Professor Michael Costeloe of the University of Bristol has a large talent for untangling the complexities of nineteenth-century Mexico, demonstrated by his 1967 study of the juzgado de capellanías, his collaboration with Jan Bazant in the publishing of Alienation of Church Wealth in 1971, and the present work on the turbulent politics of post-independence Mexico. As a result of his current efforts, at last we have a sensible analysis of the chaotic period known as the First Federal Republic. More than any other work of synthesis dealing with or touching upon these twelve years, Costeloe’s study explains and clarifies the issues and the events which kept Mexico from developing a stable government and orderly processes after it broke away from Spain.
The emphasis is on narrative, as the author threads his way through the evolution of political parties, the Arenas conspiracy, the attempts to expel the Spanish, the defeat of constitutional government in 1828, the Gómez Pedraza-Guerrero difficulties, the governments of Bustamante and Alamán, the rise of Santa Anna, and the reform movement spearheaded by Gómez Farías, all contributing to the headlong plunge toward the demise of the First Republic. Throughout the narrative, however, Costeloe does not hesitate to offer reasoned, logical, and consequently sound interpretations of the ideas, motivations, and actions of politicians and statesmen and the consequences of the events they shaped. Although politics receives the major attention, there is a keen and sensitive awareness of the influence of other factors, with an intelligent balance struck between political philosophies and actions on the one hand and social and economic considerations on the other.
Costeloe sees these chaotic years as a crucial training period for activists and a time of testing for ideas. The problems which arose would continue to be important, with little progress made toward their solution, until a new generation, the mid-century Reformists under Juárez, attempted to solve the issues and in doing so, drew heavily on the experiences of their predecessors of the First Federal Republic.
The analysis is based on a wide-ranging and thorough knowledge of Mexican historiography and the writings of political figures prominent in that era, manuscript sources in Mexico and Texas, twentyseven national and state newspapers published during the period, pamphlets and tracts, as well as the standard secondary sources. The book includes nine appendices reproducing the Constitution of 1824, listing presidents, cabinet officers, and congressmen, and giving a representative selection of the popular political poetry published in the newspapers and pamphlets of the era. An index would have been appreciated.
Costeloe clearly demonstrates that political history and narrative still have their places in the historian’s canon. Hopefully some university press in the United States will see fit to publish this study in translation for all those students taking courses in Mexican history who may not be able to read Spanish and who yearn for some sense to be made of the affairs of the First Federal Republic.