Hello everyone, I bring bad news today. Because of personal circumstances I won't be able to work on this project anymore. I made sure this update gave a sense of closure, as well as some hints of what's to come when I come back to it.
I want to thank all of you for sticking with this TL all this time. I greatly appreciate all your comments, they made me feel confident in my skills writing alternate history, so you can expect more works from me in the future.
Now, without further ado, the final update (for now):
The Protector of Latin America
The Independence Day celebrations in 1898 were a sight to behold.
Thousands of people traveled to Mexico City for the victory parade, where the Army, Navy, and the Rurales (despite their lack of participation in the conflict) marched across the streets of the city toward
Los Pinos. Also of note were the
Brigadas Internacionales [1] marching alongside the Army, and even a few of the Cuban rebels, now part of the nascent Republican Army of Cuban.
The event was topped by a speech by Diaz praising the troops who fought the Spanish, as well as congratulating Cuba and Puerto Rico for their independence and looking forward to forging their own future.
This speech is considered by many a precursor to his famous speech in 1903, that led to the birth of the Diaz Doctrine [2].
The remainder of the 19th century was spent in the role of “Protector of Latin America”, which had grown much after the Venezuelan Crisis and particularly the Spanish-Mexican War.
Mexican investors and businesses began appearing in Venezuela, both to help establish the gold mines won in the 1895 crisis and take some of it home as well. Mexico-Venezuela relations would continue to grow, eventually leading to an alliance in 1904.
After their own crisis in 1895 Nicaragua had sought Mexico to help them the same way they'd helped Venezuela. President Zelaya had forcefully annexed Mosquito Coast from Great Britain in 1894 and, though they had accepted it for the roughly the same reasons they accepted the Mexican-American proposal in Venezuela [3], there was a worry in some circles the British would return. Thus, in late 1898 Mexico recognized the takeover, a token gesture that nonetheless calmed many.
The biggest investment in was Cuba. Damaged badly by the war of independence and the Spanish-Mexican War, the Mexican government sent lots of money and experts to help rebuilt their new ally. Help would flow constantly, interrupted only by the Second Mexican-American War, and in turn a lot of capital and support would flow back into Mexico.
Along with Cuba, Mexico spent a lot of time in the Dominican Republic. Following the twin blows of Hurricane Carrabelle and the assassination of President Ulises Heureaux, the provisional government asked for Mexican assistance, which Diaz provided in several divisions of soldiers and BI, along with help to rebuild the country just like Cuba.
All of these interventions and investments were possible due to the economic boom in the nation. The war having cemented Mexico's stability, foreign investment grew; Limantour, living up to his fame as the “magician of numbers”, used the gold filling the coffers to slowly pay off the national debt. Additionally, the Mexican government grew confident enough to start charging interest to the European nations [4], which added even more money to the nation.
Perhaps for the first time, the money was used to better the nation as a hole; while there was still some corruption, thanks to the slow-going “house cleaning” the majority of the funds reached their destinations.
Railroads continued to connect the country, along with telegraph and even some telephone lines. To reduce their reliance on imports factories began appearing in the nation; in 1899 the first arms manufacturer opened in Monterrey, producing several of Manuel Mondragon's designs [5].
Manuel Mondragon. Many of his designs became staple of the Mexican Armed Forces
After the war against Spain showed the deficiencies of the armed forces, several reforms took place: their size was again increased, this time to 75,000 Regulares and 200,000 Reservistas that could be called upon in a conflict. A large number but not enough to antagonize
El Coloso del Norte; despite the warm relations, Diaz and the rest of the government remained wary of them.
All these changes led to another cultural shift in Mexico. Though most of the land still remained in the hands of a few Hacendados (and would remain so until the end of the Mexican Revolution), the people who worked the lands started having options; they could now work on factories, or join the expanded Armed Forces, and be able to start paying the debt many Haciendados put them in. Because of this, as when the Diaz Plan began, they were forced to give raises and even cut on some of the debt before they lost their workforce. The arts also flourished and, confident in that there was not much to complain anymore, Diaz allowed some free press, a belief that would be proven right.
And thus, when the new century arrived, Mexico entered as an equal among nations; a stable and peaceful country with a happy population, modernizing at a pace only surpassed by the Japanese Empire, and slowly turning into the dominant power of the hemisphere thanks to the influence in Latin America.
Whereas the country had been born weak and fearful of foreign nations, and had been humiliated several times by them, now Mexico faced the times ahead of confidence, sure in its ability to prove the dark times were a thing of the past.
THE END
[1] Name suggested by Red_Galiray
[2] This is a real thing, sort of. I'll go into more detail when we reach that fateful year.
[3] Mostly not wanting to wage a war in a faraway place for mostly pointless land.
[4] Mexico used to give out these like candy so European investors could modernize the country.
[5] Such as the Mondragon Rifle.
