Mexican Revolution (1910 – 1920)

20th Century · 1914 – 2000

The Mexican Revolution was a long series of rebellions, civil wars and political struggles in Mexico between 1910 and 1920. It began as a movement to end the thirty-year rule of President Porfirio Díaz and grew into a conflict among many regional leaders and armies, each with different aims, including land reform, local autonomy, democratic government and social change.

The fighting killed a large number of people, probably more than a million through violence, hunger and disease, and it drove many Mexicans across the northern border. It ended in 1920 with the rise of leaders from Sonora, but its most lasting result was the Constitution of 1917, which set out state control of land and subsoil resources, labour rights and limits on the Church. The Revolution shaped Mexican politics, identity and art for the rest of the century.

Things happened, and the rest is history

The Porfiriato and its discontents
Event
What happened
Porfirio Díaz first takes power in 1876 and, apart from 1880 to 1884, is president until 1911. His government encourages railways, foreign investment and exports, and keeps order through rural police and a tightly managed political system. Many villages lose land to large estates, and workers face low pay and harsh conditions.
The rest is history
By the early 1900s there is opposition from liberals, labour activists and regional elites. Strikes at the Cananea copper mine in 1906 and the Río Blanco textile mills in 1907 are put down by force. These grievances, together with political exclusion of rising groups, are widely seen as the background to the Revolution. Historians still debate how far economic hardship, as opposed to political frustration, drove people to rebel.
Sources
1. BookKnight, Alan. The Mexican Revolution. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
2. BookKatz, Friedrich. The Life and Times of Pancho Villa. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998.
The Creelman interview and Madero's challenge
Event
What happened
In 1908 Díaz tells the journalist James Creelman that Mexico is ready for democracy and that he would welcome an opposition party. Francisco I. Madero, a landowner from Coahuila, publishes The Presidential Succession in 1910, calling for free elections. Madero is arrested during the 1910 campaign, and Díaz is declared re-elected.
The rest is history
Madero escapes to the United States and issues the Plan of San Luis Potosí, which declares the election void and calls for an uprising on 20 November 1910. The date is now counted as the start of the Revolution. Armed bands rose in Chihuahua and elsewhere, and the movement spread faster than the government expected.
Sources
1. PrimaryMadero, Francisco I. La sucesión presidencial en 1910. San Pedro, Coahuila, 1908.Madero's book calling for free elections.
2. BookKrauze, Enrique. Mexico: Biography of Power. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.
Ciudad Juárez and the fall of Díaz
Event
What happened
In May 1911 revolutionary forces under Pascual Orozco and Francisco Villa take Ciudad Juárez, on the border with the United States. Díaz signs the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez, resigns and leaves for France. An interim government under Francisco León de la Barra holds elections.
The rest is history
Madero is elected president in October 1911. He keeps much of the old army and bureaucracy in place, which disappoints rebels who wanted deeper change. Emiliano Zapata, in Morelos, rises against him in November 1911 under the Plan of Ayala, demanding return of village lands. The settlement of 1911 therefore did not end the fighting.
Sources
1. BookWomack, John. Zapata and the Mexican Revolution. New York: Knopf, 1969.
2. BookKnight, Alan. The Mexican Revolution. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
The Ten Tragic Days and Huerta's coup
Event
What happened
From 9 to 19 February 1913, rebel soldiers fight loyal troops in Mexico City, in what is called the Decena Trágica. General Victoriano Huerta, commander of government forces, makes a deal with the rebels, supported by US ambassador Henry Lane Wilson. Madero and Vice President José María Pino Suárez are forced to resign and are shot on 22 February.
The rest is history
Huerta takes the presidency. Venustiano Carranza, governor of Coahuila, declares against him in the Plan of Guadalupe, and the Constitutionalist movement forms, joined by Villa in Chihuahua and Álvaro Obregón in Sonora. Zapata also continues his own struggle. The murder of an elected president turned a reform movement into a wider civil war.
Sources
1. BookKnight, Alan. The Mexican Revolution. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
2. BookMeyer, Michael C. Huerta: A Political Portrait. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1972.
The US occupation of Veracruz
Event
What happened
On 21 April 1914 US forces seize the port of Veracruz, after an incident at Tampico in which Mexican officers detained US sailors. President Woodrow Wilson wants to pressure Huerta's government and stop a German arms shipment. The occupation lasts until November 1914.
The rest is history
The landing angers many Mexicans, including opponents of Huerta. Huerta resigns in July 1914 after defeats by the Constitutionalist armies. The Veracruz episode left a lasting memory of US intervention in Mexican politics.
Sources
1. BookKatz, Friedrich. The Secret War in Mexico: Europe, the United States, and the Mexican Revolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.
2. BookKnight, Alan. The Mexican Revolution. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
The Convention of Aguascalientes and the war of the factions
Event
What happened
After Huerta falls, the victors meet at Aguascalientes in October 1914 but cannot agree. Carranza withdraws, while Villa and Zapata support a convention government. Obregón sides with Carranza, and in 1915 his army defeats Villa at the battles of Celaya in April.
The rest is history
Carranza's forces gain the upper hand, and the US recognises his government in October 1915. Villa, angered, raids Columbus, New Mexico, in March 1916, which brings the US Punitive Expedition under General Pershing into Mexico. It fails to catch him and withdraws in early 1917. Carranza now controlled most of the country.
Sources
1. BookKatz, Friedrich. The Life and Times of Pancho Villa. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998.
2. BookKnight, Alan. The Mexican Revolution. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
The Constitution of 1917
Event
What happened
A constituent congress meets at Querétaro in late 1916 and issues a new constitution on 5 February 1917. Article 27 places ownership of land and subsoil resources in the nation and allows land redistribution. Article 123 sets labour protections such as an eight-hour day, and Article 3 and others restrict the Church.
The rest is history
Carranza had proposed a more moderate text, but delegates allied with Obregón pushed it further. The Constitution is still the basis of Mexican law, with many amendments. Its land and oil provisions were applied slowly and unevenly, and led to later conflict, including the oil expropriation of 1938 under President Lázaro Cárdenas.
Sources
1. PrimaryConstitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos. Promulgated at Querétaro, 5 February 1917.
2. BookKnight, Alan. The Mexican Revolution. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Zapata's death and the Sonoran takeover
Event
What happened
On 10 April 1919 Zapata is shot at the Chinameca hacienda in Morelos after being lured by an officer of Carranza's army. In 1920 Carranza tries to choose a civilian successor rather than Obregón. Sonoran leaders Obregón, Plutarco Elías Calles and Adolfo de la Huerta issue the Plan of Agua Prieta, and Carranza is killed in May 1920 while fleeing.
The rest is history
Obregón is elected president in 1920, and the period of large-scale fighting is usually considered over. Power passes to northern leaders who built a stronger central state. Calles later helped found the party that became the PRI in 1929, which governed Mexico for the rest of the century.
Sources
1. BookWomack, John. Zapata and the Mexican Revolution. New York: Knopf, 1969.
2. BookHall, Linda B. Álvaro Obregón: Power and Revolution in Mexico, 1911-1920. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1981.
Pancho Villa, the Robin Hood of the north
Folk tale
The legend
Villa is said to have been a peasant who became a bandit after killing a landowner who attacked his sister, then robbed the rich to feed the poor. In the telling he becomes a generous protector of the common people. Ballads and stories after his death spread this image.
The rest is history
Villa was born Doroteo Arango and did spend time as a rustler and outlaw before 1910, but the sister story cannot be verified and comes from his own later accounts. As a commander he did seize haciendas and pay his soldiers from their proceeds, and he had a large popular following. He also ordered executions, and his army did not always treat civilians gently. He was assassinated in Parral on 20 July 1923, and Friedrich Katz's biography is the standard scholarly account.
Sources
1. BookKatz, Friedrich. The Life and Times of Pancho Villa. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998.
2. BookGuzmán, Martín Luis. Memorias de Pancho Villa. Mexico City: Compañía General de Ediciones, 1951.
Zapata is not dead
Popular belief
The legend
After Zapata's death in 1919, some villagers in Morelos say that the body shown to the public was not his. They say he rode away on his white horse and will return when the people need him. The story is told in various forms in rural Mexico.
The rest is history
Zapata's body was identified by people who knew him, and photographs were taken in Cuautla after his death. The belief reflects his deep hold on rural memory rather than any doubt among historians. His call of land and liberty remained a symbol, and in 1994 the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in Chiapas took his name. John Womack's study describes how his followers saw him.
Sources
1. BookWomack, John. Zapata and the Mexican Revolution. New York: Knopf, 1969.
2. BookBrunk, Samuel. Emiliano Zapata: Revolution and Betrayal in Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995.
Villa's missing head
Popular belief
The legend
It is often said that Villa's grave was robbed in 1926 and his head taken, perhaps by a collector seeking a prize. Some versions say the skull ended up with a US secret society. The story is repeated in books and television.
The rest is history
A real report did say that Villa's grave in Parral was disturbed in February 1926 and the skull taken. The claim about a US society comes from later rumour and has no solid evidence. His remains were moved to the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City in 1976, though the Parral family and others have disputed what was actually reburied. Katz discusses the episode and the uncertainty.
Sources
1. BookKatz, Friedrich. The Life and Times of Pancho Villa. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998.
2. BookKnight, Alan. The Mexican Revolution. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
The soldaderas and the Adelita
Popular belief
The legend
Women of the Revolution are often pictured as camp followers, cooking and caring for men, symbolised by the song La Adelita. Some versions give Adelita a single true identity, a soldier's sweetheart who followed her man to war.
The rest is history
Women known as soldaderas did cook, carry supplies and nurse, but many also fought, and some held rank, such as Colonel Amelio Robles Ávila, who lived as a man. La Adelita is a folk song, and there is no agreed single woman behind it. Women also took part as journalists, organisers and teachers. Scholarship such as Elizabeth Salas's work shows their varied roles.
Sources
1. BookSalas, Elizabeth. Soldaderas in the Mexican Military: Myth and History. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.
2. BookKnight, Alan. The Mexican Revolution. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

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Things happened, and the rest is history

The Porfiriato and its discontents

The Creelman interview and Madero's challenge

Ciudad Juárez and the fall of Díaz

The Ten Tragic Days and Huerta's coup

The US occupation of Veracruz

The Convention of Aguascalientes and the war of the factions

The Constitution of 1917

Zapata's death and the Sonoran takeover

Pancho Villa, the Robin Hood of the north

Zapata is not dead

Villa's missing head

The soldaderas and the Adelita