Mexican Revolution
By: Heman Matharu and Stuart Bibeau
Mexican Revolution
 1910- 1934
Causes of Revolution
 Rigged election of Porfirio
Díaz
 Exploitation and poor
treatment of workers
 The disparity between low
income individuals and high
income individuals
Díaz
 Was the President of Mexico from 1876
to May 1911.
 He brought many advances in industry
and modernization, but oppressed
human rights, liberties, and social
reforms.
 Encourage the building of new political
infrastructure.
 Was forced to resign by Madero in May
21, 1911.
Madero
 Ran for President with the platform for
land and agrarian reform.
 Became the 33rd President of Mexico after
signing the Treaty of Juárez.
 Called for a democracy and social justice.
 Criticized for betraying the people’s
interest.
 Assasinated at the last day of La Decina
Trágica (“Ten Tragic Days”)
Huerta
 Mexican general who was appointed by
Madero.
 Conspired a coup d’etat with Felix Diáz
and other Mexican politicians to
overthrow Madero.
 Succesfully assassinated Madero and
became the new President.
 Was considered a legitimate ruler by
most countries, except by the US Woodrow Wilson.
 Ousted by Carranza in late July of 1914.
Carranza
 Constitutionalist who overthrew the
Huerta government
 Called for social and agrarian reform
and enforced them with the newly
formed Constitutional Army
 Was assassinated in May 21, 1920 by his
minister of war and other generals of his
army
Stage 1
 Díaz demanded that peasants
or farmers could not declare
ownership by land by
occupying it. Only by a legal
title, could they claim
ownership of this land.
 Díaz sought out reelection
through whatever means
necessary: intimidation,
rigging, etc.
Stage 2

Díaz, sure of reelection, ran against
Madero.

Once he found out he would lose the
election, he arrested and jailed Madero
falsely for conspiring to the violent
overthrow of the government on election
day

Díaz then rigged the elections so he would
be reelected. Madero escapes prison.

Toribio Ortega, a Madero supporter, took
arms at Cuchillo Parado, Chihuahua on
Nov 10, 1910, about a month after
Madero published his letter from jail.
Stage 3
 Madero promised agrarian
reforms lead to the support
of peasants, farmers, miners,
and other working class
Mexicans
 Madero’s army was then
supported by other
revolutionaries: Pancho Villa,
Ricardo Flore Magón,
Emiliano Zapata, and
Venustiano Carranza.
Stage 4
 Madero and Díaz sign the treaty of
Ciudad Juárez, which made Madero the
President as Díaz was exiled.
 Madero angered radical and
conservative revolutionaries
 Refused to enact social reforms (better
working hours, pay, and condition) Orozco split and formed the
Orozquistas or Colorados, which the
working class joined
 He refused to enact land reforms to
return the land usurped by the
hacendados - Zapata broke off and
fought with Orozco, which the farmers
joined
Stage 5
 Victoriano Huerta, a general appointed by
Madero, conspired a coup d’etat after a
stalemate battle of Madero’s army and Felix
Díaz’s army.
 Orozco sides with Huerta, he becomes a
general shortly after the coup d’etat
 Zapata reunites with Villa and other
revolutionaries
 Madero and his VP are executed one week
after the coup d’etat called La Decena Trágica
 Huerta becomes the President after Madero
resigns on the final day of La Decena Trágica.
However, he is criticized for usurping the
Presidency unconstitutionally.
Stage 6
 Constitutionalists party formed from disgruntled Mexicans
who felt that the rule of Huerta promoted United States
influence in Mexican affairs, still upset with social
inequalities
 Led by Venustiano Carranza and Álvaro Obregón
Organized armies to fight against Huerta and American
influence called the Constitutionalists army in 1912
Stage 7
 In 1914, Huerta overthrown by Constitutionalist party of
Carranza and Obregón
 Both Presidents were the leaders of larger Mexican cities
 Gained control of the export of oil to foreign countries
Stage 8
 The Constitutionalists were met by opposition from the
lower agrarian classes who wanted social equality
 Men such as Pancho Villa and Zapata lived in the mountains
and would revolt against the large plantations or farms,
known as haciendas, by storming down and burning the
haciendas and giving them back to the Indians who had
initially owned the land before interference by the
government
Stage 8
 These revolutionaries were gaining power, and the
Constitutionalists sought to suppress this power
 They used the oil profits from foreign countries to buy the guns
needed to suppress the revolutionaries
• Revolutionaries were popular in the agricultural areas
• Many historians claim that they also would have been popular in
the big city areas
• Without access of big cities, local leaders like Villa could not
gain national support
Stage 8
 Even though they opposed Villa and Zapata’s forces, the reforms
instituted by the Constitutionalists were the same reforms sought by
Villa and Zapata’s ardent supporters
 Reforms instituted in Constitution of 1917
 One- term president term for leader of the country (Carranza)
 Minimum wage and maximum hours for farm laborers were specified into
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law
Voting rights for all citizens
The government would control education, specifically in urban areas
Slavery was ended as a form of paying back a debt, instead practices such
as interest were used to pay back a debt
Foreign interference limited, restrict land owned by foreign companies
Stage 9 “PERIOD OF TERROR!”
 Fights between Constitutionalists and the cowboys and
Indians associated with Villa and Zapata led to approximately
two million deaths
 With the approval of the Constitutionalists by President
Woodrow Wilson, Villa attacked New Mexico settlement
 United States army supported Constitutionalists, seek to kill
Villa
 Carranza’s reforms cause inflation, stops worker strikes
Stage 9 “PERIOD OF TERROR!”
 Zapata killed in 1919 in secret army operation, Villa forced
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into exile
In 1920 Presidential Election, Carranza supported Ignacio
Bonillas as President
Bonillas unliked by people during campaign
Obregón ran against Bonillas as President
Carranza kills Obregón campaign workers
 Obregón moves to Mexico City to lead armed fight against
Carranza forces
Stage 9 “PERIOD OF TERROR!”
 Generals support Obregón
 Carranza takes Mexican government valuables in golden train
 Captured by former ally and killed
 Obregón elected President
 Revolution quenched
Stage 10
 Obregón assasignated in 1928 after group led by Adolfo de la
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Huerta exiled
Plutarco Elías Calles becomes President and forms National
Revolutionary Party
Calles’s successor Lázaro Cárdenas became President and
made Mexican Revolutionary Party
Successful ruler
Implements Constitution of 1917 reforms
Stage 10
 He closed schools run by the Catholic Churches
 He redistributed approximately 45 million acres of land to
lower level workers
 Cárdenas removed generals from government positions
 Nationalized oil and railroad industries, reached treaties and
peace agreements with British and American oil companies
Results
 The ideals of the revolutionaries changed
 The major goals of the revolution succeeded, except for the goal of full
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democracy
Goals accomplished in Constitution of 1917 and the Cárdenas
Presidency
Achievements preserved under the rule of the Mexican Revolutionary
Party
Poor/small farmers biggest winners, gain land, right to vote
Biggest losers were the military leaders, lose power and money from
rule and friendship with Germany and United States, oil companies
Women, Indians, and former slaves gained rights to suffrage and land,
farming competition increases, still rough economic conditions,
Government backed by nationalization of oil, nationalism after event
ends Revolution
Works Cited

"American Buddha Online Library." American Buddha Online Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.

"The Mexican Revolution: A Nation in Flux - Part 2." : Mexico History. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.

"Users.erols.com/jonwill." Users.erols.com/jonwill Site Info. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.