History 307 - Latin America – October 29 & 31, 2003

 THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION (1910-1920)

 

I.      BACKGROUND

A.       Tremendous problems with “nation-building”

1.        Destruction of Wars of Liberation

2.       Huge role of military

3.       Little Political Consensus: huge class/race divisions; most people are excluded from system; no active citizenry

4.       Continuing colonial economy: (a) elite run; (b) keyed to outsiders’ needs

      B.     Yet successes

1.        Brazil; Chile; Argentina

2.       Political stability after years of “caudilloismo”

3.       Economic Growth

4.       Immigration

 

II.   Mexico’s violent road to Independence

A.      1810 – Fr. Hidalgo;  1822, Conservative-led Independence; Santa Anna; disastrous war with USA; foreign intervention; B. Juarez

B.      1876: General Porfirio Diaz seizes power

 

III. The “Porfiriato” Dictatorship (1876-1911)

A.      Diaz as “modern” Caudillo

B.      Supported by Ultra-Conservative Hacendados & “modern” Business executives

C.       Diaz supports PROGRESS

D.      “Los Cientificos” – technocrats attempt to build a modern economy

E.      Mexico’s Boom Years:  vast building projects; immigration; foreign investment; wealth

 

IV.  The Grim Side of the Porfiriato

A.       Wealth congeals at very top of social system

B.       Repression to preserve CHEAP LABOR: break up unions; let corporate executives or hacendos agree among themselves on how low to fix wages; child labor; dangerous working conditions

C.       Spectacular luxury at top, but very little social investment (schools, housing, health care)

D.     Growth but not Development

E.       Rigid exclusion of workers, peasants, women, poor from political process

 

V.  Classic “CRISIS OF FRUSTRATED EXPECTATIONS”

A.        People want DEMOCRATIC PROSPERITY & PROSPEROUS DEMOCRACY

       B.    But: are violently excluded from it

 VI.      The Mexican Revolution (1910-1920)

 

1876-1911	the “Porfiriato”
The Moderate Phase
1910	Francisco MADERO calls for sweeping liberal reforms: end to Diaz dictatorship; free elections; free speech; limits on Hacendados’ power; “PLAN OF SAN LUIS POTOSI
1911	Diaz Resigns; Madero president Moderates try to construct functioning democracy, but They are unwilling  or unable to make RADICAL changes in system of power & privilege
The Radical Phase
1912	Indians, urban workers, peasants, want much more sweeping reforms North: Pancho Villa South: Emiliano Zapata
1913	CIVIL WAR ·          Conservative Coup: General Victoriano HUERTA assassinates Madero; creates dictatorship ·          Liberal opponents rally around Venustiano CARRANZA ·          Radicals rally around Villa & Zapata ·          brutal fighting between Conservatives & liberal-radicals
1914	US troops land at Veracruz Huerta resigns Carranza new president
1916	US invades northern Mexico, hunting Villa
1917	“Radical Constitution of 1917” - calls for political, social,  and economic democracy
1919	Radicals destroyed: ·          1919, Zapata assassinated ·          1923, Villa assassinated
The Restoration of Order
1920	Pres. Carranza assassinated Gen. Obregon becomes president Obregon pleases Conservatives by restoring Order              But pleases some Liberals by keeping parts of Radical Constitution

  

VI.   Aftermath:

A.     1,000,000 dead?

B.      Destruction of radicals – yet – continuing radicalism among Indians, Workers, Students

C.      Liberals, moderates retain power: attacks on Church; some social investment

·          Creation of the “PRI” – Institutional Revolutionary Party

D.     1934-40: CARDENAS ERA: last burst of reform (education, land reform, support for trade unions, NATIONALIZATION OF OIL INDUSTRY)

E.      1940s à 1990s:  Conservative Swing: PRI as Bureaucratic Dictatorship

·          PRI creates huge bureaucracy

·          still “radical” in theory

·          increasingly conservative in practice

·          POSITIVES:  law & order; stability; slow economic growth

·          NEGATIVES: enormous corruption; poverty grows; Indians, workers, poor still alienated from “system”

 

 

 

 

Queens University of Charlotte  1900 Selwyn Avenue  Charlotte, NC  28274
Modified by:  H.  Kamerling