Mexican Revolution
Failure of Iterbide’s Bid
• Independence 1823
• Emperor Iterbide?
• Personalist leaders – caudillos – Antonio
Lopez de Santa Anna
• 1824 – Constitutional Republic
– Avoided major probs: land, Indians, the poor,
education
Mexican Republic
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1832-1835 Liberals push for secularism
Caudillo – Santa Anna
US imperialism – Mexican American War
Mexico lost %50 of territory
Liberal Revolt – La Reforma 1854
• Leadership of Benito Juarez, Zapotec
Indian
• Secular state, army under civilian control
• Sale of land to individual Indians
– Similarity to Dawes Severalty Act in US
– Resulted in loss of land
Conservative Reaction
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Excommunication
Radicalization of liberals in response
Napoleon III asked to intervene, 1862
Emperor Maximilian Habsburg rejected by
liberals, executed
• Juarez (liberal) back in office until 1872,
triumph of liberalism
Porfirio Diaz
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President after Juarez’s death
Dictator
Long period of troubled stability
Suffered from WWI – loss of markets &
goods
• Foreign concessions
• Ongoing exploitation – hacienda system
• Corrupt government
Causes of Mexican Revolution
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Inadequate capital to invest in economy
Dependency – exports essential
20% of territory owned by foreigners
1910 - Francisco Madero ran against Diaz
– Put in prison, called for revolt on release
General Rebellion
• Pancho Villa – northern
Mexico
• Emiliano Zapata –
southern Mexico
– Land reform
– Revolted against
Madero for inadequate
reform
Villa
1913 – Madero
assassinated
Zapata
Dictatorship (again)
• Victoriano Huerta
– Supported by large landowners, foreigners,
the army
• 1914 – forced from power
After Huerta
• Period of chaos and warfare
• Coalition that drove Huerta from power
couldn’t agree on new government
• US intervention complicated things
• 1915 – Alvaro Obregon starts using
modern weaponry against Villa and
Zapata
• 1920 – Obregon President
Effects of the Revolution
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1.5 million killed
Destruction of industries
Disruption of ranching and farming
1917 – Mexican Constitution
– 40 million acres redistributed (1930’s)
– Restrictions on role of Church in education
– Education improved
Establishment of the PRI as one-party rule
Cultural movement - indigenism
• New Mexican national
identity
• Emphasis on Indian (mostly
Mayan) roots
• Anti-Western capitalism
• Use of art to communicate
values
Jose
Clemente’s
“Zapatistas”
Diego Rivera’s “The Arsenal”
Diego Rivera’s
“The Agitator”
Diego Rivera’s
“The Guerilla”
Diego Rivera’s “La Molendera” (1924)
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo –
“Broken”
Frida Kahlo’s
“The Two
Fridas”
Frida Kahlo’s “Genealogy”
Frida Kahlo &
Diego Rivera’s
Wedding Picture
Mexico in the 20th century
Introductory Question
• What would you predict were/are the longstanding problems Mexico has dealt with
in the 20th & 21st Century?
Latin America in the Developing
World
• Already had political independence – did
not become area for Proxy Wars
(generally)
• Struggle as dependencies in world
economic system
• Initiatives from the outside, continuing
influence of foreigners and elite
• Continuing quest to find appropriate social,
political, and economic systems
Continued swing from left to right
• Rule by conservatives
– Economic expansion
– Little movement toward social justice
– Extensive foreign influence
• Rule by liberals or even Marxists
– Failed economies
– Attempts at social justice
WWII & After
• LA not extensively involved in WWII
• Growth of demand during wartime
• Cold war era – influence of Marxism, some
Soviet & US interference/help
• Continuing domination by authoritarian
reformers who focusedJuan
onand
economic
Evita
Peron of
Getluio
change
Argentina
Vargas of
Brazil
Effects of Mexican Revolution
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•
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1.5 million killed
Destruction of industries
Disruption of ranching and farming
1917 – Mexican Constitution
– 40 million acres redistributed (1930’s)
– Restrictions on role of Church in education
– Education improved
Establishment of the PRI as one-party rule
Mexico: Rule of PRI – Institutional Revolutionary Partry
• PRI in power from 1940’s to 2000
• Continuing problems with social injustice,
perception of corruption
• 1994 – Mexico joined NAFTA, shift of
manufacturing from US to Mexican border
areas
– Increase in trade
– Growing social inequality, esp. Indians
– Closer political and economic ties with US
• 2000 – PRI candidate lost, PAN party won
– Vincente Fox
– PAN = National Action Party
Vicente Fox
Filipe Calderon –
Current President –
PAN party
Caldron barely defeated a
PRD candidate in 2006
The PRD is a third major
political party that is
democratic and leftwardleaning
PRD = Party of the
Democratic Revolution
Rebel Movements - Zapatistas
• Started when NAFTA signed
• Seized towns, freed prisoners, took
weapons
• Named after Emiliano Zapata –
Zapatistas
• Recently marched on Mexico City
demanding changes (peacefully)
• Economic downturn = no changes
• Long-standing inequality for Native
Americans in mestizo dominated
Mexico