New Books Network Paul Gillingham, "Mexico: A 500-Year History" (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2025)
Mar 7, 2026
Paul Gillingham, a Northwestern historian of Mexican politics and social change, offers a sweeping 500-year narrative. He traces first contact, conquest as indigenous civil war, and life under Spanish rule. He covers independence, Porfirian urban modernity, the Revolution and 1917 constitution, PRI rule and decline, and the contemporary rupture of the drugs war.
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Conquest Was An Indigenous Civil War
- The Spanish 'conquest' was actually an indigenous civil war where large indigenous alliances (e.g., Tlaxcalans) were decisive.
- For most people the Spanish presence changed little for 150 years, making the conquista inconclusiva a better term.
Hands-Off Empire And Contingent Independence
- Spanish rule in New Spain was hands-off and prioritized silver extraction and basic order, granting wide local autonomy.
- Independence arose mainly from the Napoleonic removal of Spain's imperial center, creating a power vacuum exploited by leaders like Miguel Hidalgo.
Early Republic Mixed Chaos With Local Democracy
- Post-independence Mexico combined national-level instability and economic collapse with a vibrant surge of local participatory democracy via newly formed municipios.
- Despite bankruptcy and churn, Mexico endured unlike other fragmented post-colonial states.
