home | world news | 1901-World War II | Latin America and Economic Depression

Eufemio and Emiliano Zapata. In the movie Viva Zapata the greedy Eufemio was played by Anthony Quinn and the saintly Emiliano by Marlon Brando

Porfirio Diaz

Francisco Madero,
another Berkeley graduate

Poncho Villa. Angry poor boy.
He grew up fighting big landowners.

Francisco (Pancho) Villa

Victoriano Huerta

El Presidente Venustiano Carranza

Ciudad Juarez, 1916

Overthrowing Dictatorship

In the year 1910, people in Mexico were discontented. Three-fifths of the population were Indian, and they had been losing traditional lands to whites. The great bulk of Mexico's land had been taken over by about a thousand men, their great estates reaching thousands and sometimes millions of acres, while ninety-seven percent of the population in the countryside owned no land. In the Yucatan peninsula was debt serfdom, and conditions akin to slavery existed on some tropical plantations. Mexico's middle class was unhappy about the amount of favoritism that their government was giving to foreign businessmen. They were unhappy over inconveniences that they blamed on government neglect of public services. And middle class discontent, and the discontent of the poor, could not be expressed in elections. Mexico's president, Porfirio Díaz, was in reality a dictator. He was eighty years-old in 1910. He had ruled Mexico for thirty years, and his power had become endangered as Mexico's young elite and middle class youth were less tolerant of Díaz than had been their parents.

One young man opposed to the Díaz regime was Don Francisco I. Madero - a man 5'3", with a high pitched voice and from a family with great wealth. He was from of Coahuila - a state bordering Texas. He had attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he had studied agriculture, and he had finished his education in France in 1895. From the age of twenty-one to the age of thirty-two Madero had been running his own cotton plantation, using advanced agricultural methods and helping to create a successful cotton industry in Coahuila.

Madero had sympathy for common people. He raised the wages of his workers above that which others paid. He gave them hygienic living quarters and saw to it that they received free medical attention. In his home he sheltered dozens of children, and he was paying for the education of a number of orphans. And being a man with heart, Madero criticized the Díaz government for its laxity in building schools, for not providing better water distribution and other amenities to common people and for bloody repression against dissent. He joined the Benito Juarez Democratic Club in a nearby town: San Pedro. He wrote political pamphlets, and he wrote a book entitled The Presidential Succession in 1910 - about the Díaz' re-election.

Madero's book attracted a lot of attention. When he visited clubs around Mexico that favored honest elections, large crowds gathered to get a glimpse of the little man who had the courage to raise his voice. One month before the election, President Díaz had had enough of Madero, and in June, 1910, just before the elections were to be held, he had Madero and many of his allies jailed on charges of inciting people to riot.

Díaz won his election with a ridiculously large number of votes, and with the elections over and Madero apparently no longer a threat to his power, Díaz had him released from prison under bail and on condition that he remain in the same town as his prison: San Luis Potosí, in central Mexico. In October, Madero sneaked out of town and made his way to Texas where, later that month, he published a new book. In his previous book, Madero had described violence as counter-productive. In his latest book he expressed the need for a counter force against the Díaz regime other than massive pleadings. Pleading he could see was not enough. He called for an armed - in other words, violent - revolution.

Madero was in a hurry. He laid plans for his rising to take place on November 22, less than a month after his new book had been published. From his Texas headquarters, he laid plans with allies in Mexico. He planned to cross the border and put himself at the head of an army that would march to the capital, Mexico City - while his new book was creating a stir in Mexico and the press in Mexico and the United States were buzzing with excitement.

When the assigned day of uprising arrived, Madero crossed the border as planned, got lost, then finally found the men promised him. But rather than the initial 800 men that he had been promised, they were only a few, half of whom were unarmed. Madero returned to Texas emotionally devastated. He was now without money, and he considered giving up politics.

The notion that an uprising was taking place remained alive among many in Mexico, and it was still alive in the newspapers in Mexico - and the United States. The expectations turned into a reality as armed rebellions occurred independent of Madero. In the state of Chihuahua (just west of Coahuila), a band of men led by a former sharaecropper, bandit, bank and train robber, mine laborer and shopkeeper, Francisco (Pancho) Villa, attacked and defeated a contingent of Díaz' federal troops. And in Chihuahua another former miner, Pascual Orozco, took power in the town of Guerrero, and he became a local hero like Villa. An armed uprising was also underway in the state of Morelos - a state in the tropics, with a lot of sugar cane, located southeast east of Mexico City. The leader of this rebellion was a bright but illiterate young Indian named Emiliano Zapata. He had been outraged at the arrogance of the rich hacendados of his area who for decades had been stealing land belonging to Indian villages and getting away it.

President Díaz denounced the rising against him as banditry, and he sent a federal force against Villa and Orozco in Chihuahua. The federal army jailed unarmed people there whom its officers suspected of supporting the rebellion, and the federal army attempted to recruit local men to fight for Díaz and law and order. Instead, many men went over to the side of the rebels. And Madero, forced to leave the United States for having violated U.S. neutrality laws, joined the Chihuahua rebels.

To succeed, rebellion across Mexico needed a greater armed force than the army that government could send against it, and this was in the making. The failure of Díaz to crush the rebellion in Chihuahua encouraged revolts in six other states - build upon the widespread discontent against the Díaz government. And with rebellion occurring through much of Mexico and terrorizing Díaz' local officials, Díaz was overwhelmed. Díaz resigned his presidency and sailed for France. And news of his departure brought celebrations across the country that lasted three days and nights.

The Madero Presidency

Madero arrived in Mexico City in June, 1911, and there he met with other rebel leaders, who recognized him as the provisional president of Mexico. As provisional president, Madero arranged for honest elections to be held in October. Madero relished the widespread support among the citizenry of Mexico, and to extend the good feeling he advocated unlimited reconciliation. The revolution was not over yet. In fact, the revolution was still only potential. Madero had just emerged as the victor of a war against the Díaz dictatorship, but, wanting order, he left the old civil servants at their posts, and he left the federal army that had existed under Díaz in place, including its officer corps, who hated the rebel forces that had defeated it. Madero was naive. Believing that those who had supported the old order had learned their lesson and that the military would never turn against him, he called for the revolutionary armies to lay down their arms, return home and go back to work - while many among the elite in Mexico City were sneering at him.

In his meeting with Zapata that first month in Mexico City, Madero insisted that land that had been stolen from the Indians could not be forcibly returned to the Indians, that Zapata and his people would have to wait for legal procedures, that lands that the hacendados had taken by force and illegal means would be given back by legal means. Zapata, on the other hand, wanted justice without delay. After a lot of fighting and dying he wanted to return to Morelos with some fruits of victory. Zapata returned to Morelos with only promises, and he refused to disarm. His followers and some others rebel groups who had celebrated Madero's rise now felt that Madero had betrayed them.

Madero won the election for the presidency and was sworn in as president on November 6th, 1911. In the coming year, he budgeted twice the amount of money for education as had Díaz. He called for the restoration of lands stolen from the Indians, and he spoke in support of labor unions. Those feeling threatened by Madero's policies rallied. Almost all of Mexico's important newspapers began a campaign of words against him. Oil companies and other foreign businesses in Mexico, which had had a good relationship with Díaz, were unhappy with Madero's land policy and joined those opposed to Madero. Against Madero's government, various malcontents tried repeating the armed risings that had been popular the year before. One was led by Bernardo Reyes, a former general under Díaz, and another was led by the rebel leader, Pascual Orozco in Chihuahua, who was backed by cattle barons unhappy over a reform bill that would limit their land holdings to roughly twenty square miles. In Chihuahua, Villa's army remained loyal to Madero, and Villa's forces together with government forces defeated Orozco, who took refuge in the United States. Reyes and another coup leader, Felix Díaz, nephew of the former dictator, were also defeated, and they were imprisoned.

By 1912, Madero was concerned about the reliability of military leaders who had fought on the side of Díaz and were still commanding military unites. In October, 1912, he tried to reform the army by drafting Mexicans into military service, believing that this would make the army a more popular force and less likely to follow reactionary commanders. But Mexico's common people were less than enthusiastic about military conscription, and they were disappointed that Madero had not produced the great change in their lives that they had expected. They were losing their enthusiasm for the Madero regime. And the anti-Madero newspapers found an issue with which to attack Madero: nepotism. Unlike Díaz, who had never given government positions to his relatives, Madero's government had become a family affair, Madero feeling the need of people around him whom he could trust. The press claimed that the Madero family was no longer content with its opulence and was trying to make itself Mexico's ruling dynasty.

The U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Henry Lane Wilson, saw Madero as a muddled man, and he befriended anti-Madero forces. Encouraged, anti-Madero elements in Mexico's army rebelled against the government. They freed Reyes and Felix Díaz from prison. Leading a rebel army, Reyes was killed by forces that remained loyal to the government, but Díaz survived and he and his men took possession of a military arsenal and garrison in Mexico City. A government force led by General Victoriano Huerta dueled with Díaz, with artillery, shells killing many civilians and destroying buildings. Huerta abandoned the Madero government and reached an agreement with Díaz, in the office Henry Lane Wilson. Huerta's men seized Madero and a few of his close supporters. At gunpoint they forced Mexico's congress to vote Huerta in power. The following day Huerta asked Ambassador Wilson what he should do with Madero. Wilson told him to do "whatever was best for Mexico." A few days after Madero's capture, Huerta had him shot. The American president, William Howard Taft, thought that ambassador Wilson had gone too far, and he ordered him to stay out of Mexican affairs.

The Huerta Presidency

Madero had made mistakes, and now it was Huerta's turn to make mistakes. It would be difficult to put back into the tube the sense of freedom that had been released with the rise of Madero's rebellion. Huerta had the obedience of Mexico's federal army, but Huerta was foolish in believing that the strength of his army would be enough to control Mexico as a dictator.

Huerta sent a message to all state governors demanding their allegiance. Governor Venustiano Carranza of the state of Coahuila defied Huerta, and his army joined those of Villa and Zapata against Huerta. Carranza and Villa recruited greater armies from among the poor, the poor believing that they were fighting for food and for land. And elsewhere across Mexico, guerrilla bands arose that harassed Huerta's forces.

European powers gave quick recognition to the Huerta regime, and from Europe Huerta acquired loans. The United States reacted differently to Huerta. A new president, Woodrow Wilson, had taken office on March 4, 1913, just eleven days after Madero's murder, and he was appalled by Huerta's usurpation of power and Huerta's political executions. He saw Huerta as a scoundrel and a drunkard. He recalled the ambassador, Henry Lane Wilson, from Mexico. He sympathized with Mexicans opposed to Huerta. And from the United States, arms began to flow to Carranza, which Carranza paid for with cattle.

In February, 1914, after months of civil war, the Huerta regime made prisoners of some unarmed U.S. sailors at the port of Tampico, and this inspired President Wilson to send the U.S. fleet to Mexico's eastern coast. Also, Wilson hoped to hasten Huerta's fall by cutting off the arms shipments to Huerta from Germany to the port of Veracruz. In April, the U.S. moved to seize Veracruz, bombarding the city as it landed Marines. In the fighting between the Marines and Huerta's forces, nineteen Americans died and seventy were wounded. Mexican deaths were 193 and an estimated 600 were wounded. And to the surprise of Wilson, the invasion by the U.S. outraged many in Mexico and elevated Huerta, who was perceived as fighting against "the gringos." Carranza denounced the American invasion. Mobs in Mexico City were assaulting American businesses. Only Pancho Villa held back from criticizing the United States.

Huerta tried to enhance his status as a hero by vowing to invade Texas. But Huerta's days as "president" were numbered. The U.S. Marines continued to hold ground in Veracruz as a minor sideshow while the armies of Carranza, Villa and Zapata were converging on Mexico City. On July 14, 1914, Huerta resigned and went into exile on a German ship that took him to Spain.

The armies of Villa, Carranza and Zapata occupied Mexico City, and to the surprise of its citizens, Zapata's soldiers, reputed to be barbarous, conducted themselves with gentility, humbly begging for food at the homes of the well-to-do. Villa's troops, were another matter. Villa did not smoke or drink, but he did not control the drinking of his troops. They made a poor impression on the good people of Mexico City with their unrestrained drinking and their wild and merry gunfire.

Carranza, Pancho Villa and the United States

Leaders of the rebel armies in Mexico City were unable or unwilling to conclude an agreement, and, in the coming months, war for power erupted between Carranza and Villa. In places, opportunistic gang leaders pretended to be revolutionaries and plundered and raped without fear of reprisal. And families with property banded together to protect themselves and their possessions.

On January 6, 1915, Carranza declared himself President of Mexico. He maintained his claim as a reformer by promising to dissolve great estates and to return to Indians and others lands that had been illegally taken from them. He competed with Villa and Zapata for the support of the poor who worked in agriculture, and in February he signed an agreement with labor leaders, promising a better deal for labor unions and industrial workers in exchange for their support - appeals and alliances ignored by Villa and Zapata.

By now Europe was at war, and the strength of defensive positions was obvious to one of Carranza's generals: Alvaro Obregon (Obregón). In April 1915, Obregón and Villa had a showdown at Celaya - a conservative town 150 miles northwest of Mexico City. There were many irrigation trenches as obstacles against a charging cavalry. Obregón laid barbed wire. He taunted Villa with insults, and with 22,000 men, 86 machine guns and 13 pieces of artillery he waited for Villa's offensive. Villa, with 15,000 men, took up Obregón's challenge. Villa was over-confident, believing that Obregón was insufficiently masculine, and Villa believed that he could make up for a shortage of ammunition by capturing it from Obregón. Rather than focus on Obregón's lines of communication, where Obregón was most vulnerable, he launched numerous assaults against Obregón's position, which  has been described as the bloodiest battle in Mexico's history. In three days of fighting, Obregón cut Villa's forces to pieces. Villa and what remained of his army retreated north, pulling up railroad tracks behind them as they went. At Agua Prieta, Obregón defeated Villa's forces again. Villa's army scattered. Villa retreated with some of his men into the hills of Chihuahua that he knew well from his youth.    [COMMENT]

Zapata, who had favored Villa, also suffered some defeats by Carranza's forces. On June 15, 1915, President Wilson, behind in assessing events in Mexico, called on the warring sides in Mexico to unify. Carranza resented Wilson's declaration, as did most Mexicans. Carranza had little reason to negotiate. He was winning. His military victory against Villa was swinging support to him across much of Mexico - as if people wanted to support the winner as long as the winner was an acceptable figure. And Carranza's forces were inflicting military defeats against Zapata's forces, and Zapata withdrew his army to Morelos and neighboring states where he had support.

In mid-October, 1915, Woodrow Wilson recognized Carranza as Mexico's legitimate authority. In his camp in Chihuahua's hills, Villa saw this as a betrayal, Villa recalling that it was he who had remained a loyal friend of the United States. Villa announced that he intended to strike against "the gringos." It is rumored that he ordered all "gringos," Chinese and Arabs within reach should be slain. In January 1916, he and some followers held up a train at a station not far from Chihuahua. On the train were seventeen American mining engineers returning to their work, whom Villa's men shot and killed.

In the United States, fear arose of an invasion by Mexicans. And in the U.S., attacks against Mexican-Americans left about a hundred dead. In early March, Villa and his men made a night raid into Columbus, New Mexico. They burned the army barracks there, robbed stores, killed eighteen townspeople and shot up property belonging to Sam Rabel, a well known arms dealer whom Villa believed had swindled him and had caused the death of some of his men. Then Villa and his men escaped back across the border, in front of clouds of dust.

Over night, Villa's raid against the United States re-established his status in Mexico as a hero, but not enough to threaten Carranza. Emotions in the United States ran high. It was an election year, and President Wilson's cabinet pressed Wilson to decisively punish Villa. A feeble response, advisors claimed, would hand the Republicans abundant ammunition and would result in Wilson losing the election. Wilson yielded and on June 21 he sent an army of 12,000 men on horseback into Mexico after Villa. He claimed his move was justified by Carranza's inability to control Villa, and Carranza's military hierarchy, in turn, warned the U.S. troops that any movement other than turning back for home would be considered a hostile act. But the leader of the U.S. force, Pershing, ignored the warning.

Wilson's tough response regarding Mexico proved no more productive than had been Germany's tough responses in Europe. The 12,000 U.S. men on horseback in Mexico failed to find Villa. The desert heat weighed on Pershing's troops. In the only fighting that resembled warfare, an outraged Mexican force attacked the Pershing expedition, killing several and capturing a few of the Americans. To keep the Pershing Expedition from arousing the passions of his fellow countrymen, Carranza pressured Mexico's newspapers to cease publishing stories about it. In the United States, the press turned against the expedition, some criticizing Wilson for meddling in Mexico's affairs, and some criticizing Pershing for failing to win any battles. Then, in early February 1917, the Pershing expedition returned to the U.S. empty handed.

Villa, meanwhile, failed to recognize that he was finished as a leader of revolution. In the coming months, he continued to make raids from the Chihuahua hills, seizing towns, but then losing them again, while Carranza was subduing the many little rebellions led by dreamers and crackpot militia leaders trying to copy Villa and Zapata.

Carranza was having only minor success against Zapata. Zapata's forces had dwindled from 20,000 to 5,000, and Zapata was resorting to guerrilla tactics. Carranza's general, Pablo Gonzales, over-reacted, resorting to extreme measures against the Zapatistas. He forcibly moved populations from their villages and towns and burned villages to the ground. Gonzales confiscated food and animals, leaving people to complain that they were being left to starve. Zapata responded as he had before, urging restraint, but his brother and some of his lieutenants pursued the harsher and murderous measures commonly practiced by desperate guerrilla movements.

Meanwhile, as the provisional leader of Mexico's new government, Carranza was cultivating ties with other Latin American governments and with Germany. And in February 1917, Mexico's Constituent Congress published Mexico's new constitution. The drafters of the new constitution took aim against those Mexicans living in luxury abroad while their estates in Mexico went to seed, the new Constitution describing the ownership of land as a service to society's needs. And the Constitution gave Mexico's congress and state legislatures the power to issue laws to break up large estates, to force large landowners to sell their lands and to make purchases of their lands easy through installments. Outright confiscation of land was to take place only if an owner refused to comply.

The Constitution provided labor with an eight-hour working day, a minimum wage, an annual vacation of at least fifteen days, compensation with dismissals, a right to strike, and it abolished child labor. It limited the right of foreigners to own agricultural property. The Constitution excluded foreigners from owning property on the frontier between the U.S. and Mexico and at seacoast zones. And the Constitution took primary schooling away from the Catholic Church, making primary education in secular schools compulsory.

The Constitution called for elections every four years, and Carranza won the first of these elections and was inaugurated president on May 1, 1917. The widespread acceptance of democratic methods for achieving change that is necessary for a stable democracy had not been achieved in Mexico. But, for the time being, the Carranza regime maintained enough public support and a strong enough army to remain in power.

to the top | 1901-World War II | Latin America, Politics and Economic Depression

Copyright © 2004 by Frank E. Smitha. All rights reserved.

address of this article: http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch03mex.htm