[jmacusa]

A very detailed analysis. In Mexico , Central and South America what I see is a direct vestige of the former Spanish Empire, the modern day descendants of the ‘’caudillos’’ who rule in more or less the same autocratic fashion , if not quite so brutal as their fore bearers but with the same rigid class-systems and ingrained bigotry and racism.To me the enduring legacy of this wretched system of Spanish cultural imperialism is the kleptocracy that Mexico has become and the utterly dysfunctional society it has spawned where everything and everyone has a price and bribery (''la mordita) is how things are done. That and the violent effect of the drug culture will in time bring a total collapse of the whole country.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

It was a lot more mutated than that, though it is essentially accurate. The ins and outs are rather interesting, however.

By 1800, the situation in Mexico can best be described as rotten, though interesting in its particulars:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1800humboldt-mexico.asp

Right after the rather vicious Mexican war of Independence (from Spain) in 1810-1821, everything started to change.

(starting at about the second paragraph here:)

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ugm01