Modernization in Transportation: Archaeological Study of a Narrow Gauge Railway from Yucatán’s Gilded Age, Mexico

Summary

In the century after Independence, Yucatán experienced unprecedented industrial, economic, and social transformation derived from henequen production and export. During the presidency of Porfirio Díaz (1876-1911), an ambitious modernization project was launched to unify the nation. It fomented capitalist industrialization of all production sectors, the introduction of railroads, and the opening of new commercial markets. Yucatecan hacendados obtained federal concessions and invested in the construction of railroads that linked the henequen zone with the port of Progreso. My goal in this paper is to examine the archaeological vestiges of the Mérida-Valladolid railway, especially the line that runs from Conkal to Progreso, to illustrate how modernization altered the peninsula’s landscape. This industrial landscape of the Gilded Age suggests that postcolonial changes in transportation heightened socioeconomic stratification among native populations on the Yucatán peninsula. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018   •
• Colonialism’s End? The archaeological consequences of the Grito de Dolores

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

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PaperId(s): 339