The Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) was the first great social revolution of the twentieth century — preceding the Russian Revolution by seven years — and transformed Mexico from a feudal hacienda economy with a fraudulent dictatorship into a constitutionally governed state with the most radical social constitution of its era. **Origins (1910-1911):** Francisco Madero's Plan de San Luis Potosí called for armed uprising on 20 November 1910 to overthrow Díaz. The revolution spread faster than expected: Pancho Villa's guerrillas captured Ciudad Juárez in May 1911 and Díaz's army refused to fight. Díaz resigned and sailed to exile. Madero was elected president with overwhelming popular support. **Madero's Failure and Zapata's Radicalization (1911-1913):** Madero moved too slowly on land reform. Emiliano Zapata issued the Plan de Ayala (November 1911), declaring Madero a traitor and demanding immediate redistribution of hacienda lands to peasant villages. In the north, Pascual Orozco rebelled. Madero was fatally dependent on the old federal army he had inherited. **The Decena Trágica (February 1913):** General Victoriano Huerta, with the connivance of US Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson, organized a military coup. Ten days of fighting in Mexico City left thousands of civilians dead. Madero was arrested, forced to resign, and shot while allegedly trying to escape — the ley fuga, a standard method of political murder. Huerta's coup united all other factions against him. **Constitutionalist Victory (1913-1914):** Venustiano Carranza refused to recognize Huerta and raised the Constitutionalist Army. Álvaro Obregón in the northwest and Villa in the north advanced rapidly. The Battle of Zacatecas (23 June 1914) — Villa's División del Norte storming a heavily fortified mountain city — was the decisive engagement, destroying Huerta's federal army. The United States, under President Wilson, occupied Veracruz in April 1914, cutting off Huerta's arms supply. Huerta fled in July 1914. **Revolution Against Itself (1914-1915):** Victory dissolved the coalition. The Convention of Aguascalientes (October 1914) failed to reconcile Villa and Zapata with Carranza. Villa and Zapata occupied Mexico City together in December 1914 but neither sought political power. Obregón's genius proved decisive: at the Battles of Celaya (April 1915) he used barbed wire, machine guns, and trenches — WWI tactics — to slaughter Villa's cavalry charges. Villa lost 9,000 men in two days. His power was broken. **Carranza's Presidency and the Constitution of 1917:** Carranza convened a Constitutional Convention at Querétaro that produced the 1917 Constitution — the first in the world to enshrine social and economic rights. Article 27 declared all subsoil resources national property (directly threatening US and British oil companies), established the ejido system of communal land tenure, and prohibited foreign ownership of land near borders. Article 123 guaranteed the 8-hour workday, the right to strike, and minimum wages. Article 3 established free secular public education. These provisions were more radical than what Carranza himself wanted. **End of the Revolution (1918-1920):** Zapata was lured into an ambush by one of Carranza's generals and assassinated on 10 April 1919. Carranza attempted to impose a puppet successor and was overthrown by the Agua Prieta revolt led by Obregón and Plutarco Elías Calles. He was assassinated while fleeing. Obregón's election in 1920 marked the end of the revolutionary decade and the beginning of the institutionalization of the revolution that would culminate in the founding of the PRI (1929).
- Year: 1910 CE
- Category: Military
