Unit 6: Revolutionary Mexico and Legacies of Colonialism
The Mexican Revolution of 1910 represented a culmination of a century of political and social conflict in Latin and South America, following independence from Spanish and Portuguese colonial rule. Ostensibly, Mexico became a democracy when it separated from Spain, but wealthy elites came to dominate its political, economic, and social institutions. Lower and middle-class Mexicans had little political power and faced constant subjugation from corrupt landlords and political officials.
The Mexican Revolution began as an upper-middle-class political conflict between Porfirio Diaz, its long-time president, and Francisco Madero, his political rival, but eventually encompassed all classes of Mexican society. The conflict led to Diaz's fall from power, and a series of coups and counter-coups that prevented a return to stable government.
Poor farmers and the indigenous population took advantage of the revolutionary chaos to challenge the political and economic power of wealthy landlords and local officials. In the early 1930s, President Lazaro Cardenas restored political and social order by implementing several social reforms to address extreme social and economic inequalities in the nation.
In this unit, we analyze the origins of the Mexican Revolution and examine how it affected all aspects of Mexican society. We also explore the broader consequences of the revolution for the Mexican people, the country's political institutions, Latin America, and South America.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 10 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- provide a concise historical narrative of the Mexican Revolution between 1910 and 1920;
- analyze the causes of the Mexican Revolution and compare them with the causes of the American and the French Revolutions;
- critically evaluate the political agendas of the various groups which competed for power during the Mexican Revolution; and
- compare how violence functioned in the Mexican, American, and French Revolutions.
- provide a concise historical narrative of the Mexican Revolution between 1910 and 1920;
6.1: 19th-Century Revolutions in Latin and South America
Watch this lecture by Steven Volk to understand the causes of the Latin American independence movements and their relationship to the French Revolution. In addition, write a few sentences that compare this lecture with the text about the state and its use of violence which you read earlier.
Watch this lecture by Steven Volk to understand the political situation in Latin America at the end of the eighteenth century. Were internal or external events more important in triggering Latin American independence movements? What evidence could you provide to support your argument? What were the most important social and political differences between North and South America in the final decades of the eighteenth century?
Read this chronology. What relationships do you notice between developments in Europe and those in South America?
Read this text to learn about the Spanish-American War and the end of the Spanish Empire.
6.2: Origins of the Mexican Revolution
Watch this lecture. Focus on Mexico's history and on the differences between the "old regime" in Mexico and France. Write a paragraph that highlights these differences.
Read this essay to understand how the political transformations of the nineteenth century affected Mexican peasants, most of whom belonged to the indigenous population of the area.
Read this essay to understand how industrialization proceeded in Mexico and how it changed the structure of society.
Watch this lecture by Steven Volk to understand the political changes in Mexico in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Watch this lecture by Steven Volk, focusing on the reasons for the longevity of the Diaz regime, its successes in the eyes in the foreign observers, its approach to modernization, and the social cost of modernization during this time.
6.3: Phases and Characteristics of the Mexican Revolution
Watch this lecture by Steven Volk. What are the four phases of the Revolution identified by Volk? What are the five themes of the revolution which he discusses?
Watch this lecture. The first half of the lecture focuses on the grievances of the various social groups which took part in the revolution, while the second half (around 37:00) turns to the revolutionary events themselves. As you listen, consider answering the following questions: what was the role of peasants, the working class, and intellectuals in the Mexican Revolution? What similarities do you perceive between the Mexican Revolution and the French and American Revolutions? What was unique about the Mexican historical context and revolutionary events?
This is a detailed chronology of the Mexican Revolution. Read it and make a shorter timeline of the most important events after you have listened to O'Brien's lecture.
6.4: Madero's Revolutionary Coalition and the Downfall of the Diaz Regime
Read this article to understand how the transfer of power took place in 1911.
Read this article to better understand Francisco Madero's background, his political goals, and his vision of the Mexican state.
This is a study of Emiliano Zapata's "Plan of Ayala". Read it carefully to understand the historical context in which the document was written.
Read this document from November 28, 1911, focusing on how it represents the Mexican population, how it delineates the needs and rights of peasants, and how it criticizes Madero's government.
6.5: Conservative Counter-Revolution
Read this article to obtain a basic outline of Huerta's coup.
Read this article to understand competing interpretations of the Huerta regime.
6.6: Huerta's Downfall, the Constitution, and Carranza's Presidency
Read these articles, focusing on the debates about the Mexican Constitution. Write a brief paragraph summarizing this debate.
Read Articles 1–26 of this Chapter of the Mexican Constitution. Compare them with the Bill of Rights in the American Constitution and with the French Declaration of the Rights of Man. What are the unique elements of the "Individual Guarantees" of the Mexican Constitution? What do these guarantees share with earlier revolutionary documents?
Read Title VI of Mexico's Constitution of 1917. How does this document specify the rights of workers? Why were the rights of workers so important in the Mexican Revolution? In what ways was this different from attitudes toward labor in the American Revolution?
Read this text and note the ways that President Obregón sought to enact the political changes contained in the 1917 Constitution.
6.7: Religion and the Mexican Revolution
- University of Notre Dame: Robert Curley's "Political Catholicism in Revolutionary Mexico, 1900–1926"
Read this article, focusing on the following questions: what is Curley's most important claim about the role of Catholicism in the Mexican Revolution? What evidence does he use to support this argument?
Find "religion", "religious", and other similar words in the text of the Constitution. Write a paragraph to answer the following question: how does the Constitution treat the relationship between politics and religion?
6.8: Consequences and Legacies of the Revolution
This lecture by Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas provides a useful overview of the Mexican Revolution. Watch the lecture to review the material you learned in this unit. Focus especially on the final section of the lecture (from 33:00 to the end) to understand Cárdenas' assessment of how the Revolution influenced twentieth-century Mexican politics.
- The Calles Presidency, 1924–48
- The Maximato
- Cardenismo and the Revolution Rekindled
- Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)
Read these texts to understand the reasons why they Institutional Revolutionary Party became so influential in Mexican politics in the twentieth century.
Read this article, which provides an overview of the Mexican Revolution and identifies they ways in which both the Revolution and the First World War influenced the history of twentieth-century Latin America.
Watch this lecture to understand how a new genre of political songs arose in the Mexican Revolution. You may also read the transcript of the lecture.
Unit 6 Assessment
- Receive a grade
Take this assessment to see how well you understood this unit.
- This assessment does not count towards your grade. It is just for practice!
- You will see the correct answers when you submit your answers. Use this to help you study for the final exam!
- You can take this assessment as many times as you want, whenever you want.