Mexican+Revolution

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 * Mexican Revolution:**

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 * Mexican Revolution And The Great War**
 * Revolution And Reaction In The 20th Century**
 * Author: Stearns, Peter N.;Adas, Michael;Schwartz, Stuart B.**
 * Date: 1992**


 * Two cataclysmic events launched Latin America into the 20th century and **
 * set in motion trends that would determine much of the region's subsequent **
 * history. The first of these events was the ten-year civil war and political **
 * upheaval of the Mexican Revolution, which erupted because of the internal **
 * situation in that country. Eventually, however, the Mexican Revolution was **
 * also influenced by the other major event, the outbreak of World War I. While **
 * most Latin-American nations avoided direct participation in the Great War, as **
 * World War I was called at the time, the disruption of traditional markets for **
 * Latin-American exports and the elimination of European sources of manufactures **
 * caused a realignment of the economies of a number of nations in the region. **
 * Forced to rely on themselves, a spurt of manufacturing continued the process **
 * begun after 1870, and some small steps were taken to overcome the traditional **
 * dependence on outside supply. Finally, at the end of World War I, the United **
 * States emerged as the dominant foreign power in the region replacing Great **
 * Britain in both economic and political terms. That position created a reality **
 * that Latin Americans could not ignore and that greatly influenced economic and **
 * political options in the region. **


 * Mexico's Upheaval **


 * The event that announced a new age in Latin America and launched it into **
 * the 20th century was the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The regime of Porfirio **
 * Diaz had been in power since 1876 and seemed unshakable. During the Diaz **
 * dictatorship, tremendous economic changes had been made, and foreign **
 * concessions in mining, railroads, and other sectors of the economy had created **
 * a sense of prosperity among the Mexican elite. This progress, however, had **
 * been bought at considerable expense. Foreigners controlled large sectors of **
 * the economy. The hacienda system of extensive landholdings dominated certain **
 * regions of the country. The political system was wholly corrupt and any **
 * complaint was stifled. The government took repressive measures against **
 * workers, peasants, and Indians who opposed the alienation of their lands or **
 * the unbearable working conditions. Political opponents were often imprisoned **
 * or forced into exile. In short, Diaz ruled with an iron fist through an **
 * effective political machine. **


 * By 1910, however, Diaz was 80 years old and seemed willing to allow some **
 * political opposition. Francisco Madero, a wealthy son of an elite family, **
 * proposed to run against Diaz. Madero was no radical, but he believed that some **
 * moderate democratic political reforms would relieve social tensions and allow **
 * the government to continue its "progressive" economic developments with a **
 * minimum of popular unrest. Madero's moderate challenge was not much, but it **
 * was more than Diaz could stand. Madero was arrested, a rigged election put **
 * Diaz back in power; and things returned to normal. When Madero was released **
 * from prison, he called for a revolt. **


 * A general rebellion developed. In the north, small farmers, railroaders, **
 * and cowboys coalesced under the colorful former bandit and able commander, **
 * Pancho Villa. In Morelos, an area of old conflicts between Indian communities **
 * and large sugar estates, a peasant-based guerrilla movement began under **
 * Emiliano Zapata whose goal of land reform was expressed in his motto "Tierra y **
 * Libertad" (Land and Liberty). Diaz was driven from power by this coalition of **
 * forces, but it soon became apparent that Madero's moderate programs would not **
 * resolve Mexico's continuing social problems. Zapata rose in revolt demanding a **
 * sweeping land reform and Madero steadily lost control of his subordinates. In **
 * 1913, with at least tacit agreement of the American ambassador in Mexico, a **
 * military coup removed Madero from government and he was then assassinated. **


 * General Victoriano Huerta sought to reimpose a Diaz-type dictatorship **
 * supported by the large landowners, the army, and the foreign companies, but **
 * the tide of revolution could not be stopped so easily. Villa and Zapata rose **
 * again against the government and were joined by other middle-class political **
 * opponents of Huerta's illegal rule. By 1914 Huerta was forced from power, but **
 * the victorious leaders now began to fight over the nature of the new regime **
 * and the mantle of leadership. An extended period of warfare followed as the **
 * tides of battle continually shifted. The railroad lines built under Diaz now **
 * moved large numbers of troops and their accompanying women soldaderas who **
 * sometimes shouldered arms. Matters were also complicated by United States **
 * intervention and by diplomatic maneuverings after the outbreak of World War I **
 * in Europe. Villa and Zapata remained in control in their home territories, but **
 * they could not wrest the government from control of the more moderate **
 * political leaders in Mexico City. Alvaro Obregon, an able general who had **
 * learned the new tactics of machine guns and trenches from the war raging in **
 * Europe and had beaten Villa's cavalry in a series of bloody battles in 1915, **
 * emerged as leader of the government. **


 * As much as the Mexican Revolution had its own internal dynamic, it is **
 * interesting to note that it was roughly contemporaneous with revolutions in **
 * other agrarian societies which had also just undergone a period of rapid and **
 * disruptive modernization. The Boxer Rebellion in China (1899-1901) and the **
 * toppling of the emperor in 1911, the 1905 revolution in Russia and a **
 * revolution in Iran in the same year underlined the rapid changes in these **
 * societies, all of which had received large foreign investments from either the **
 * United States or western Europe. In each of these countries governments had **
 * tried to establish strong centralized control and had sought rapid **
 * modernization, but in doing so had made their nations increasingly dependent **
 * on foreign investments and consequently on world financial markets. Thus a **
 * world banking crisis like that of 1907 and 1908 cut Mexico and these other **
 * countries off from their needed sources of capital and created severe strains **
 * on their governments. This kind of dependency, and the fact that in Mexico **
 * over 20 percent of the nation's territory was owned directly by United States' **
 * citizens or companies, fed a growing nationalism that spread through many **
 * sectors of society. That nationalist sentiment played a role in each of these **
 * revolutions. **


 * By 1920 the period of civil war was ended and Mexico began to consolidate **
 * the changes that had taken place in the previous confused and bloody decade. **
 * Obregon was elected president in that year, and he was then followed by a **
 * series of presidents from the new "revolutionary elite" who sought to **
 * consolidate the new regime. There was much to be done. The revolution had **
 * devastated the country: one-half million people had died, major industries **
 * were destroyed, ranching and farming were disrupted. But there was great hope **
 * because the revolution also promised (although it did not always deliver) real **
 * changes. **


 * What were some of these changes? A new constitution of 1917 promised land **
 * reform, limited the foreign ownership of key resources, guaranteed the rights **
 * of workers, placed restrictions on clerical education and Church ownership of **
 * property, and promised educational reforms. The workers who had been mobilized **
 * were organized in a national confederation and were given representation in **
 * the government. The promised land reforms were slow in coming, but under **
 * President Lazaro Cardenas (1934-1940) over 40 million acres were distributed, **
 * most of it in the form of ejidos, or communal holdings. The government **
 * launched an extensive program of primary and especially rural education. **


 * Culture And Politics In Postrevolutionary Mexico **


 * Nationalism and indigenism, or the concern for the Indians and their **
 * contribution to Mexican culture, lay beneath many reforms. Having failed to **
 * integrate the Indians into national life for a century, Mexico now sought to **
 * "Indianize" the nation through secular schools that emphasized nationalism and **
 * a vision of the Mexican past that glorified its Indian heritage and denounced **
 * Western capitalism. Artists such as Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco **
 * recaptured that past and outlined a social program for the future in stunning **
 * murals on public buildings designed to inform, convince, and entertain at the **
 * same time. The Mexican muralist movement had a wide impact on artists **
 * throughout Latin America even though, as Orozco himself stated, it sometimes **
 * created simple solutions and strange utopias by mixing a romantic image of the **
 * Indian past with Christian symbols and Communist ideology. Novelists such as **
 * Mariano Azuela found in the revolution itself a focus for the examination of **
 * Mexican reality. Popular culture celebrated the heroes and events of the **
 * revolution in scores of ballads that were sung to celebrate and inform. In **
 * literature, music, and the arts, the revolution as well as its themes provided **
 * a stimulus to a tremendous burst of creativity. **


 * The gains of the revolution were not made without considerable **
 * opposition. While it had preceded the Russian Revolution of 1917 and had no **
 * single ideological model, many of the ideas of Marxian socialism were held by **
 * leading Mexican intellectuals and a few politicians. The secularization of **
 * society and especially education met strong opposition from the Church and the **
 * clergy, especially when in some states Socialist rhetoric and anticlericalism **
 * was extreme. In the 1920s a conservative peasant movement backed by the Church **
 * erupted in central Mexico. These "Cristeros," backed also by conservative **
 * politicians, fought to stop the slide toward secularization. Fighting lasted **
 * for years until a compromise was reached. **


 * The United States had intervened diplomatically and militarily during the **
 * revolution. An incident provoked a short-lived United States seizure of **
 * Veracruz in 1914, and when Pancho Villa's forces had raided across the border, **
 * the United States sent an expeditionary force into Mexico to catch him. The **
 * mission failed. For the most part, however, the war in Europe had distracted **
 * American foreign policy until 1918. The United States was suspicious of the **
 * new government and a serious conflict arose when American-owned oil companies **
 * ran into problems with workers. The companies called for United States **
 * intervention or pressure when President Cardenas expropriated the companies in **
 * 1934. An agreement was worked out, however, and Mexico nationalized its **
 * petroleum industry in a state-run monopoly. This nationalization of natural **
 * resources was considered a declaration of economic independence. It symbolized **
 * the nationalistic basis of many of the revolution's goals. **


 * As in any revolution, the question of continuity arose when the fighting **
 * ended. The revolutionary leadership hoped to institutionalize the new regime **
 * by creating a one-party system. This organization, presently called the Party **
 * of the Institutionalized Revolution (PRI), developed slowly during the 1920s **
 * and 1930s into a dominant force in Mexican politics. It incorporated labor, **
 * peasant, military, and middle class sectors and proved flexible enough to **
 * incorporate new interest groups as they developed. While Mexico became in **
 * theory a multiparty democracy, in reality the PRI controlled politics and, by **
 * accomodation and sometimes repression, maintained its hold on national **
 * political life. Some presidents governed much like the strong men in the 19th **
 * century had done, but the party structure and the need to incorporate various **
 * interests within the government coalition limited the worst aspects of **
 * caudillo, or personalist, rule. Presidents were strong, but the policy of **
 * limiting the presidency to one six-year term ensured some change in **
 * leadership. The question of whether a revolution could be institutionalized **
 * remained in debate. By the last decades of the century, many Mexicans believed **
 * that little remained of the principles and programs of the revolutionaries of **
 * 1910. **


 * [See Mural By Siqueiros: During and after the Mexican Revolution, artists like **
 * David Alfaro Siqueiros called for murals in public places, worker **
 * neighborhoods, and sport stadiums, as well as on large buildings to record the **
 * history of Mexico and to emphasize the actions of the people. Siqueiros's" **
 * Struggle For The Banner" (1957) portrays workers and peasants seixing the **
 * national flag from th hands of oppressors.] **


 * Latin-American Economies And World War I **


 * The Mexican Revolution had a limited immediate impact beyond the borders **
 * of Mexico, but the outbreak of World War I affected most of the region **
 * directly. Throughout much of Latin America, the effects of the economic boom **
 * of the late 19th century had continued into the first decades of the 20th **
 * century. Each nation had its specialized crop or set of exports - coffee for **
 * Colombia, Brazil, and Costa Rica; minerals from Bolivia, Chile, and Peru; **
 * bananas from Ecuador and Central America; and sugar from Cuba. As long as **
 * European demand remained high, groups in control of these exports greatly **
 * profited. **


 * For a while, World War I produced some immediate effects on the **
 * Latin-American economies. Cut off from supplies of traditional imports, a **
 * spurt of industrial growth took place in what economists call "import **
 * substitution industrialization." Latin Americans had to produce for themselves **
 * some of what they had formerly imported. Most of this involved "light" **
 * industry such as textiles. Latin America continued to suffer from a lack of **
 * capital, limited markets (because so many people had so little to spend), and **
 * low technological levels. Still, changes had taken place. Moreover, during the **
 * war there was also increased European demand for some products. World War I **
 * had provided a stimulus to the economy but it was a false start. After the war **
 * a general inflationary trend meant that the real wages of the working classes **
 * declined and their worsening condition contributed to increasing political **
 * unrest. **


 * That unrest also resulted from population growth, which was rapid in some **
 * countries. Immigrants continued to pour into Argentina, Brazil, and some of **
 * the other temperate countries, swelling the ranks of the rural and urban **
 * working classes. Cities grew in size and importance. Often the old pattern of **
 * a capital city and its port dominating the rest of the country became **
 * reinforced during this period. This has been a continuing problem in Latin **
 * America, where cities such as Lima, Montevideo, Quito, and Mexico City have so **
 * dominated the economic and political resources of their countries that growth **
 * outside the capital has been difficult. By 1920, for example, 20 percent of **
 * Argentina's total population lived in Buenos Aires; 14 percent of the **
 * population of Chile and Cuba lived in their capitals of Santiago and Havana. **
 * Latin America had a strong urban tradition since colonial times, but in the **
 * 20th century rapid urban growth created a series of social problems that **
 * reflected the transformation of Latin America from basically agrarian to **
 * industrializing societies. **