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I. Revolution - What is it?

• A. Definition - A sudden, forceful overturn of established cultural, political, social, and economic institutions, usually accompanied by violence, and their substitution with new institutions.
• B. A key question will be the "authenticity" of the Mexican Revolution

II. The Beginning of the End

• A. 1910 - few wanted Diaz to stay in power
• 1. Many rivals
• 2. But few interested in armed rebellion
• B. Election of 1910
• 1. Diaz tells American journalist he will retire
• 2. This draws out potential rivals
• 3. Diaz does run

III. Run-up to Francisco Madero's Rebellion

• A. To Diaz's shock, Francisco Madero begins campaigning
• B. Francisco Madero
• 1. Liberal landowner from Monterrey
• 2. Family had stakes in banks, textile mills, mines, wine.
• 3. Devoted to a humanistic liberalism
• 4. Abhorred autocracy of Diaz, servile Congress, corrupt judges
• 5. Defender of public education, personal liberty, enemy of one-man rule
• 6. For the benefit of other Diaz rival, wrote The Presidential Succession of 1910
• 7. Also represented the discontents of Northern elites
• 8. But he is not a "revolutionary"
• 9. A rebellion against Diaz, not a revolution against Mexican society
• C. Platform for election of 1910
• 1. free and honest elections
• 2. Municipal autonomy
• 3. Largely silent on social issues
• 4. Improve the "material, intellectual, and moral condition" of workers
• 5. Dwelt on need to curb drinking and gambling
• 6. Saw free public education as cure-all for social ills
• 7. In essence, classic Mexican liberalism
• D. Election
• 1. Madero tossed in jail on trumped up charge
• 2. Diaz, 80, overwhelmingly re-elected
• 3. Madero released on bail
• 4. Escaped to Texas

IV. Madero's Revolution: The Collapse of the Old Order (1910-1913)

• A. Announced Plan de San Luis Potosi
• 1. Essentially election platform
• a. Diaz must resign
• b. calls for electoral reforms
• c. demands honest, constitutional government
• d. Key idea - "Effective suffrage and no re-election"
• 2. Declared election of Diaz null and void
• 3. Set November 20 as date for rebellion
• B. Madero's Allies
• 1. Northern elites - Orozco
• 2. Northern malcontents - Villa
• 3. Peasant rebellion in south - Zapata
• C. The Rebellion
• 1. Madero dragged into fighting largely against his will
• 2. Villa and Orozco did most of the fighting
• 3. Both went against his wishes - he would put neither in his government
• D. Diaz resigns
• 1. Professional army defeated in most battle by ill-trained rebels
• 2. Diaz had a toothache - resigned
• 3. Madero, legalistic, would not take power without elections
• 4. Diaz's foreign affairs minister became caretaker till elections
• 5. Nor did he disarm the old army
• 6. Indeed, told rebels to disband
• 7. Nor did he call for new Congressional or state elections
• 8. Thus edifice of old regime remained in place

V. Madero in Power

• A. Inaugurated in November, 1911
• B. No vision or theory for Revolution, had unleashed forces he could not control
• C. A symbol for the need for change, himself a cautious reformer
• 1. Pursued moderate, classic Liberal reformism, which did nothing for poor
• 2. Wave of strikes, Madero made only tentative efforts
• 3. Biggest conflict was Zapata - could only see him as a bandit
• 4. Narrow urbanite, middle class base
• 5. Elites rebelled at his inability to control Zapata
• D. Overthrown by Victoriano Huerta in February, 1912 - and executed

VI. Huerta in Power - The Revolt of the Masses (1913-1915)

• A. Had been encouraged by US ambassador, Henry Lane Wilson
• B. Not a full-fledged return of Old Regime - some tentative reforms
• C. But rejected by many
• 1. Constitutionalists in the north - reasons Northern elites revolted
• a. Rejection of coup and military government
• b. Slump in the North
• c. Non-recognition by Wilson
• 2. Zapata in the south - agrarian Revolt
• D. Defeated in July, 1914 - the Porfirian army is defeated

VII. Three main armies involved in anti-Huerta war

• A. Emiliano Zapata - Agrarian Revolt
• 1. Small landholder - ran mule train, and sharecropped on a hacienda
• 2. Initially the leader of village of small landholders under pressure
• 3. Would come to lead large guerilla army of mestizo and Indian peasants
• 4. His army would fight the longest
• 5. Most radical of major revolutionary leaders
• 6. Came to represent agrarian revolt, social revolution
• a. Plan de Ayala, November, 1911 - "Tierra y liberatad" - "Land and Liberty"
• b. Want land - many followers fighting for land they lived on
• c. End power of local bosses
• d. small and large landholders
• e. Came to be recognized as national peasant leader
• f. Many urban leftists saw him as true revolutionary, joined him
• B. Pancho Villa - Misfits Revolt
• 1. From Durango
• 2. Wanted for cattle theft and murder at time of Madero rebellion
• 3. Highly professionalzed army - largest
• 4. The misfits of society
• 5. Peasants, unemployed cowboys and miners, bandits, second sons
• 6. Sought not to overturn society but to gain its spoils
• 7. Soldiers fought for position and promotion, middle-class respectability
• 8. Officers rose on military merit
• 9. Soldiers also fought for confiscated land, and refused to leave it
• 10. In many ways, the most conservative of the revolutionaries
• C. Venustiano Carranza - Northern Elite and Liberalism - The Constitutionalists
• 1. Former governor of Coahuila, took up Madero's standard
• 2. Devoted to constitutional rule and liberalism
• 3. Loosely allied to Wilson
• 4. Represented Northern elite
• 5. Believed that Mexico could only be ruled by the strong
• 6. A capitalist and hacendado, had no time for left or for Zapata
• 7. Led a professional army of mostly mercenaries
• 8. Officers were ranchers, minor entrepreneurs, hacendados

VIII. Characteristics of leaders

• A. Young (except Carranza)
• B. Almost all middle class
• C. Most from small towns, provinces
• D. Few were peasants or rural
• E. Occupations
• 1. Lawyers the largest group
• 2. School-teachers the next largest group
• a. Teachers played same role as lesser clergy in independence wars
• b. Most obvious example was Plutarco Elias Calles
• 3. Engineers were an important group
• 4. Physicians, journalists, and bankers played roles as well
• 5. Salesmen, clerks, merchants
• 6. Students

IX. Defeat of the Masses (1915-1920)

• A. Carranza in Dominant Position by October 1915
• B. Villa and Zapata reduced to small, guerrilla armies
• C. Carranza uninterested in social and agrarian reform
• 1. Did not regard land reform as a key issue
• 2. Issued a decree that gave very limited power to return seized land
• 3. Very much believed that capitalist competition would do the trick
• 4. Knew that people had to be considered; did not include them in power
• D. Two major failings
• 1. Unable to control corruption of generals, who divert reconstruction funds
• 2. Failure to reach out to masses means Zapata, Villa reassert themselves
• E. Weakening power seen in Constitution of 1917, which is more radical than he is
• 1. At odds with his own ideology
• 2. Delegates saw agrarian reform as key to settling countryside
• 3. Though the reform was ambiguous
• 4. Nationalistic - Mines was water could only be owned by Mexicans
• 5. Included a labor code
• a. legalizes unions, right to strike
• b. 8-hour day
• c. minimum wage, Sundays off
• d. But, put state in charge of arbitration
• 6. Gave Provinces power to regulate the Church
• F. Carranza brought down
• 1. Flu epidemic - 400,000 died
• 2. Economic slump
• 3. Tried to pick his own successor
• 4. Brought down by Alvaro Obregon, garbanzo farmer

X. Consolidation of the New Order (1920+)

• A. Carranza brought down, Obregon emerges triumphant, June 1920 - last man standing
• B. Zapata and Villa neutralized by Obregon by this point
• C. Military revolution is essentially over
• D. Northern (Sonoran) bourgeoisie now in power

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