Mexican Revolution

The Mexican Revolution (Spanish: Revolución Mexicana) was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from approximately 1910 to 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history".[6] It resulted in the destruction of the Federal Army and its replacement by a revolutionary army,[7] and the transformation of Mexican culture and government. The northern Constitutionalist faction prevailed on the battlefield and drafted the present-day Constitution of Mexico, which aimed to create a strong central government. Revolutionary generals held power from 1920 to 1940. The revolutionary conflict was primarily a civil war, but foreign powers, having important economic and strategic interests in Mexico, figured in the outcome of Mexico's power struggles; the U.S. involvement was particularly high.[8] The conflict led to the deaths of around twenty million people, mostly combatants.

Quick facts: Mexican Revolution, Date, Location, Result, B... ▼

Mexican Revolution
From left to right and top to bottom: Huertista troops insurging against President Francisco Madero, Ten Tragic Days, 1913 Questionable photograph, may come from a 1930s film or be a period production Defense of the government by supporters of Madero, Ten Tragic Days, 1913, Mexico City El Niño artillero (Antonio Gómez Delgado), 10 years old, enlisted on July 2, 1910 in Acatzingán, Michoacán, part of the federal troops commanded by Victoriano Huerta Insurgents from south of Mexico City (likely the state of Morelos) accompanied by their wives
Date 20 November 1910 – 1 December 1920 (10 years, 1 week and 4 days) Location Mexico Result Revolutionary victory Full results Porfirio Díaz ousted from power and exiled to France, May 1911. Francisco I. Madero elected president of Mexico, 1911, assassinated February 1913. Victoriano Huerta overthrows Madero and assumes the presidency 1913–1914. Venustiano Carranza creates an alliance of northerners under the Constitutionalist banner 1913. Convention of Aguascalientes between revolutionary leaders, 1914. Carranza's Constitutionalist Army under General Álvaro Obregón defeats Pancho Villa at the Battle of Celaya, 1915. Carranza consolidates his position as president of Mexico, 1915. Mexican Constitution of 1917 enacted. Rebellion against Carranza government by Sonoran generals Obregón, Plutarco Elías Calles, and Adolfo de la Huerta in the Plan of Agua Prieta, 1920. Interim Presidency of De la Huerta, 1920. Pancho Villa amnestied. Successive assassinations of revolutionary leaders Madero (1913), Zapata (1919), Venustiano Carranza (1920), Pancho Villa (1923), Álvaro Obregón (1928). Laborist Party victories in the 1920 and 1924 elections.[1][2] Eventual formation of the National Revolutionary Party (1929) and consolidation of the post-revolutionary regime.
Belligerents
Pro-government: 1910–1911: Porfiriato Federales Porfiristas	Anti-government: 1910–1911: Maderistas Orozquistas Magonistas Zapatistas
1911–1913: Maderistas Federales	1911–1913: Reyistas Felicistas Orozquistas Magonistas Zapatistas
1913–1914: Huertistas Federales	1913–1914: Constitutionalists Carrancistas Villistas Zapatistas
1914–1915: Conventionists Villistas Zapatistas	1914–1915: Carrancistas
1915–1920: Carrancistas Supported by:  United States (1910–1913)  Germany (c. 1913–1918)	1915–1920: Villistas Zapatistas Felicistas Forces led by Aureliano Blanquet Forces led by Álvaro Obregón Supported by:  United States (1913–1918) United Kingdom (1916–1918)  France (1916–1918) [citation needed]
Commanders and leaders
1910–1911: Porfirio Díaz Ramón Corral Manuel Mondragón José Yves Limantour	1910–1911: Francisco I. Madero Pascual Orozco Bernardo Reyes Pancho Villa Emiliano Zapata Ricardo Flores Magón
1911–1913: Francisco I. Madero † José María Pino Suárez † Pancho Villa Mateo Almanza Venustiano Carranza Victoriano Huerta (secretly sided with Reyes against Madero until Reyes died in 1913; after Reyes was killed, Huerta launched his own revolution) Aureliano Blanquet (also secretly sided with Reyes until his death)	1911–1913: Pascual Orozco (fought own revolution after Díaz was overthrown and later sided with Huerta after Huerta took power) Bernardo Reyes † (led own revolution until his death in 1913) Félix Díaz (sided with Reyes and later Huerta after the killing of Reyes in 1913) Emiliano Zapata (sided with Orozco until Orozco sided with Huerta) Ricardo Flores Magón (POW)
1913–1914: Victoriano Huerta Aureliano Blanquet Pascual Orozco ( † in 1915) Manuel Mondragón (until June 1913) Francisco León de la Barra Francisco S. Carvajal	1913–1914: Venustiano Carranza Pancho Villa Emiliano Zapata Álvaro Obregón Plutarco Elías Calles
1914–1915: Pancho Villa Emiliano Zapata Eulalio Gutiérrez	1914–1915: Venustiano Carranza Álvaro Obregón
1915–1920: Venustiano Carranza † Álvaro Obregón (until 1917)	1915–1920: Pancho Villa Emiliano Zapata † Félix Díaz Aureliano Blanquet † Álvaro Obregón (from 1917)
Strength
Pro-government: 250,000–300,000	Anti-government: 255,000–290,000
Casualties and losses
Alleged: 2 Germans killed[3]	500 Americans killed
1.7[4]–2.7 million[5] Mexican deaths (civilian and military) 700,000–1,117,000[5] civilians dead (using 2.7 million figure)

Although the decades-long regime of President Porfirio Díaz (1876–1911) was increasingly unpopular, there was no foreboding in 1910 that a revolution was about to break out.[8] The aging Díaz failed to find a controlled solution to presidential succession, resulting in a power struggle among competing elites and the middle classes, which occurred during a period of intense labor unrest, exemplified by the Cananea and Río Blanco strikes.[9] When wealthy northern landowner Francisco I. Madero challenged Díaz in the 1910 presidential election and Díaz jailed him, Madero called for an armed uprising against Díaz in the Plan of San Luis Potosí. Rebellions broke out first in Morelos, and then to a much greater extent in northern Mexico. The Federal Army was unable to suppress the widespread uprisings, showing the military's weakness and encouraging the rebels.[10] Díaz resigned in May 1911 and went into exile, an interim government was installed until elections could be held, the Federal Army was retained, and revolutionary forces demobilized. The first phase of the Revolution was relatively bloodless and short-lived.

Madero was elected President, taking office in November 1911. He immediately faced the armed rebellion of Emiliano Zapata in Morelos, where peasants demanded rapid action on agrarian reform. Politically inexperienced, Madero's government was fragile, and further regional rebellions broke out. In February 1913, prominent army generals from the Díaz regime staged a coup d'etat in Mexico City, forcing Madero and Vice President Pino Suárez to resign. Days later, both men were assassinated by orders of the new President, Victoriano Huerta. This initiated a new and bloody phase of the Revolution, as a coalition of northerners opposed to the counter-revolutionary regime of Huerta, the Constitutionalist Army led by Governor of Coahuila Venustiano Carranza, entered the conflict. Zapata's forces continued their armed rebellion in Morelos. Huerta's regime lasted from February 1913 to July 1914, and saw the Federal Army defeated by revolutionary armies. The revolutionary armies then fought each other, with the Constitutionalist faction under Carranza defeating the army of former ally Francisco "Pancho" Villa by the summer of 1915.

Carranza consolidated power, and a new constitution was promulgated in February 1917. The Mexican Constitution of 1917 established universal male suffrage, promoted secularism, workers' rights, economic nationalism, and land reform, and enhanced the power of the federal government.[11] Carranza became President of Mexico in 1917, serving a term ending in 1920. He attempted to impose a civilian successor, prompting northern revolutionary generals to rebel. Carranza fled Mexico City and was killed. From 1920 to 1940, revolutionary generals held office, a period when state power became more centralized and revolutionary reforms were implemented, bringing the military under the control of the civilian government.[12] The Revolution was a decade-long civil war, with new political leadership that gained power and legitimacy through their participation in revolutionary conflicts. The political party they founded, which would become the Institutional Revolutionary Party, ruled Mexico until the presidential election of 2000. Even the conservative winner of that election, Vicente Fox, contended his election was heir to the 1910 democratic election of Francisco Madero, thereby claiming the heritage and legitimacy of the Revolution.[13]