THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION (1910- 1920)

 

There’s been a lot of discussion lately concerning Mexico and its border with America, however most Americans know very little about our neighbor to the south and their history. I want to do something about that so today I’m going to spend a little time discussing the most important events of the Mexican Revolution. I’ll follow this up with a separate post about how this conflict fit in with the geopolitics of the age and how the issues of Revolution are still at the heart of many modern political struggles.

Before I begin, I want to clarify what the Mexican Revolution was not. It has nothing to do with Mexican independence from Spain. Led by Father Hidalgo, Mexico declared their independence in 1810, although full independence wasn’t achieved until 1821. It also has nothing to do with Cinco de Mayo which celebrates the Mexican victory over the French in the battle of Puebla in 1862. This was part of the ultimately unsuccessful attempt by the French to take control of Mexico that ended in 1867. It should also be noted that the Mexican-American War occurred from 1846 to 1848. Generally speaking, the first 65 years of Mexican independence were marred by frequent military conflict with weak and/or corrupt leaders during periods of peace.

Beginning in 1876 a period of time known as the porfiriato began as Porfirio Diaz came to power, originally as a reformer, over time his rule turned into a dictatorship through the use of rigged elections. His regime was largely defined by political repression but also economic development, oxen allowing American corporations a free hand in acquiring the rights to lands that had been worked by village peasants for centuries. Initially he indicated he would not run for re-election in 1910 and would oversee the transition to true representational government. As the election neared however, he decided to go ahead and run again and as usual suppressed any attempts run candidates against him. But during the time in which Mexicans believed there would be free elections political parties had formed and it became clear that many were ready for a change in leadership and implementation of long needed reforms. 

One of the early leading candidates for the 1910 election was Francisco Madero. He was jailed during the election, but upon release he began organizing a revolution from San Antonio, Tx. He launched his planned revolution in November of 1910, however word leaked out and Diaz was able to quickly quell his rebellion. But rebel leaders in other parts of Mexico, working independently of Madero, found success and soon Madero was the defacto leader of a coalition of regional rebel factions. Within months Diaz was on a boat for Spain and Madero was soon after elected President of Mexico. 

This could have been the whole revolution. Madero was sincere in his desire to bring democratic reforms to Mexico, maybe too sincere. Rather than purge all the old members of the Diaz administration from the government he allowed many of them to remain. He was also reluctant to place rebel leaders in positions of authority they weren’t really qualified for. The result was many began to wonder what the revolution was about with many of the same people in charge and those who had put everything on the line believing they weren’t being rewarded for their service. Still Madero had wide support, but he had left the window open for counter-revolutionary backlash. In the second year of Madero’s Presidency, after successfully fending ow several attempted revolts, a former Diaz General named Victoriano Huerta overthrew his government and within days Madero and his Vice President where executed. Although President Tax wanted to remain neutral, his Mexican ambassador felt Madero wasn’t supportive enough of American corporate interests and actively endorsed Huerta’s coup.

The following years are way too complicated to get into, but generally the various regional revolutionary forces immediately went back into revolt and the next several years saw Emiliano Zapata become the most important leader of the southern rebel forces and Pancho Villa came to prominence in the north. It was also during this time, in 1914 that the new American President Woodrow Wilson invaded Vera Cruz after reversing the policy of the previous administration and declaring Huerta a usurper. Wilson used a largely invented excuse for the invasion, its real purpose was to cut Huerta off from his supply of weapons at the port of Vera Cruz. Finally, by 1915 another revolutionary named Venustiano Carranza took control of the government but failed to unite the revolutionary factions in Mexico. 

Both Villa and Zapata remained in revolt, but in 1917 under his leadership, a Constitutional Convention took place and wrote a liberal constitution including clauses limiting the President to one term, guaranteeing Mexican ownership of natural resources, and other labor and land reforms. It’s usually believed that Carranza agreed to these provisions for political reasons but never intended to implement them. Under the new Constitution, Carranza was elected President and over the next several years the intensity of the rebel fighting diminished. Zapata was eventually ambushed and killed in 1919, but his forces continued on after his death, in fact there’s still a small Zapatistia movement in Southern Mexico. 

Pancho Villa saw the forces under his command diminish after the rise of Carranza, in response he made the bold move to launch a guerrilla attack on Columbus New Mexico with hopes of forcing an American invasion. His plan worked as President Wilson tasked General Pershing with capturing Villa. The presence of American troops on Mexican soil led to opposition to Carranza for allowing the Americans operate unopposed and bolstered Villa’s position as a rebel leader. However, the plan only worked temporarily and eventually the Americans left with Carranza still in power. 

Seeing that the country’s appetite for revolution was exhausted Villa negotiated a peaceful surrender and he was allowed to retire to a hacienda. However, three years into his retirement he was assassinated, likely out of fear that he wouldn’t stay retired. As Carranza’s term neared an end it became increasingly clear that he would leave office but planned to place a puppet politician in his place so that he could continue to run the government from behind the scenes. The plan backfired though and in 1920 he was forced to flee Mexico City but was caught and executed. However rather than start another round of revolutionary fighting, there was an election and a smooth transition of power took place as the popular Alvaro Obregon was elected. 

The Constitution of 1917 is still in affect today and there has been an uninterrupted succession of elected Mexican Presidents ever since. That’s it in a nutshell, but what did it all mean? That’ll have to wait until my next post.