THE PRONUNCIAMIENTO IN INDEPENDENT MEXICO, 1821-1876

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The aim of this project is to develop a better understanding of the civil conflicts that broke out with remarkable and tragic consistency following the achievement of independence. Over 2000 so-called pronunciamientos erupted in Mexico between 1821 and 1876 (see appendix 2 in my Mexico in the Age of Proposals [Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998], pp. 277-287), in some cases leading to bloody civil wars (e.g., the Civil War of 1832, the Revolution of Ayutla [1854-55], the Civil War of the Reforma [1858-60]), in others to a peaceful change of government, the removal of controversial ministers, or a shift in policy. I am interested in exploring the political culture that appears to have legitimised the threat of armed rebellion as a means of effecting political change during this period. I want to bring together a formidable group of high profile scholars to study together the origins, levels and nature of participation and development, outcomes, representation, and memory of the experience of the pronunciamiento in Independent Mexico. Three conferences will be held in St Andrews, based around three different yet interrelated cycles, namely: 1. Origins, Causes, Irruptions; 2. Actors, Development and Experience; and 3. Memory, Commemoration, Representation and Historiography. By appointing 2 Research Assistants, my intention is to create an on-line relational database of individuals, communities, regiments, factions/parties and professions who actively contributed to the numerous pronunciamientos that erupted during this period. This will be an extremely useful research tool, since it will enable future generations of scholars to obtain a true sense of who took up arms and why, and to determine whether certain patterns or trends emerged with the passing of time, leading to what could be viewed as an institutionalisation of the pronunciamiento. Cross-referencing entries of individual, group, institutional (Town Hall-civilian/military) pronunciados/rebels with meaningful analyses of the individual pronunciamientos, their participants' demands and motivation, regional trends and patterns, urban and rural mobilisations, outcomes and memory (sacralised or demonised), with apposite reviews of relevant historiographical sources and a bibliography of political violence and revolutionary activity, will constitute an extremely helpful resource for the study of Independent Mexico, and by default, parallel postcolonial countries/contexts with acute political instability and endemic crises of legitimacy and governance. The research assistants involved in the project will be in a privileged position to further their own work in nineteenth-century Mexican politics, benefiting from the nature of the project with financed field work in Mexico in year 2, a network of outstanding academics, three groundbreaking conferences, and the opportunity to publish their own findings in the volumes that will be generated, acquiring transferable IT skills along the way. The two doctoral students will benefit from being part of a vibrant and stimulating intellectual community, aided by the two research assistants dedicated to the elaboration of the database, and involved in the three conferences that will be hosted in St Andrews, having the opportunity to try out their ideas on some of the most outstanding historians in the field. Their research and personal development will be further enhanced by their expected archival fieldwork in Mexico in year 2 of the project. This is a project that will significantly improve our understanding of Independent Mexico, the nature and dynamics of the pronunciamiento in a postcolonial Spanish American society, test mainstream theories of revolutionary activity in the case of Mexico 1821-76, enhance trans-Atlantic British-Mexican-American collaborative scholarship, assist four young scholars develop their careers as people and academics, and produce an extremely helpful database, three important edited volumes and a monograph.