52 - The Mexican Revolution (abridged)

Benito Juarez

Mexican president (1858-1872); champion of liberalism and leader of La Reforma; resisted French invasion of Mexico (1862-1867)

La Reforma

1855-1861 liberal rebellion of Benito Juarez against conservative forces of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna; sought to reduce power of the Catholic Church in Mexico, separate church and state, reduce the power of the Mexican military, and integrate Mexico's large indigenous population as citizens

Porfirio Diaz

dictatorial seven term president of Mexico (1876-1880 and 1884-1911); maintained social and political order, by force when necessary; advised by cientificos; economic development benefited wealthy allies and foreign investors but not the poor; civil repression and rural poverty led to his overthrow during the Mexican Revolution of 1910

Mexican Revolution

1910-1920 conflict; resulted in ouster of Porfirio Diaz from power; opposition forces led by Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata; led to 1.7-2.7 million dead

Francisco Madero

democratic reformer in Mexico; proposed moderate reforms in 1910; arrested by Porfirio Diaz; initiated revolution when released from prison; overwhelmingly elected in a free and fair election in 1911 but seen as too liberal by conservatives and too conservative by liberals; assassinated in 1913

Pancho Villa

popular Mexican Revolutionary and military commander in northern Mexico; a folk hero to the landless rural poor and international star of Hollywood films playing himself; allied with Emiliano Zapata in removing Diaz from power in 1911 and later participated in campaigns that removed Madero and Huerta

Emiliano Zapata

Mexican revolutionary and military commander of peasant guerrilla movement in the southern state of Morelos; allied with Pancho Villa to remove Díaz from power and later participated in campaigns that removed Madero and Huerta; demanded sweeping land reform

Victoriano Huerta

counter-revolutionary general backed by business interests and conservative supporters of the old Porfiriato order; attempted to reestablish centralized dictatorship in Mexico following the removal of Madero in 1913; forced from power in 1914 by Carranza, Villa, and Zapata

Venustiano Carranza

moderate liberal revolutionary leader who helped overthrow Huerta in 1914 then led Mexico from 1915 to 1920; did not enforce radical elements of the Constitution of 1917; opposed U.S. Punitive Expedition

Punitive Expedition

1916-1917 major U.S. military incursion into northern Mexico to capture Pancho Villa after he led a cross-border raid against the American town of Columbus, New Mexico; opposed by Carranza and led to widespread Mexican nationalist anti-American sentiment

Mexican Constitution of 1917

first governing document in the world to guarantee economic, social, and cultural rights of citizens; supported secular public education to reduce Catholic influence, promised land reform, limited foreign ownership of key resources, and protected workers; marked formal end of Mexican Revolution

Alvaro Obregon

initially a supporter then an opponent of Carranza; elected president of Mexico from 1920 to 1924 in first stable presidency since the Revolution began; oversaw massive educational, land, and labor reforms

Diego Rivera

Mexican artist of post-revolutionary Mexico famous for murals painted on walls of public buildings; mixed indigenist romantic images of the Indian past with Christian symbols and Marxist ideology

indigenism

literary, artistic, and political movement that celebrated native culture as a part of the nation's history but focused on assimilating native people into the nation-state