ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the initial stages of the reform Governor's attempts to make Yucatan a model for the emerging states of a New Mexican republic, and at the same time it substantiates Tannenbaum's 1933 interpretation. The Constitutionalist Governor gave special attention to henequen because much of Yucatan's economy and an important part of its politics revolved around that plant. A notable economic achievement stemmed from the establishment, in May 1916, of a state development agency, the Southeast Development Company. This was Alvarado's plan for integrating the use of natural resources in the states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan, and the territory Quintana Roo. He looked upon the potential of the entire peninsula in terms of a geographic-economic unit depending primarily upon, first, maritime and internal overland transportation and communication and, second, a connecting rail link between the peninsula and Mexico City.
