ABSTRACT
The mantra of the age was “Order and Progress,” as the wealthy pursued new economic opportunities, primarily by building railroads and exporting mineral and agricultural goods. Independence brought political instability to Latin America. Economic changes in the late nineteenth century aggravated tensions in Mexico. In Mexico, financial uncertainties and drought in the northern states fueled growing unrest. In the mid-twentieth century, historians regarded Mexico’s revolution as the harbinger of reform. The reality, however, is more nuanced. The large, industrializing nations of Latin America were susceptible to populism because of their more complex urban political dynamics. In Brazil during the mid-twentieth century a second example of nationalistic populism emerged, again tied to the rise and fall of a single man: Getulio Vargas. Brazil entered midcentury with only the limited national political identity that had evolved under Portuguese colonialism, which resulted in a diffusion of power.
