foreign relief ................................................................................................................ 139 The Flood: politics and crisis ....................................................................................... 143 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 148 Chapter IV. Revolutionary reverberations: Monterrey’s capitalists and the transformation of Mexican politics, 1910-1914 ....................................................................................... 150 Maderismo ant the new opposition to Díaz ................................................................. 152 The Madero presidency ............................................................................................... 159 The Failed revolution of Bernardo Reyes .................................................................... 163 Challenges to Madero .................................................................................................. 170 The Fall of Madero ...................................................................................................... 174 The Constitutionalist rebellion ..................................................................................... 185 The Fall of Huerta from Monterrey ............................................................................. 193 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 198 Chapter V. Turning the revolution: political coalitions and economic strategies, 1914-1915 ..................................................................................................................... 201 Breakdown of the Constitutionalist alliance ................................................................ 206 Attempts to save the Cosntitutionalist coalition .......................................................... 213 vii La Soberana Convención Revolucionaria de Aguascalientes ..................................... 216 Carranza’s escape and the Constitutionalist control of ports ....................................... 221 Carranza in Veracruz ................................................................................................... 225 Constitutionalist sabotage and forced recruitment ......................................................
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