`I've read quite a lot about the ancient civilizations and the conquest, but I haven't bothered to go into all the complications since Independence.'
`Then on account of what I want to talk to you about, I must give you a short resume.' Hunterscombe tapped out his cigarette and lit another. `Apart from a few Indian risings, there was no serious trouble until Hidalgo led the rebellion of 1810. He made a mess of things; but one of his followers, Jose Morelos, took over and more or less got the better of the Spaniards and Creoles, who hated each other but teamed up to defend their wealth and privileges.
'Morelos as good as had the country in his hands, but he made 'he mistake of calling a Congress to proclaim a Republic. His preoccupation with the future led to his being caught napping and executed; so it was not until 1821 that Mexico actually gained her independence.'
`I know that much and quite a bit more,' Adam remarked. `Maybe you do, chum,' replied the Wing Commander, brushing up his long moustache. `But to make my point, I want to refresh your memory about what has been going on in this country for the past one hundred and fifty years. To continue. It was upon Zorelos's programme that all the revolutions that followed were based. He proposed to confiscate the great estates of the rich and the Church and restore the land to the Indians. A royalist Colonel named de Iturbide, who had put paid to Morelos, took over; but he ratted on his Spanish pals and had himself proclaimed as Emperor Agustin I.
`In due course Iturbide was overthrown by an extraordinarily
shifty customer, one Antonio de Santa Anna. He was like a cat with nine lives, or rather eleven, for between 1833 and 1855 there were eleven periods when he was master of Mexico. To get the masses on his side he started off by being very much to the Left;
but he didn't give a damn for anyone but himself, and gradually watered down all the reforms that had been set in motion until the masses were back pretty much where they had started, with the rich and the priests jumping on their necks.
`The Texans didn't like him, so they decided to break away. That led to a civil war which ended in his defeat and capture by a lad named Sam Houston. He then bought his own freedom by giving Texas independence.
`The Mexicans did not like that and, in 1846, reasserting their claim to Texas led them into a war with the United States. They lost it, and it cost them not only Texas for good but also California the best part of a million square miles of territory. In addition to that, when Santa Anna got into power again he was feeling hard up, so he sold a large part of Arizona and New Mexico to the Yankees for three million quid.'
Adam smiled. `Then, by and large, he proved a pretty expensive President.'
`He certainly did. In eighteen years he reduced Mexico from the fourth largest country in the world to less than half its original size. Anyhow, the people were not only fed up about that, but because he had let the rich and the Church get back on their necks again. Then there emerged an extraordinary fellow named Benito Juarez. He was a full blooded Zapotec Indian, one hundred per cent honest, a first class General, a great law giver and a puritan ascetic.
` Juarez led a successful rebellion against the reactionaries and brought in the Constitution of 1857. It went even further than the programme of Morelos. Not only was the Church forbidden to own property and priests and nuns were freed from their vows, but all privileges were abolished, it gave freedom to the Press and decreed free education for the children of all classes.
`The Church and the Conservatives weren't standing for that, so it resulted in a most bloody Civil War. Juarez won through but, by the time he had, the country was so disrupted that it was bankrupt. As French, Spanish and British investors could not get their money, their governments decided to intervene. Napoleon III sent out the Archduke Maximilian, backed by a French army, to become Emperor. Well, you know what happened to that poor well meaning poop. Three years later Juarez did a magnificent job of work. It was he who created modern Mexico, and in 1872
he died in office. He was followed by one of his generals, Porfirio Diaz. Under him the pendulum swung back again. In his way he, too, was a patriot, but he was no believer in democracy. He ruled Mexico for thirty four years from 1876 to 1910. During his Presidency he spent Lord knows how many millions on ornate buildings and extravagant ceremonies, his idea being to make Mexico appear great in the eyes of visiting foreigners. But, of course, the money was squeezed out of the wretched people and, as from top to bottom his officials were open to bribery, the rich and the top priests again lived like fighting cocks. Under Diaz, Mexico became a Police State, and to pay for his ostentatious frivolities he played ducks and drakes with the nation's property too his pals he sold at peppercorn price one fifth of all the land in Mexico. One lucky boy acquired seventeen million acres, and. another twelve million.
`The modern side of the picture is that he gave the cities modern drainage, drove broad avenues through their slums, created harbours that would take deep sea ships, built railways and made the trains run on time. He played it skilfully with the Great Powers, too, by giving their industrialists concessions and exempting them from taxes; so that in his last eighteen years in office foreign investments here more than doubled. `But it was a grim time for the masses and in 1910 a chap named Madero started agitating against him. Tumultos followed all over the country. The most successful risings were led by the exbandit Pancho Villa and a peasant named Emiliano Zapata. Old Diaz was forced to resign and went into exile. 'Madero succeeded him but he was an impractical idealist and did not last long. Naturally the Church and all the boys who had such a good time under Diaz didn't want their lands taken from them and given to the peasants; so they ganged up against him. Mexico City itself became a battleground, with both sides shelling it to pieces. The Whites got the upper hand and Madero was arrested. He resigned in exchange for a promise that his life would be spared; but a drunken old Indian General, Victoriano Huerta, betrayed him, had him shot and went over to the other side.
`Believing that they were on to a good thing, his new pals made Huerta President; but he turned out to be a Mexican Nero, left the country to run itself and spent all his time as Master of Ceremonies at drunken orgies.
`That was in 1913. For the next seven years Mexico was in a state of anarchy and there were ten Presidents, one of whom held he job for only forty six minutes. Villa fought Carranza, Obregon fought Villa, Gonzalez fought Zapata, Calles fought Maytorena, Obregon fought Carranza and Carranza fought Calles. The lawlessness and slaughter was appalling. Mexico 's then population of fifteen millions was reduced by a million dead.
`At last Alvaro Obregon got the upper hand. It was he who was mainly responsible for the new Constitution of 1917; but the struggle between the peasants trying to get a fair deal and the rich attempting to hang on to what they'd got has never really ceased, only gone underground. Just like Mexico 's volcanoes, it erupts now and then, as in the Church inspired rebellion of the Cristeros in 1926. So you can take it from me that after this long period of comparative quiet, as the majority of the people are still poverty stricken, there may at any time be another eruption.'
For a moment Hunterscombe paused; then he concluded, `The reason I've bored you with all this is because I want to bring home to you that every one of these eruptions has resulted in years of civil war and desperate unhappiness for millions of people.'
When Hunterscombe ceased speaking, Adam remarked, `I give you full marks as our Cultural Attache, for being well up in the history of this country; but it strikes me as a little strange that you should be so concerned about the political situation.'