home | 1901-WW2 Index

The MEXICAN REVOLUTION (2 of 4)

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 units. 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, killing many civilians and destroying buildings. Huerta abandoned the Madero government and reached an agreement with Díaz, in the office of 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.

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