cs, however, were not allowed to remain
alone on their side of "the margin of international life." Though
nothing so extreme as the earlier French intervention took place,
foreign nations were not at all averse to crossing over the marginal
line and teaching them what a failure to comply with international
obligations meant. The period from 1889 to 1907, therefore, is
characterized also by interference on the part of European powers, and
by interposition on the part of the United States, in the affairs of
countries in and around the Caribbean Sea. Because of the action taken
by the United States two more republics--Cuba and Panama--came into
being, thus increasing the number of political offshoots from Spain
in America to eighteen. Another result of this interposition was the
creation of what were substantially American protectorates. Here
the United States did not deprive the countries concerned of their
independence and sovereignty, but subjected them to a kind of
guardianship or tutelage, so far as it thought needful to insure
stability, solvency, health, and welfare in general. Foremost in the
northern group of Hispanic nations, Mexico, under the guidance of
Diaz, marched steadily onward. Peace, order, and law; an increasing
population; internal wealth and well-being; a flourishing industry
and commerce; suitable care for things mental as well as material; the
respect and confidence of foreigners--these were blessings which the
country had hitherto never beheld. The Mexicans, once in anarchy and
enmity created by militarists and clericals, came to know one another in
friendship, and arrived at something like a national consciousness.

In 1889 there was held the first conference on educational problems
which the republic had ever had. Three years later a mining code was
drawn up which made ownership inviolable on payment of lawful dues,
removed uncertainties of operation, and stimulated the industry in
a remarkable fashion. Far less beneficial in the long run was a law
enacted in 1894. Instead of granting a legal title to lands held by
prescriptive rights through an occupation of many years, it made such
property part of the public domain, which might be acquired, like
a mining claim, by any one who could secure a grant of it from the
Government. Though hailed at the time as a piece of constructive
legislation, its unfortunate effect was to enable large landowners who
wished to increase their possessions to oust poor