Acknowledgements

A British Academy grant enabled further research for the period from 1824 to 1884 in the reorganised archives in Oaxaca. I am grateful to Dr Manuel Esparza and subsequent Directors of the Oaxaca State Archive for their support. Dr Flor Salazar, Director of the San Luis Potosí State Archive, greatly assisted my research. A grant from the Nuffield Foundation enabled several months’ work in the Historical Archive of the Mexican Defence Ministry. I had the pleasure of talking over many questions with the late Dr Conrado Hernández, when we were both working there. Conversations and correspondence over many years with Dr Josefina Vázquez, Dr Andrés Lira, Dr Pablo Mijangos, Professor Brian Connaugton and Dr José Antonio Serrano Ortega have helped clarify the issues. Professors Connaughton and Guy Thomson kindly read and commented on sections of the manuscript. I greatly miss discussing these themes with the late Professors Jan Bazant, Michael Costeloe and Paul Vanderwood.