THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION, 1910–1920 Term Paper

The first major revolution of the twentieth century, the Mexican Revolution spanned the decade from 1910 to 1920. Its roots lay in the rapid economic and social changes during the 1890s and the first part of the twentieth century under Porfirio Díaz. The more immediate cause was Díaz’s plan to run for president again in 1910. Díaz had been in power since 1876. Francisco Madero, a liberal, began the revolution by publishing the Plan of San Luis Potosí.

Initially, Madero enjoyed wide backing, not only from members of provincial elites like himself and from liberal intellectuals but also from cowboys, farmers, and miners from the north and agrarian rebels in the south like Emiliano Zapata, who led a movement to recover communal lands. Zapata published his own plan, the Plan of Ayala, in 1911. Díaz left the country in 1911 and Madero became president. With the help of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Victoriano Huerta overthrew Madero in 1913. Madero was later assassinated. Huerta was mainly an opportunist, and his seizure of power provoked a civil war. He was opposed by Zapata and also by Pancho Villa,an important leader of popular forces from the north. Even more important was Venustiano Carranza, the leader of the Constitutionalist forces. Carranza enjoyed the help of Alvaro Obregón, who contributed much to the military success of the Constitutionalists. Obregón was a careful student of the new patterns of warfare being developed in Europe in World War I. In 1914, at the Convention of Aguascalientes, Villa and Zapata met with representatives of Carranza and Obregón, but they could find no basis for a lasting agreement. In 1915 Carranza used his control of export earnings to rebuild his army. Obregón led the army to victory over Villa. In 1916–1917 another meeting resulted in the Constitution of 1917. Zapata and Villa were not represented, but Obregón was able to place in the constitution clauses that later furnished a basis for land reform, for labor rights, and for national control of subsoil resources. Carranza served as president between 1917 and 1920. By 1920 the revolution was over and most of the major figures had met violent deaths. Over the next two decades, however, the revolution took on institutional forms that included a near-monopoly of political life by the revolutionary party (the PRI since 1946). Only in the last few years have changes begun to appear in the system that was set in place by 1940.
Suggestions for Term Papers
1. During the last decade of Díaz’s regime, many different forms of opposition appeared and attempted to find supporters. Investigate the activities of these oppositional groups, the forms their opposition took, and whether there were American connections.
2. Compare the Plan of San Luis Potosí and the Plan of Ayala.
3. Read a biography of Zapata (Womack’s is the best—see Suggested Sources) and compare its presentation of Zapata with that of VivaZapata!, the film directed by Elia Kazan with a script by the novelist John Steinbeck.
4. What did Pancho Villa hope to achieve in the Mexican Revolution?
5. The United States played a very important role in the Mexican Revolution, intervening on a number of occasions. Review American involvement and draw conclusions about why the United States paid so much attention to events in Mexico in this period. John Mason Hart’s Revolutionary Mexico (see Suggested Sources) contains much useful information on this topic.
6. The Mexican Revolution was a costly and traumatic event for Mexicans. What are some of the reasons they participated in it? (Azuela’s The Underdogs will be helpful in this regard—see Suggested Sources.)

Research Suggestions

In addition to the boldfaced items, look under the entries for “The Revolution of 1905 in Russia” (#2) and “The 1911 Revolution in China” (#5). Search under Porfiriato (1876–1910), Pascual Orozco, Cristero Rebellion (1926–1929), and Lazaro Cardenas (president, 1934–1940).

SUGGESTED SOURCES

Primary Sources

Guzman, Martin Luis. The Eagle and the Serpent. Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1969. A firsthand account by a young Mexican liberal who began as a supporter of Francisco Madero and after his assassination became associated with Pancho Villa.

Reed, John. Insurgent Mexico. New York: International Publishers, 1994. First published in 1914. Classic reporting from a famous American journalist whose specialty was revolution.

Wilkie, James W., and Albert L. Michaels, eds. Revolution in Mexico: Years of Upheaval, 1910–1940. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1984. First published by Knopf, 1969. A very useful anthology containing many documents and reports by journalists as well as some secondary source material.
Secondary Sources

Azuela, Mariano. The Underdogs. Translated by E. Munguia, Jr. New York: New American Library, 1962. A short novel. Helpful in understanding the motives of participants in the revolution.

Brunk, Samuel. Emiliano Zapata: Revolution and Betrayal in Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995. A recent biography of one of the most important leaders in the Mexican Revolution.

Cockcroft, James. Intellectual Precursors of the Mexican Revolution, 1900–1913. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1968. The standard work on the liberal opposition to Porfirio Díaz.

Cumberland, Charles C. Mexican Revolution: Genesis under Madero. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1952. A dependable account of the beginnings of the Mexican Revolution.

Dunn, John. Modern Revolutions: An Introduction to the Analysis of a Political Phenomenon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972. The chapter on the Mexican Revolution is well worth reading.

Fuentes, Carlos. The Death of Artemio Cruz. Translated by Alfred MacAdam. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1991. A wonderful novel that manages to convey some of the ways in which the Mexican Revolution has echoed through the history of Mexico in the twentieth century.

Hall, Linda. Alvaro Obregón: Power and Revolution in Mexico, 1911–1920. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1981. A good biographical study of one of the most important figures in the Mexican Revolution.

Hart, John Mason. Revolutionary Mexico: The Coming and Process of the Mexican Revolution. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987. An excellent history of the Mexican Revolution that places it in the context of Mexican history and also compares it in very useful ways with events in early twentieth-century Russia, China, and Iran.

Katz, Friedrich. The Life and Times of Pancho Villa. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998. A highly regarded study of a central figure in the Mexican Revolution, one usually shrouded in legend and myth.

Knight, Alan. The Mexican Revolution. 2 vols. London: Cambridge University Press, 1986. A major study.

Meyer, Michael C., William L. Sherman, and Susan M. Deeds. The Course of Mexican History. 6th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Among other things, offers a fine introduction to the Mexican Revolution.

Niemeyer, Victor E. Revolution at Querétaro: The Mexican ConstitutionalConvention of 1916–1917. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1974. The best book on this important topic.

Quirk, Robert H. An Affair of Honor: Woodrow Wilson and the Occupation of Veracruz. New York: W. W. Norton, 1962. An excellent study of one of the most important interventions by the United States in the Mexican Revolution.

Richmond, Douglas. Venustiano Carranza’s Nationalist Struggle, 1893–1920. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983. A useful study of a central figure in the Mexican Revolution.

Ross, Stanley R. Francisco I. Madero, Apostle of Mexican Democracy.New York: Columbia University Press, 1955. A useful biography of Madero.

Ruiz, Ramon E. The Great Rebellion: Mexico, 1905–1924. New York: W. W. Norton, 1980. An important survey based on a lifetime of research.

Tutino, John. From Insurrection to Revolution in Mexico: Social Bases of Agrarian Violence, 1750–1940. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986. A careful study of an important factor in the Mexican Revolution.

Viva Zapata! [videotape]. Livonia, Mich.: Key Video, a division of CBS/ Fox Video, 1987. 112 minutes. Directed by Elia Kazan, written by John Steinbeck, and starring Marlon Brando. An interesting but somewhat Hollywoodish effort to present the life of Zapata.

Womack, John, Jr. Zapata and the Mexican Revolution. New York: Knopf, 1969. A superb biography of Zapata.

World Wide Web

“The Mexican Revolution.” http://northcoast.com/~spdtom/rev.html. A wellorganized Web site featuring a time line, bibliography, capsule biographies, and many links.