Social Development in Mexico: 1876-1911

Reform ideas that spread during 1855-1875, "the reform period," came to be implemented at the national level under the regime of Porfirio Diaz. In the reform period, the goal of modernizing Mexico, i.e. make it more like the United States and Europe, gained many adherents. To move toward this goal, several objectives were promoted by liberal politicians. One of them was the reduction in the power of the Catholic Church by redistributing its lands and curtailing its monopoly on religion, allowing freedom to other churches and religions to establish themselves. Another objective was to secularize education and implement modern curricula in the schools. A third objective was to promote capitalist economic development. Yet during the reform period, the implementation of the modernization agenda was sporadic and limited geographically. The reform period was chaotic, marked by civil wars, the rule of French imperialism (and the war...
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