| Abstract: | Abstract After independence from Spain in 1821, the provinces of Mexico sought self-government through the creation of a federal republic. The first federal republic, 1824–1835, constituted the creation of a nation. All regions participated in establishing a national identity that was a mosaic of regional identities. A strong centralist-conservative movement, however, opposed federalism because it threatened the traditional hegemony of central elites in Mexico City. Mexican federalism was based on a concept of dual sovereignty, in which both the states and the nation were sovereign. It included universal male suffrage and room for participation by the masses, something which came to trouble political elites of all ideological persuasions. Though overthrown in 1835, Mexican federalism was later resurgent, but the principle that the states had created the nation was gradually lost. |
