Unit II: The Mexican Revolution (2/4)

Corresponding text is found on p199-225 of Concise History of Mexico.
In addition, we will watch The Storm That Swept Mexico

1909 - Francisco Madero published The Presidential Succession of 1910 which calls for creation of Constitutional democracy; founds Anti-Re-electionist club

Francisco Madero

June 1910 - anti-re-electionist movement banned; Madero jailed; Diaz reelected

The Revolution began as a constitutionalist movement among establishment liberals.
Keep that in mind as it unfolds.

1911 - Diaz forced to abdicate

Madero Presidency - 1911-1913

Madero and his base of support

Reforms that were enacted and those that were not?
Assassination of Madero

Counter-revolutionary regime of Victoriano Huerta - 1913-1914

Victoriano Huerta

hijacks Plan de Guadalupe: no focus on social or agrarian issues

Carranza and the Plan de Guadalupe

Problems for Huerta on many fronts

Impact of US Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson

Disconnect between national, elite leadership and issues important to rural poor

Summer 1914 - Huerta regime collapses
Various movements control various parts of Mexico

Venustiano Carranza

Venustiano Carranza - middle-class support; northern states; nationalistic (esp against mining sector)

Pancho Villa

Pancho Villa - organized against elite hacendados; northern/northwestern states;

Pancho Villa & the Division del Norte

Division del Norte became most powerful revolutionary force; by 1914, commands 40,000 men, recognized by United States, 'controls' much of northern Mexico

Locomotives were one of the many technological advances utilized as tools of warfare

Emiliano Zapata

Emiliano Zapata - peasant-based guerilla movement against private estate owners; south-central states; demand agrarian reform (Plan of Ayala-1911 & Agrarian Law-1915)

Peasant farmers were the core of the zapatista movement

Convention of Aguascalientes (October-November 1914) will decides political future of Mexico
Villa & Zapata are not politicians; support coalesces around Carranza
Carranza builds political base with Sonoran leadership (Calles, Obregon); calls for agrarian reform as political move

Convention at Aguascalientes

December 1914 - Villa's forces & Zapata's forces march into Mexico City

Villa & Zapata in the Presidential Palace - December 1914

January 1915 - driven out by Constitutionalist Army under Obregon (loyal to Carranza)
slow defeat of villistas and zapatistas; assassinations of Zapata & Villa

Constitutional convention of 1916-1917 focused on four main issues
- agrarian reform
- legal status of subsoil deposits
- military-civil relations
- Church-state relations

Part of solution to problems was more powerful state with more powerful President
Constitution did allow for govt expropriation of under-utilized land for redistribution as community property
Constitution did declare all subsoil mineral deposits belong to state

Carranza Presidency - 1917-1920
sought to limit government opposition; moderate on reform measures; overthrown by Obregon; assassinated

religious-based parties were prohibited by Constitution of 1917; politically parties wholly irrelevant post-Revolution; politics of personality