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The Mexican Revolution

The Mexican Revolution:  

  • There was a big gap between theory and reality in Latin America (supposed to be republics but weren’t liberal or constitutional or modern at all in the 19th century)  

  • Brazil was still a monarchy; Mexico was on and off between a republic and an empire 

  • All these countries had problems with separating the church from the state 

  • Indigenous people were isolated and left without power 

  • Central theme of Latin American history was closing the gap between theory and reality 

  • Liberal revolution in spain in the 18th century, Ferdinand VII  

  • People in Mexico feared the liberalism infiltrating them 

  • Plan of Iguala: the three guarantees- independence for new Spain, religion was Catholicism, union of Spanish and native elements 

  • Mexican- American war: Mexico lost all of their northern states, California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah (1846-48)  

  • Benito Juarez: leader of the liberal party (copied the English liberal party, free market, freedom of conscience, civil rights, HOWEVER they were also influenced by France and positivism- August Comte (very focused on order)  

  • Porfirio Diaz (Porfiriato) took control after the death on Juarez, created a liberal dictatorship heavily influenced by positivism, ended warlordism, founded a constabulary, established a stable currency (peso), foreign capital booms 

  • Commercial agriculture, timber, lumber, and mining expansion under Diaz (expensive!!) 

  • Due to this industrialization, there were some difficulties that arose (eventually cause the revolution): growth of industry = growth of urban proletariat, the government was too heavy handed and violent, and the indigenous were oppressed, issue of american and british investment in the country  

  • Latifundia/haciendas: In Spain, the south was turned into large latifundia, established on formerly Moorish land(they had virtually abolished the manor system). All these market- and profit-oriented latifundia were farmed by peasant-serfs through a system of compulsory labor. With origins in Andalusia, haciendas were various plantations (perhaps including animals or orchards), mines or factories, with many haciendas combining these activities. The word is derived from Spanish hacer (to make, from Latin facere) and haciendo (making), referring to productive business enterprises. 

  • Federales: Federales (singular Federale or, rarely but aligning with Spanish, Federal) is a slang term in English and Spanish that refers to security forces, particularly those of the Mexican federal government. 

  • Francisco Madero: Francisco Madero (born Oct. 30, 1873, Parras, Mex. —died Feb. 22, 1913, Mexico City) was a Mexican revolutionary and president of Mexico (1911–13), who successfully ousted the dictator Porfirio Díaz by temporarily unifying various democratic and anti-Díaz forces 

  • Renovador:  

  • Pascual Orozco: As Commanding General of all Mexican Federal forces, he led attacks against the revolutionaries, including Pancho Villa and he rose to the rank of division general. Orozco defeated the Constitutionalist Army at Ciudad Camargo, Mapula, Santa Rosalía, Zacatecas, and Torreón. 

  • Pancho Villa: Francisco "Pancho" Villa was a Mexican revolutionary and prominent figure in the Mexican Revolution. He was a key figure in the revolutionary movement that forced out President Porfirio Díaz and brought Francisco I. Madero to power in 1911 

  • Emiligno Zapata: Emiliano Zapata Salazar was a Mexican revolutionary. He was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution of 1910–1920, the main leader of the people's revolution in the Mexican state of Morelos, and the inspiration of the agrarian movement called Zapatismo. Emiliano Zapata was an accomplished guerrilla leader during the Mexican Revolution, and he strongly opposed the hacienda system that characterized much of rural Mexican life. Partly because of his efforts, fundamental land reform was enshrined in the Mexican constitution of 1917 

  • Plan of Ayala: Besides condemning the "treason" of the more conciliatory Madero, the Plan of Ayala puts forward the demands of the Zapatista agrarian rebellion: restitution of lands taken from villages during the Porfiriato, and agrarian redistribution of the larger haciendas, with compensation. 

  • Victoriano Huerta: General Victoriano Huerta took control of the government following the assassinations of President Francisco Madero and Vice President José Pino Suárez. Once they heard the news, many Mexicans called Huerta “the Usurper,” refused to recognize his administration, and declared themselves in revolt. 

  • Venustiano Carranza: Venustiano Carranza (born Dec. 29, 1859, Cuatro Ciénegas, Mex. —died May 20/21, 1920, Tlaxcalantongo) was a leader in the Mexican civil war following the overthrow of the dictator Porfirio Díaz. Carranza became the first president of the new Mexican republic 

  • John Pershing: Pershing launched a punitive expedition into Mexico to capture or kill Villa and disperse his rebels. The expedition eventually involved some 10,000 U.S. troops and personnel. It was the first U.S. military operation to employ mechanized vehicles, including automobiles and airplanes. 

  • Mexican Revolution: Mexican Revolution, (1910–20), a long and bloody struggle among several factions in constantly shifting alliances which resulted ultimately in the end of the 30-year dictatorship in Mexico and the establishment of a constitutional republic 

  • Bucareli Agreement (1923): In August 1923, Mexico and the United States seem to settle the issue by signing the Bucareli Treaty, in which Mexico agrees to respect the rights of U.S. oil companies in exchange for U.S. recognition of the sitting Mexican government. 

  • Party of the Mexican Revolution (now the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)): The Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution (Spanish: Partido Auténtico de la Revolución Mexicana, PARM) was a Mexican political party that existed from 1954 to 2000. For most of its existence, the PARM was generally considered a satellite party of the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). 

  • Ejides: ejido refers to the land outside of the calpulli for agricultural purposes) is an endemic land tenure model and one of the most important bequests of the Mexican Revolution, consisting of “an area of communal land used for agriculture, on which community members individually farm 

  • “Northern Dynasty”: The northern dynasty: Obregón and Calles. When Carranza failed to move toward immediate social reforms, General Obregón enlisted two other powerful northern Mexican chieftains, Plutarco Elías Calles and Adolfo de la Huerta, to join him in an almost bloodless coup; together they formed the northern dynasty. 

  • Alvaro Obregón: Álvaro Obregón Salido was a Mexican military general, inventor and politician who served as the 46th President of Mexico from 1920 to 1924. Obregón was re-elected to the presidency in 1928 but he was assassinated at La Bombilla restaurant before he could take office. 

  • Plutarco Calles: Plutarco Elías Calles was a Mexican soldier and politician who served as President of Mexico from 1924 to 1928. After the assassination of Álvaro Obregón, Elías Calles founded the Institutional Revolutionary Party and held unofficial power as Mexico's de facto leader from 1929 to 1934, a period known as the Maximato 

  • Lazaro Cardenas: Lázaro Cárdenas del Río was a Mexican army officer and politician who served as president of Mexico from 1934 to 1940. Previously, he served as a general in the Constitutional Army during the Mexican Revolution and as Governor of Michoacán and President of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. The people didn’t like him, they just didn’t like their other options. Overthrown by the public and killed.  

  • Wilson sent the marines to occupy Veracruz