History Of The Americas Ib Mexican Revolution 1910-1940 i6wq

Mexican Revolution 1910-1940 Paper 3 Option 6 History of the Americas IB 2011-2012

Causes of the Revolution • Autocratic rule of Porfirio Díaz • Most of the agricultural land was held by haciendados in large estates • Foreign control of key sectors of the economy • Poor conditions for miners and urban workers, large numbers of landless peasants or nearservants on haciendas • Discontent with the rule of the Cientificos

Porfirio Díaz • Dictator of Mexico 1876-1911 • Established the Porfiriato- used foreign capital to develop the Mexican economy; pan o palo (bread or the cane) policy to either bribe or crush enemies • Ally and er of foreign capitalists, the military, the Catholic Church, and the wealthy landowners

Military and Díaz • The military was highly loyal to Díaz because of the high pay of the officers and the allowance of exploitation over the Mexican states; part of his instrument to dominate the country • Quality was generally very low; generals and officers were chosen on loyalty not on competence; the regular army was poorly paid and trained

Church and Díaz • ed Díaz because of he ended the anticlerical laws of La Reforma • Used by Díaz to prevent unrest and uprisings by discouraging the people to question the Porfiriato • Did not follow the idea of social justice that was spreading through the Church in Europe in the 1890s

Cientificos • Díaz’ government men, intellectuals and the wealthy; formed the bureaucracy during the Porfiriato • Believed that only white foreign capital could allow the economic development of Mexico; believed in Social Darwinism • Named for their “scientific” methods of istration

Conditions under Díaz • Land Policy- accelerated the growth of large estates; this land was owned by a small minority that were ers and allies of Díaz • tierras baldías – vacant lands that could be appropriated by haciendados if they would survey it; often these lands were not in fact vacant

• Labor Conditions- workers worked 12-15 hour days for very low wages in factories; men, women, and children were workers, with women and children paid far less • trade unions and labor organization were banned, strikes were violently repressed by the military or by Díaz thugs • Rio Blanco textile strike (1909), Cananea Consolidated Copper Company strike (1906)

1906-1910• People growing discontented with the poor working conditions, acute land distribution problem, large numbers of landless peasants in cities; poor who worked on haciendias • Industrialists envious of advantages of foreign corporations • Food crisis caused by land distribution and favoritism towards cash crops for export over foodstuffs; crop failures in 1907-1908

• Mexican Liberal Party (PLM) founded in 1909 by Ricardo Flores Magnón; party attracted women like Juana Gutiérrez de Mendoza and Dolores Jiménez. • The Great National Problems (1909) criticized the Porfiriato’s political oppression, land policy, and the latifundios and called for vast reforms.

Fall of Díaz • In 1908, Díaz announces that an opposition party in the government would be tolerated, and that elections would be held because Mexico was ready for a democratic transition • Francisco Madero began to travel the country in 1909, and in 1910, he became the candidate for an official opposition party • Díaz had Madero arrested in June, and in the following election, Díaz won in a landslide

• After his release, Madero vowed to continue the fight, and fled to Texas, where he issued the Plan of San Luis Potosí, which included some land reform and calls for the destruction of the Díaz autocracy and the Cientificos • Two peasant revolts started in the north, led by Pancho Villa and Pascual Orozco which captured Chihuahua by late 1910

Other Movements Against Díaz • In Morelos, Emiliano Zapata led natives and peasants who were fighting against the sugar haciendas and for radical land reform; Zapata allied with Madero in 1911 after several victories • Complot de Tacubaya- led by Camilo Arriaga and Dolores Jiménez; urban revolt that advocated agrarian reform, indigenous rights, better labor conditions, and education reform. This failed conspiracy led Díaz to negociate with Madero.

Treaty of Ciudad Juárez • Treaty signed between Díaz and Madero that allowed for the resignation and removal of Díaz, but did not dismantle the Porfiriatio bureacracy and had no reform clauses; opposed by many left-wing groups • Díaz left for Europe on May 25, and Francisco Léon de la Barra became the interim president

Francisco Madero • A member of the elite, but who considered moderate reform necessary to prevent social revolution- but he did not want a full democracy for Mexico • Under Madero’s interim presidency, the institutions and laws of the Porfiriato reamined largely unchanged

• He did permit workers to organize labor unions and created the Casa del Obero Mundial, a national labor center, in Mexico City • However, Madero did very little in of land reform and took almost no land from haciendados, because he believed that only large haciendas could sustain Mexican agriculture

• Madero continued the protection of foreign investments, but warned that the bribery and corruption under the Porfiriato was gone • In general, Madero ended up alienating the peasantry with his weak land reform, alienating the wealthy with his labor reform, and angering the United States with a more nationalistic stance towards foreign property

Opposition to Madero • Madero’s presidency was strongly opposed by the US and Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson • In 1912, 100,000 American troops were stationed along the border, and in 1913, demanded reconciliation between Madero and other Mexican parties or the US would intervene; Madero responded that “he would rather die than allow foreign intervention”

• In Mexico in 1911, a reactionary revolt took place in Chihuahua, led by Pascual Orozco and ed by the Terrazas-Creel Clan, who held vast land holdings in the north. This revolt was crushed by General Victoriano Huerta. • Madero faced a coup d’état attempt by Huerta and Felix Díaz in Mexico City • After negotiations between Díaz and Huerta, the Congress recognized Huerta as president, and Madero was murdered on 22 February 1913

Presidency of Huerta • Huerta’s regime was reactionary and ed by the wealthy, the haciendados, the reactionaries, and the Church • Labor’s rights were maintained until the Casa del Obrero Mundial turned against the reactionary regime, at which point it was shut down • Huerta favored British and European capital over that of American owners and creditors • Huerta faced opposition from Villa, Carranza, Obregón (the Constitutionalists), and Zapata

Fall of Huerta • Huerta’s government failed to get US recognition, because of its “illegal” status, its pro-European stances on foreign investment, and Wilson felt the conditions in Mexico were too unstable for US interests • After the outbreak of WWI in Europe, Mexico lost much British investment, so Huerta suspended payment on debt for 6 months; this angered foreign creditors who called for military intervention

Tampico Crisis 1914 • In 1914, US sailors from the USS Dolphin entered a restricted area in Tampico and were arrested • Huerta had them immediately released, but Wilson demanded a formal apology and a 21gun salute to the US flag; Huerta refused these humiliating • Huerta’s rejection of the increased for Carranza’s revolution in the north

Landing at Veracruz • After learning that a German ship was carrying weapons to Mexico, Wilson ordered that the city of Veracruz be seized on 21 April • The population of the city resisted the landings for 6 days until 27 April 1914 • US troops left Veracruz on 23 November 1914, after Huerta had been removed from power

Removal of Huerta • By June, the northern states were under the control of Carranza and Villa, the south was in rebellion under Zapata, and Obregón was leading an army south that captured Guadalajara • Huerta fled Mexico on 15 July, and on 15 August, anti-Huerta forces had entered the capital

Venustiano Carranza • Governor of Coahuila under Madero in 1911, he had led the revolt against Huerta in 1913 • Issued Plan of Guadelupe, which was silent about reform but did call for an uprising to remove Huerta and restore the constitutional government • ed in revolt by Villa in Chihuahua and Obregón in Sonora

• With Villa’s troops, he created the Constitutionalist Army, which by 1914 was in control of most of northern Mexico and was a looming threat to the Huerta regime • During the revolt, the Constitutionalists gained the of President Wilson by guaranteeing to not nationalize foreign property interests; US began selling weapons to Carranza

• Carranza did not, however, approve of the occupation of Veracruz, and at the Niagara Falls conference in Canada in 1914, he resisted Wilson’s efforts to turn the future regime into one submissive to US interests • Wilson delayed the evacuation of Veracruz to force Carranza to maintain the status quo, but these efforts failed

Emiliano Zapata • Leader of the revolt in the south (Morelos) by peasants and Indians against the sugar haciendas • Had ed Madero in 1910 against Díaz because of the promises of reform in the Plan of San Luis Potosí • Turned against Madero in late 1911 because of the failure to Madero to initiate reform; large peasant armies began to attack haciendas and defeated the armies of Madero

• Announced the Plan of Ayala in November 1911, which demanded the end of the hacienda system, the break-up and redistribution of the estates, and the restoration of indigenous lands • During the struggle against Huerta, Zapata led a powerful peasant revolt in the south, which caused Huerta to protect the capital and allowed the successes of the northern Constitutionalists

Ideology and Aims of Zapata • Zapata sought to break up the estates in the south and divide them up into smaller farms given out to the peasantry and give more land to cities and towns- tierra y libertad (land and liberty) • Return indigenous lands seized during La Reforma and the Porfiriato • Genuinely desired a social revolution and was leftist in both action and rhetoric; heavily favored the peasantry of the countryside

Pancho Villa • In 1910, led a revolt in Chihuahua against Díaz in of Madero • In 1913, led the northern forces in revolt against Huerta called the Constitutionalists • After he became leader of Chihuahua, he enacted a leftist reform policy, redistributing land, giving out food and clothing to the poor, and establishing schools

Ideologies of Villa • Villa believed that the land appropriated from the haciendas should be kept under state control as unified economic units in order to sustain the revolution • The “nationalized” estates would help restore native lands, pay pensions, taxes, and debts, and to provide for social programs to help orphans and the unemployed

• Villa differed from Zapata in that Villa wanted more concentration of land under the auspicies of the government or in cooperative farms, while Zapata wanted a greater democratization of land and a large-scale restoration of native ejidos • Villa wanted to unite labor, the farmers, and the capitalists into a powerful political force and restore democracy to Mexico

Opposition to Carranza • Villa and Zapata became more distanced from Carranza, because of the lack of decisive action on the issues or land reform, democracy, and the church • In 1914, Carranza’s, Villa’s, and Zapata’s representatives met in Aguascalientes, and the convention endorsed the Plan of Ayala and the installation of the moderate Eulalio Gutiérrez as president

• Carranza refused to accept these conditions, and in November 1914, Zapata and Villa marched on Mexico City • Carranza fled to Veracruz, while Zapata and Villa met in the capital, where they were ultimately unable to create a plan for national unity between the peasantry, labor, and the middle class • Gutiérrez meanwhile opened negociations with Veracruz and sabotaged the revolutionaries

Carranza’s Response • In order to maintain popular , Carranza moderated his social and reform positions to attract the peasants and workers • Adiciones to the Plan of Guadelupe- promised minimum wage for labor and allowing labor organization; agrarian reform and land redistribution • Attracted women with promises of equality

• After the recapture of Mexico City, Carranza and Obregón organized “red battalions” of workers with the Casa del Obrero Mundial to fight against Villa and the Zapatistas • Negotiations with labor created a division between farmers and workers that hindered further real reform

Destruction of Villa • The revolutionaries abandoned Mexico City in January 1915, and Obregón began his assault on Villa’s forces in April • At Ceyala, Consitutionalist forces used new tactics from Europe such as trench lines, machine guns, and barbed wire to destroy Villa’s attack; Villa took heavy losses and retreated north • By 1916, Villa had been largely defeated by the Mexicans

The Hunt for Villa • In 1916, Villa raided the town of Columbus, New Mexico in response to supposed negotiations between Carranza and Wilson • The US sent an expeditionary force under General John Pershing into Chihuahua to hunt for Villa, but this angered Carranza, who threatened war and maintained the idea of Mexican economic sovereignty

• In 1917, Wilson and Carranza reached a settlement for the removal of the expedition in order to avert a war • Villa escaped capture during this time with the help of peasants and other revolutionary ers • Carranza successfully rejected Wilson’s attempts to gain more control over Mexico in return for the end of the expedition

• Villa was eventually given several large haciendas in return for the cessation of hostilities in 1920 after the battle of Ciudad Juarez • Villa was assassinated in Parral in 1923, most likely by Obregón or by those who saw him as a future political rival

Zapatistas • Against Zapata, Carranza sent General Pablo González into Morelos to stamp out the peasant revolts once and for all • The Constitutionalists finally secured Mexico City in August, and González initiated a campaign of terror and destruction of towns and farms that were ers of Zapata

• González was unable to defeat Zapata, however, because of the of peasants • Zapata was killed in 1919 in a trap set by the Constitutionalists, in which a meeting was arranged between a “defector” from Carranza • The peasantry of Morelos continued the struggle against the haciendas even after the death of Zapata

Constitution of 1917 • In 1916 Carranza called a convention to draft a new constitution that would allow him to become legal president • The initial draft was very moderate: it only guaranteed the right of labor to organize and peacefully assemble, it gave few concessions to agrarian reformers, and did not guarantee women’s rights or equality

• However, several liberal and radical deputies formed a group under the leadership of Francisco J. Múgica, who led major land reform calls at the convention • This group was able to gain enough to call a revision of the draft proposed by Carranza, and the new constitution was much more radical

• Article 3- limited church control of education by banning priests or other church officials from being involved in education • Articles 34/35- ed by women who wanted equality and the suffrage, but opposed by liberals who feared that women would vote too conservatively and inhibit the revolution

• Article 123- a leftist labor code that made a 8hour workday, child benefits to women, on-site childcare, abolished the company store and debt servitude, and guaranteed the rights of labor unions, striking, and collective bargaining • Article 27- established national ownership over all land; could only be used with government approval; foreigners could not use protection by their countries, restored all native lands taken since 1856

• The constitution was extremely progressive and liberal for the early 20th century, and it weakened the power of the haciendas, foreign capital, and the church, but it sought to establish national capitalism, not socialism • Carranza signed the document and was elected legal president of Mexico on 5 February 1917

Deterioration of the Revolution under Carranza • Carranza failed to implement the majority of the reforms in the 1917 Constitution by only redistributing a small amount of land, shutting down the Casa del Obrero Mundial, and rejecting education for the masses • Carranza was very nationalistic, and successfully rejected both US and German attempts to enter Mexico into the Great War

• Appealed to women by creating the Law of Family Relations that granted new rights such as lawsuit, custody, and contract g to women • Carranza refused to relinquish power in 1920 when his term expired, but he was defeated by Obregón and his allies; Carranza was killed in 1920

Álvaro Obregón • Plan of Agua Prieta- called for end of Carranza regime; signed in Sonora in April 1920 • Became president of Mexico in 1920, and with his ally and finance minister Adolfo de la Huerta, made reconciliation attempts with the Zapatistas and made peace with Villa • Held a vision of revolutionary reform that was different from the agrarian radicalism of the Zapatistas

• Obregón wanted to establish “national capitalism” and aimed to unify the peasants, workers, the middle class, and the nonreactionary upper class • Viewed land reform as a method to prevent peasant revolt, but redistribution was slow, modernization was rare, and farmer dependence on creditors/government banks increased

• Encouraged the established of organized labor, with which he hoped to build his national unity • Established the CROM (Confederación Regional Obrera Mexicana) in 1918, a trade organization that replaced the Casa del Obrero Mundial and held official government led by Luis Morones • Real labor gains were limited to minimal wage increases

Education and Culture • Education and culture were the two areas that flourished under Obregón • National capitalism meant national unity, which called for the integration of the different native groups into full Mexican culture • This led to indigenismo, or the reintegration of traditional and Indian influences into national thinking

• Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueros, and José Clemente Orozco were the main artists of the period • Their art, which included large wall murals, glorified the indigenous natives and emphasized the Aztec Mexican heritage as the main cultural focus of the country; heroic portrayals of scenes from the independence movement, the fight against , and the revolution

• Education reform was led by José Vasconcelos who, with the help of Elena Torres and the Mexican National Council of Women, organized schools and sanitation projects in rural areas • Agricultural and specialized schools were founded, and the widespread distribution of classic publications led to increased women’s rights fervor in the countryside

• The objective of the education reforms was to finally end the Catholic Church domination of education of the youth • The programs sought to replace a religious world outlook with a scientific one • These reforms were strongly opposed by the Catholic Church, and most priests attacked secular education; Obregón did not fully condemn religious education

Obregón and Foreigners • The US tried to get Obregón to recognize that Article 27 should not be applied retroactively in exchange for official recognition, but Obregón refused the • Obregón secured these foreign rights guarantees, and the Americans recognized the Mexican government based on fears of a return to the revolutionary chaos

• A revolt broke out in late 1923 led by de la Huerta, and with the of farmers, labor, and the United States, Obregón was able to crush it and reestablish stability in Mexico • In 1924, Obregón’s successor, Eliás Calles became the president of Mexico, and continued the moderate reforms of Obregón

Eliás Calles • President of Mexico from 1924-1928, but dominated politics until 1935 • Like Obregón, he used radical and leftist rhetoric to disguise the centrist and moderate position of many of his policies • Used land reform, unions, and regulation of foreign capital to build the Mexican national capitalism

Calles and Industry • Created the Bank of Mexico which had sole power to issue currency • Established a transportation code/national road commission and an electricity code • Subsidies and tariffs were given to both national and foreign industry to promote growth • These measures helped the development of a consumer goods industry

Land Reform • Land redistribution increased under Calles, who viewed it as a control of peasant revolt like Obregón • However, much of the land given out was marginal, and few modern techniques or equipment were distributed among the peasants; haciendas got most of the farm loans • These conditions led to a decrease in crop production, and Calles declared reform a failure

Calles and Labor • Favored labor unions in the same way that Obregón did because of their role in building national unity- the post revolutionary state • When the tangible benefits to labor declined later in the 1920s, many workers broke away from the CROM and formed their own unions • Calles hoped to use state-ed unions to prevent the radicalization of the urban working class

Women’s Rights • Due to Calles’ inaction on women’s rights, many women organized themselves into groups such as the Mexican Feminist League and the Mexican Feminist Council, led by Elene Torres and María García • These women’s groups were often divided on issues of class and the rights of the peasantry and the poor

Foreign Capital • Calles attempted to regulate the exploitation of Mexico’s natural resources by foreign interests, but did not seek to run them out of the country • 1925- the Mexican Congress ed laws to implement Article 27 that gave government titles to oil companies and satiated those who wanted nationalization

• These moves were opposed by foreign oil companies and the United States, who threatened intervention • The intervention was attacked by progressives, churches, Republicans, the press, and academia • A settlement was reached in 1927 by international bankers that allowed indefinite foreign lease but reaffirmed national ownership of resources

The Church under Calles • The 1926 Calles Law ordered priest registration and the closing of religious primary schools; the Catholics organized a strike and a boycott, but these failed to repeal the law • This induced military Catholics to unite with reactionaries (Cristeros) in a revolt that fought against secularism and attacks schools

• In 1928, Obregón was assassinated by a Cristero during negotiations between Calles and Obregón for a rotating presidency • After Calles swung farther to the right after 1928, he ed a series of harsh anti-clerical laws that reignited the Cristeros into a new conflict in 1929 • Calles wanted to destroy religious education and replace it with secular, scientific teaching

Jefe Máximo • After Obregón’s death, Calles declared himself the jefe máximo (supreme chief) of the revolution, and was the effective head of the nation over the puppet presidencies of Emilio Portes Gil, Pascual Ortiz Rubio, and Abelardo Rodríguez- period known as the Maximato • Established the National Revolutionary Party (PNR), which integrated the revolution into the government structure

• The PNR (later the PRI) ruled Mexico throughout the rest of the 20th century • Young, new reformers and the National Congress of Women Workers and Peasants demanded renewed action towards the national capitalism and revolutionary ideals • These reformers advocated the protection of indigenous rights, new rights for women, better work and wage conditions, and more land reform

Lázaro Cárdenas • Leader of the progressives of the PNR, chosen in 1933 to be the candidate for the presidency • Announced the Six-Year Plan that would bolster collective land farms, strengthen unions and workers’ rights, and build new schools • Calles thought Cárdenas would be easy to control and would satisfy the growing populist wave around the country

Cárdenas in 1935 and 1936 • Cárdenas immediately enacted sweeping land reforms, agricultural programs to increase crop production, and rural development projects • The labor movement was further empowered and the corrupt leadership removed • Moved against Callista-controlled industies angered Calles, who threatened to depose him, but Cárdenas had Calles exiled in 1936 and established a new leftist cabinet

Land Reform • Organized redistributed land into three categories- the ejido (communal landholding), the rancho (small individual ownership) and cooperative farms on a profit-sharing basis • Created the Banco de Crédito Ejidal to provide these farms with loans, seeds, and equipment • Agricultural output boomed during these years, and the quality of life for the Mexican peasantry improved

• The land given out was not always of the highest quality, the distribution was not always economically viable, and technical assistance was often lacking • The peasant farmers also became more dependent on official authorities under loans from the Banco de Crédito Ejidal, leading to increased corruption

Labor Reform • Cárdenas’ labor reforms revitalized the labor movement, leading to more strikes and demands for better benefits and conditions from business owners • The Confederación de Trabajadores Mexicanos was founded in 1936 by Vincente Lombardo Toledano to replace CROM • labor for the government increased

• Like the peasantry with land reform, the labor movement became an official part of the government and the Party of the Mexican Revolution (PRM, the renamed PNR) which was based on the three pillars of labor, peasantry, and the army • This subservience to official authorities likewise increased corruption and anti-labor control over the unions

Mexican Economy • Cárdenas, like his predecessors wanted to establish national capitalism in Mexico • Cárdenas enacted a policy of strong economic protectionism, where local industry was protected from foreign goods by loans and import tariffs • In 1934 founded the Nacional Financiera to issues these loans and invest in public works projects

• Cárdenas also carried on the fight for economic independence for Mexico • In 1937 after a dispute between British and American oil companies and unions, Cárdenas announced on 18 March 1938 that the foreignheld oil territories had been nationalized • This gave a major boom to local industry, but did not carry over to other sectors of the economy in foreign hands

Women under Cárdenas • The president ed an increase in the rights of women and advocated creating a women’s branch of the PRM • The United Front for Women’s Rights was established by leftist women that advocated women’s suffrage and indigenous integration • However, fears of a conservative women’s voting bloc halted reform until 1953

Election of 1940 • Cárdenas became more moderate in 1939-1940 by slowing down reform and adopting a more pro-business and anti-socialist message • The PRM nominated Manuel Ávilo Camacho, a conservative, to the presidency for the election • Camacho adopted a more conservative policy on land reform and attempted to reconcile with the Catholic Church

Sources • Haynes, Keith, and Benjamin Keen. A History of Latin America, Seventh Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004. Print. • The packet on Villa, Zapata, and Women in the Mexican Revolution that Mrs. Thomas gave us • Class notes

IB Essay Questions • Here are some questions I found online, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they are similar to the ones on the test! • http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/yamada/files/2011/0 3/IB-questions.pdf