British lions and Mexican eagles : business, politics, and empire in the career of Weetman Pearson in Mexico, 1889-1919 / Paul Garner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Garner, Paul H.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cowdray, Weetman Pearson, Viscount, 1856-1927.

Cowdray, Weetman Pearson.

Engineers--Great Britain--Biography.

Engineers.

Businessmen--Great Britain--Biography.

Businessmen.

Corporations, British--Mexico--History.

Corporations, British.

Great Britain--Relations--Mexico.

Great Britain.

Mexico--Relations--Great Britain.

Mexico.

Mexico--History--1867-1910.

Mexico--History--Revolution, 1910-1920.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (335 p.)

Place of Publication:

Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Between 1889 and 1919, Weetman Pearson became one of the world's most important engineering contractors, a pioneer in the international oil industry, and one of Britain's wealthiest men. At the center of his global business empire were his interests in Mexico. While Pearson's extraordinary success in Mexico took place within the context of unprecedented levels of British trade with and investment in Latin America, Garner argues that Pearson should be understood less as an agent of British imperialism than as an agent of Porfirian state building and modernization. Pearson was able to secure contracts for some of nineteenth-century Mexico's most important public works projects in large part because of his reliability, his empathy with the developmentalist project of Mexican President Porfirio Díaz, and his assiduous cultivation of a clientelist network within the Mexican political elite. His success thus provides an opportunity to reappraise the role played by overseas interests in the national development of Mexico.

Contents:

Weetman Pearson in historical and historiographical context : British-Mexican relations, informal empire, Mexican national development, and the rise of global business in the late nineteenth century

British lions : business and politics in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain

The foundations of a business empire : the Gran Canal in Mexico, 1889-1900

The extension of empire : the Tehuantepec National Railway, 1896-1918

The birth of El Aguila and the apotheosis of empire, 1901-10

The empire strikes back : revolution and counter-revolution 1911-13

The unravelling of empire : civil war and World War 1914-19.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jul 2020)

ISBN:

9780804779036

0804779031

OCLC:

754581667