ABSTRACT
Peru, which had experienced a conflict-ridden decade in the 1860s, saw its first civilian president and first peaceful transition from one elected civilian to another soon after the period opened. Mexico, whose population had reached 9.1 million by 1872, was a model of stability and economic development in the late nineteenth century, a sharp contrast with its preceding troubles. Successfully negotiating consolidation of Mexico's foreign debt and starting a steel industry, General Jose de la Cruz Porfirio Diaz presided into the new century over sustained economic development fed by foreign investment. Following the unstable caudillism of 1830-1866, the Liberals were in power from 1867 to 1880, moving against the Catholic Church, at that point, by far the country's leading landowner. Peru continued a complex political development path replete with contradictions and partial disruptions stopping short of clear ruptures, in part because of the lack of a single center dominating all regions.
