The Mexican Revolution (1910–1920)

Core Idea

The Mexican Revolution began in 1910 as a revolt against Porfirio Díaz, who had ruled Mexico for most of the previous three decades while foreign investors and large landowners grew rich and most rural people lost their land. It became a long civil war among shifting factions, led by figures such as Francisco Madero, Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa, Venustiano Carranza and Álvaro Obregón. Its main lasting result was the Constitution of 1917, which promised land reform, workers' rights, secular public education and national ownership of mineral resources. These promises were carried out slowly, most fully under President Lázaro Cárdenas in the 1930s.

How It's Best Learned

Start with the grievances of the Porfiriato: land concentration, foreign ownership and lack of democracy. Track the factions on a chart, noting what each leader wanted and whom he represented. Read Zapata's Plan of Ayala and Article 27 of the 1917 Constitution side by side to see how rural demands entered national law. Place the revolution among other early-twentieth-century upheavals, such as the Chinese revolution of 1911 and the Russian revolutions of 1917.

Common Misconceptions

• The Mexican Revolution was a single uprising with one leader and one goal. (It was a series of conflicts among factions with different aims, from Madero's demand for fair elections to Zapata's demand for land, and its leaders often fought one another.)
• The revolution immediately gave land to the peasants. (The 1917 Constitution allowed land reform, but large-scale redistribution came mainly under Lázaro Cárdenas in the 1930s.)
• The United States stayed out of the revolution. (US forces occupied the port of Veracruz in 1914 and sent an expedition into northern Mexico in 1916–1917 to pursue Pancho Villa.)

Explainer

When you studied economic imperialism, you saw how foreign capital could build railways and mines in a country while leaving most of its people poor. Mexico under Porfirio Díaz is a clear example. Díaz ruled for most of the period from 1876 to 1911. He brought order and growth: railways spread, mines and oil fields opened, and American and British investors poured in money. But a small number of families and companies came to own much of the land, many villages lost their fields to large estates, and elections were not free.

In 1910 Díaz claimed victory in another election. Francisco Madero, a wealthy reformer he had jailed, called for revolt. Uprisings spread, and in 1911 Díaz resigned and left the country. Madero became president but moved slowly on land reform. Emiliano Zapata, a leader of peasants in the state of Morelos, broke with him and issued the Plan of Ayala, demanding that land taken from villages be returned.

In 1913 General Victoriano Huerta overthrew Madero, who was then murdered. A coalition rose against Huerta: Venustiano Carranza, a landowner and politician; Álvaro Obregón, a skilled general from the north; and Pancho Villa, a former bandit who led a cavalry army in Chihuahua. The United States occupied the port of Veracruz in 1914, and Huerta fell that year. The winners then fought one another. Obregón defeated Villa in 1915, and Carranza's side took control. After Villa's men raided a town in New Mexico in 1916, US troops entered Mexico in pursuit but did not catch him.

In 1917 a convention wrote a new constitution. Article 27 declared that land and minerals belonged to the nation and allowed land reform. Article 123 promised an eight-hour day and the right to strike. Other articles made education secular and limited the power of the Catholic Church.

Fighting and assassinations continued. Zapata was killed in 1919 and Carranza in 1920, and Obregón then became president. In the 1930s President Lázaro Cárdenas gave large amounts of land to village farms and in 1938 nationalized foreign oil companies. A single ruling party, founded in 1929, governed Mexico until 2000.