Alien Labor on the Gulf Coast of Mexico, 1880–1900

Economic activity on Mexico's Gulf coast steadily increased during the last two decades of the nineteenth century partially as a result of improved means of transportation and the enforced peace of Porfirio Díaz. The Mexican government modernized that area's communication facilities by letting out several highly profitable construction contracts to foreigners for building or improving harbor and port facilities at Tampico, Veracruz, Coatzacoalcos, and Campeche. Alien contractors and investors were responsible for railway connections from Verácruz to the interior which had been completed in 1873, and other Gulf ports were similarly linked to the hinterland during the next two decades. A Mexican-built interoceanic line spanned the Tehuantepec Isthmus in 1894, but it was so poorly erected that in 1898 an English construction firm, S. Pearson and Sons, contracted to rebuild the line. Subsequently the same company leased and operated that railroad. These material improvements served to enliven the growing Mexican economy

Alien · Archaeology · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Geography · Government (linguistics · Political science · Port (circuit theory · Economic Zones and Regional Development · Engineering · History · Law · Mexican Socioeconomic and Environmental Dynamics