The French Revolution : The Causes Of The Mexican Revolution

In the early 2000s, William H. Beezley Ph.D. and professor of history at the University of Alabama wrote the second edition of Judas at the Jockey Club: and Other Episodes of Porfirian Mexico. Beezley writes Judas at the Jockey Club for students of Latin American History to address the political, social, and economic changes in Mexico after its independence and during the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz. Porfirio Diaz gained political control of Mexico in 1876 and remained in office until he resigned from office in 1911. During this time, Mexico experienced a wave of modernization that instigated an intense struggle between traditional and the newly emerging Mexico. This is important to the study of Modern Latin American History because it provides an in depth look into the socioeconomic divide between the upper/urban class and the lower/rural class in the newly independent Mexico during the Porfiriato.

The Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) was a long and a long bloody struggle among several factions in constantly shifting alliances which resulted ultimately in the end of the 30-year dictatorship in Mexico and the establishment of a constitutional republic. The revolution began against a background of widespread dissatisfaction with the elitist and oligarchical policies of Porfirio Diaz that favored wealthy landowners and industrialists. In 1908, when Diaz said that he welcomed the democratization of Mexican political life and appeared ambivalent about running for his seventh reelection as president in 1910, Francisco Madero emerged as the leader of the Antireeleccionistas (Anti-re-electionist) and announced his candidacy. Diaz had him arrested and declared himself the winner after a mock election in June, but Madero, released from prison, published his plan de San Luis Potosi from San Antonio, Texas, calling for a revolt on November 20th. The revolt was a failure, but it kindled revolutionary hope in many quarters. In the north Pascual Orozco and Pancho Villa mobilized their ragged armies and began raiding government garrisons. In the south, Emiliano Zapata waged a bloody campaign against the local caciques (rural political bosses) in the spring of 1911 the revolutionary forces

Similar to most of the 19th-century rulers of Mexico, Diaz was an officer of the army that attained power through a coup. However, different from his predecessors, Diaz created a stable political system where the officially representative Constitution of 1857 was bypassed. In addition, the system involved the control of elections by local political bosses, public order and political opposition, while most of the influential families monopolized political and economic power in the provinces. In the revolution, Madero had interests in political reforms that would end up keeping the economic and social structure together. It left the unfulfilled aspirations and dreams of numerous revolutionaries that viewed Díaz’s overthrow as the start of a fresh system that had the sole aim of helping all Mexicans. The dissatisfaction resulted in revolts. Actually, during Madero’s short presidency, he, together with his army commanded by Victoriano Huerta, were inquired to put down over five diverse revolts. Emiliano Zapata was the first who declared himself against Madero, which saw him issue the Plan de Ayala in November. There were many southern states that started revolting the moment the movement took hold. The movement was never actually put down until later.

Just a year after the Mexican revolution started relations between Mexico and the United States became tense after the resignation of the president Porfiro Diaz in 1911. The United States was seeking opportunity to take advantage of Mexican oil and mineral resources. Mexico's problems were not only associated with the United States. Great Britain and Germany had

What is a revolution? By definition it means the overthrow of a government by those who are governed. That is exactly what the French and the Mexican revolutions were all about. The living conditions and overall treatment of the poor, pheasants, lower class, last man on the totem pole or what ever you want to call them, was a large factor in the coming of these revolutions. "Those who are governed" are exactly what the lower class people were. Also, liberty was one of the people's major concerns. They were ruled by men whose only desire was power and greed which is what led them into revolt.

Another speculated cause was that the Anglo-Americans that lived there refused to conform to the Mexican rules and laws. Most were protestant and therefore refused to convert to Catholicism. They also refused to pay their duties to the government and did not support troop

The main “antagonist” of the Mexican revolution was Porfirio Diaz. Diaz became president of Mexico in 1876. He was the autocrat who took full control of Mexico for 34 years. The revolutionist wanted a democracy so they fought against his power. The political instability during this time was also a major question in Mexico. Porfirio Diaz was very corrupt. He used his power as the president to his advantage. The Mexican Constitution called for public election but Díaz and his supporters used their political and economic resources to stay in power. He would often imprison his political opponents or assassinate them just to keep his power over Mexico. This caused the citizens of Mexico to increasingly oppose Porfirio Diaz and his regime.

In 1910 Francisco Madero stood up against the tyranny of a dictator after he lost the presidential election to Porfirio Diaz the dictator at the time. Diaz allowed rich land owners to take the land of the less wealthy farmers; Madero didn’t think that was right so he ran for president. But after botched elections he realized that trying to do things the legal way wasn’t going to get him very far. As he started to bring together the farmer’s who’s lands were taken he caught the attention of Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. That time Diaz lost there were more angry farmers than soldiers. Madero’s action was the tipping point for the Mexican Revolution.

In 1946 with the help of his wife Eva Perón, he rose to power and was elected president. Eva helped Juan in may ways. When she tried to run for vice president she was denied mainly because many of the military leaders felt threatened. She kept on helping Perón by keeping him in contact with he countries labor unions. Eva or Evita died in 1952 of cancer.

     There was a huge revolution in the country of Mexico that started in the year 1910, led by Porfirio Diaz, the president of Mexico in 1910. In the 1860’s Diaz was important to Mexican politics and then was elected president in 1877. Diaz said that he would only be president for one year and then would resign, but after four years he was re-elected as the President of Mexico. Porfirio Diaz and the Mexican revolution had a huge impact on the country of Mexico that is still felt in some places today.

Different groups had very different goals for what the Mexican revolution would accomplish. The rural peasants and indigenous people wanted the land to be taken out of the hands of the aristocracy or the elite and have the land be evenly divided between the rural towns. They wanted the territory of their ancestors back because it had been stripped from them during the regime of Porfirio Diaz. They also wanted to be taken out of poverty and to have farming available to them again so that they could sustain their lives and work for their living. Therefore, because the peasants were suffering under the regime of Diaz, they wholeheartedly supported the revolution and everything that came with it. The Roman Catholic Church,

Mexico was building up to its revolution long before activists like Francisco Madero and Emiliano Zapata. From 1840 to 1910; Mexico went from a war-torn and newly freed nation to a nation on the brink of civil war. How did it get there? Through a series of wars, leaders, and policies, which proved causation politically, socially, and economically to the Mexican Revolution.

The Mexican revolution was an important time in the history of Mexico. It was important because Mexico stopped the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz and they established a constitutional republic. During that time a lot of major people were involved in establishing a good government like Francisco Madero, Pascual Orozco, Pancho villa, and Emiliano Zapata. All of these people had a major role in the revolution and also in changing the future of Mexico. Each and everyone one of them had an impact as revolutionists.

Continuously, caudillos were men who displayed this hyper-masculinity but adjusted to the times by being adaptable and charismatic to stay in power. In an article by Charles Chapman, he describes caudillos as, “…tend[ing] to adapt themselves to public opinion so far as it did not conflict their own interests” and states that periodical elections would be held but the results would be fabricated by the “henchmen” of the caudillo in his favor (Chapman, 283). An excellent example of this would be in Mexico, when Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana was in power. An article discussing the war with Mexico over Texas stated that “In 1834, Santa Ana formally dissolved the Constitutional Government, summoned a new congress on a plan of his own, and established a consolidated government, abolishing the state governments and constitutions.” (United States Magazine and Democratic Review, 8) Events and

After Díaz realized the amount of people that disliked him, he reigned and maintained his own power sending a campaign of bullying and intimidated citizens to support him. The citizens had absolute no power. The amount of rebellions were too high, Díaz’ office known as the “Porfiriato” was heavily armed to defend president from the rebellions. Any freedoms of speech or complaints were not tolerated in his office. Citizens especially the peasants’ freedom was limited and minimal but were too afraid of confront as Díaz scares his own citizens to support