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This thesis studies the secular schools sustained by two rural municipalities of majority Indian population in the Sierra Norte de Puebla in the periods before and after the 1910 Revolution (1875-1930). In order to assess the role of schools in the community and their contribution to nation-state building, it examines changes in the tax system that affected educational provision, the mutual interaction between schools, politics and inter-ethnic relations at the local level, and the methods used and problems faced when teaching Indian children to read and write in Spanish. The approach of social history is followed to address these questions, seeking to strike a balance between the necessary recognition of the agency of subordinate groups and the complexities of power relations that kept them dominated. Taking a local perspective and using a variety of sources including previously untapped municipal archives, this study both complements and challenges the history of education and nation-state building in modem Mexico. This thesis shows how, before 1910, municipal schools were successfully sustained by locally-controlled taxes and how post-revolutionary policies, contrary to the prevalent view in Mexican historiography, did not necessarily have positive consequences for education. In this case they had a negative impact by abolishing the tax system that had sustained schools, without providing an effective alternative. In organising themselves to fund schools, communities proved to be stronger than the post-revolutionary state. Seeking to contribute to an incipient but growing history of Indian education, this study analyses classroom practice, showing how speakers of Indian languages were at a disadvantage in school. After the revolution, there was a growing awareness of the specific needs of Indian children, but the methods adopted did not necessarily result in more effective learning of Spanish. In fact, the thesis argues that throughout the period of study schools contributed to non- Indian domination by reproducing and reinforcing Indians' linguistic disadvantage.

Au Mexique, comme en Amérique latine, le cycle contestataire des années 1960-1970 a consacré la figure de « l’étudiant révolutionnaire ». À l’inverse, « l’étudiant en situation révolutionnaire » n’a fait l’objet que de bien peu d’analyses. La Révolution mexicaine, des années 1910 au début des années 1940, vit pourtant l’éclosion d’un puissant mouvement étudiant, organisé et représentatif, inséré dans les relations internationales, semblable en apparence à ses homologues européens ou latino-américains. Toutefois, à la différence de ces derniers, le mouvement étudiant mexicain se conçut et se forma en relation étroite avec un phénomène majeur : la Révolution. Durant cette période, les étudiants s’organisèrent au nom de la Révolution, la critiquèrent, la défendirent et la propagèrent, par leurs voyages, leurs congrès et leurs organisations, au Mexique et dans l’espace ibéro-américain. Ils formulèrent dans le même temps une vision révolutionnaire de la réforme des universités et des écoles, insistant sur l’éducation populaire et sur la politisation des savoirs. Animés par une vision racialiste du monde social, ces étudiants se mobilisèrent aussi au nom de la « race ibéro-américaine », à laquelle la patrie mexicaine appartenait. La révolution fut pour eux autant un phénomène de régénération raciale qu’une expérience politique inspirée de modèles européens parfois contradictoires, tels que le nationalisme, le socialisme, le coopérativisme ou le catholicisme social. La radicalisation de la révolution, durant les années 1930, contribua toutefois à diviser grandement le mouvement étudiant. Son étiolement correspondit à la fin de la Révolution. / In Mexico, as in Latin America, the “revolutionary student” appears as a classical figure of the 1960-1970 protest cycle and has been largely analyzed by historians. On the contrary, very few studies have been dedicated to students “in revolutionary context”. As a matter of fact, a powerful student movement, organized and representative, active in international student relations, emerged during the Mexican Revolution, between the 1910s and the 1940s. Apparently similar to its European or Latin American counterparts, this first Mexican student movement was however built and shaped by its leaders in close relation with a major phenomenon: the Revolution. During this period, Mexican students organized themselves in the name of the Revolution. They largely defended the revolutionary principles, but also started to criticize more and more the revolutionary governments. Through their international organizations and congresses, they also contributed to the transnational circulation of the Mexican Revolution in Ibero America. Actors of a “revolution by education”, Mexican student leaders succeeded in defending a “University Reform” that was at first compatible with the revolutionary ideals. Education could help to form the soul of Mexico and of the “Ibero American Race”. In their view, the Mexican Revolution was both a racial regeneration and a political experience, inspired by European models such as nationalism, socialism, cooperativism or social catholicism.

The life and fate of Maximilian I, the last emperor of Mexico, has attracted a substantial amount of research since his death in 1867. However, these works either only deal with the last few years of Maximilian’s life, from his candidature for the Mexican throne to his death at the hands of the Mexican liberals, or with other aspects of his life such as his time as governor of Lombardy-Venetia. Thus the main aim of this thesis is to offer a biography of Maximilian, which will not only look at Maximilian’s reign as emperor of Mexico but will also examine the Habsburg aspect of the story. It is thus necessary to look at the extent to which his Habsburg upbringing, his education and his experiences as governor of Lombardy-Venetia shaped his idea of kingship; how his travels and his time in Italy conditioned him to regard the “other” in a certain imperial way; and how all these essentially Habsburg experiences and ideas played a part in his failure and demise in Mexico. This thesis will thus aim to give a rounded picture the life and death of Maximilian I by examining his upbringing, his education, and his experiences in the navy and in Lombardy-Venetia. For without an understanding of these it is impossible to fully comprehend Maximilian’s actions in Mexico.