By Natalie Taylor
Porfirio Díaz became president in 1877 as ally to the liberal movement. But after assuming the presidency he became intoxicated with power, turned into a dictator, and held the presidency for almost forty years. His rule became known as “the Porfiriato.”
Mexico gained much during his presidency: the extension of railroads throughout the nation, growth of foreign investments, development of capitalism, and Mexican economy. But all these helped the wealthy, leaving a much smaller middle class, and a massive layer of the poor, who worked the fields. His land laws favored the rich. History shows that such a system is unsustainable in the long run; an overwhelming population of the poor eventually rebels against the inequity. And the same happened in Mexico.
It may be that Porfirio Díaz began his presidency with good intentions; he seemed to believe in the potential of a democratic government. In 1908 he said in an interview: “I received the government…at a time when the country was divided and the people unprepared to exercise the supreme principles of a democratic government.”
Perhaps he did believe the country was unprepared, and chose to hold power until that time. Perhaps it was a patronizing excuse. Soon sparks of dissent appeared with journalists condemning his government. To better understand the resentment that was brewing, one needs to look at what life was like for the peasants. The majority of rural land was held by hacendados, owners of vast haciendas where peasants worked the land under terrible conditions, and minimal wages.
A challenger to Díaz appeared with Francisco Madero who founded a new political party, and ran on a platform to reform the unfair distribution of power and lands. Threatened with imprisonment, Madero escaped to the United States, where he created a bold plan. On November 20, 1910, ten days before Díaz was to start his presidential term—won once again by fraud—Madero declared a call to arms against Díaz.
When Díaz was overthrown, Madero became president. His support came from the middle class who wanted reform, but not an extreme revolution.Others were looking for more than Madero was offering. The movement had turned into a social revolution that was not satisfied with a simple change in government, it wanted to change the entire economic structure, and justice itself.
It was as if a wild beast had been unleashed, and asked to only do one specific job. The beast, once free would go far beyond, devouring everything in its path. Perhaps it is true that social revolutions turn into all-or-nothing upheavals.Emiliano Zapata was a chief negotiator for the peasants who wanted a redistribution of lands, taking them from the hacendados back to the peasants. Zapata became the leader of the peasant revolt that led to the fall of Díaz. But when Madero became president, he denounced them as mere bandits and sent the army to root out the Zapatistas. The army burned villages, removed inhabitants, and sent men to forced-labor camps. All this strengthened Zapata’s standing among the peasants, and they joined forces with Victoriano Huerta enabling a coup in which Madero was assassinated. Huerta became the new president in 1914.
Huerta’s military dictatorship was both inefficient and severely oppressive. He was confronted with opposition from many sides, and on July 15, 1914 he resigned. Following Huerta’s defeat, the victors clashed and plunged the country into a civil war with a parade of multiple presidents for the next four years.
Finally, the constitutionalists—who promoted nationalism under the banner of “Mexico for Mexicans”—won, and drafted a democratic constitution. Venustiano Carranza became president, but instead of implementing the reforms of the constitution, he focused on eliminating rivals. When he became unhappy with Zapata’s demands, he had him assassinated in 1919. Less than a year later, on May 21, 1920, Carranza suffered the same fate.
Although the fighting and bloodshed continued into the following decade, many consider the formal adoption of the Constitution of Mexico in 1917, the official end of the Mexican Revolution. And it is an appropriate point at which to finish because this is one of the most important documents in the history of Mexico, and the history of the world.
The 1917 Mexican Constitution is the world’s first constitution to guarantee social rights, including the rights of women, and children. It brought about major agrarian reforms to favor the peasants, established education for all, and a constitutional separation of church and state. However, the price for it was high—the ten-year conflict resulted in the deaths of 900,000 people!
Comments