Abstract

RAMIREZ RANCANO, Mario. A Discussion of the Size of the Mexican Army: 1876-1930. Estud. hist. mod. contemp. Mex [online]. 2006, n.32, pp.35-71. ISSN 0185-2620.

It is traditionally said that during the last third of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth, the powerful federal army was used to establish a lengthy dictatorship while at the same time the number of its members increased enormously. Apparently, this thesis is not true and Díaz's army was actually weak and had fewer soldiers than it is said to have done. This is borne out by the fact that when revolution broke out in 1910, the army was unable to contain it. On the basis of these assumptions, the author attempts to determine the extent to which the federal army, dismantled in 1914, was both vast and numerous. At the same time, he attempts to compare it with the new army created during the Mexican Revolution and the one that existed in the twenties. To this end, the author determines the number of soldiers there were for every million inhabitants during the Porfiriato, the Mexican Revolution and the 1920s. He also checks whether, between 1867 and 1930, the Mexican Army was larger, the same size or smaller than the armies of countries such as France, Spain, Belgium, Brazil and the Argentine.

Keywords : Porfirio Díaz; Mexican Revolution; Porfiriato; federal army; El Monitor del Pueblo.