Emiliano Zapata: Mexico’s Greatest Revolutionary

this video is brought to you by curiosity stream a subscription streaming service that offers over 2000 documentaries and nonfiction titles eating at unlimited access for just $2.99 and up a curiosity stream comm forward slash biographic sand use the goad biographic s-- more on them in a bit viva la revolución that sounded more french when you hear the words mexican revolution which historical figure do you immediately picture we're guessing it's Pancho Villa's the sombrero wearing gun-toting Robin Hood bandit who infamously attacked the town of Columbus New Mexico in 1916 but while via is the revolutionary who gets all the press he was far from the most respected most influential or even most interesting no that honor instead goes to a mestizo horse trainer from the impoverished state of Morelos a man who began his life with almost nothing and wound up reshaping the whole of Mexico that revolutionaries named Emiliano Zapata born in a small village during the heyday of the Bavarian dictatorship Zapata's life should have passed in blissful obscurity yet a combination of circumstance and timing wound up thrusting him into the spotlight just as Mexico exploded an uncompromising supporter of land rights for the poor a general capable of conquering Mexico City and a tragic folk hero who died for his cause this is the story of Mexico's greatest revolutionary [Music] for a man identified so closely with revolution it's a mild historical irony that Emiliano Zapata was born just as the greatest period of Mexican upheaval ended in 1876 three years before Zapatas birth the decades of unrest that had followed independence came to a close when general Porfirio Diaz seized the presidency uttering in a long period of stability and growth known as the poor ferrate but don't go thinking that stable means popular the porfiriato was a dictatorship the elections were rigged dissent was crushed and the lower classes were locked out of power and nowhere suffered under Diaz's perfumed boot more than Zapatas home state of Morelos in 1879 the Arabs apart his birth Morales was Mexico's newest state a small blob of mountainous terrain not a hundred kilometers from Mexico City it was also one of the poorest seriously Marais losses major commodity was dirt poor peasants farming dirt poor lands and this poor quality dirt was about to cause a massive problem for generations the villagers in Morales had relied on communal lands produce enough crops to avoid starvation but now Porfirio Diaz was empowered he couldn't care less about communal land rights while the porfiriato turned a blind eye wealthy landowners known as Hasan da Das started aggressively occupying communal land in Morelos this is actually a story it's probably apocryphal that when Emiliano Zapata was just nine he witnessed his father brig down crying after a Hasan Dada fenced off an orchard at first the villagers of Marez they tried to fight back they petitioned officials they staged protests they even tried to hire lawyers but the povery otto was propped up by the same people stealing their land as well what was Porfirio Diaz gonna do arrest the Hasan dados keeping him in power for Zapata growing up in morale means growing up in a world where Hassan Dada's could not just steal lands without consequences that they could kill anyone who got in their way there's a famous story about one village lawyer who took his case against a Hasan dardo all the weight of all fairy ideas himself Diaz shook the guy's hands told him he'd look into it and then had the lawyer thrown into a labor camp and that's where things stood in Morales just before the Mexican Revolution broke out a bunch of voiceless pissed-off peasants desperately crying for a leader to stand up for their rights luckily for them Emiliano Zapata was about to answer that call so that's the world as a pattern inhabited but what about the man himself who was the guy who was about to fight for more else Emiliano Zapata was born on August the 8th 1879 in the village of anunnaki oh just one of the many Marius villages losing vital lands the houseand ADO's but it was the Potters village was dirt poor man himself was not the family Zapata was born into was actually kind of doing okay at least by Mexican peasant standards they had one of the biggest houses in the village and Zapatas father was a respected horse trainer this career it's evidently rubbed off on the young land and by the time he was a teenager Zapata was one of the best horse trainers in Moorea s-- with even the hacendados after his expertise this would turn out to be a very useful trait to have not long after Zapata turned seventeen both his parents unfortunately died the following year 1897 Zapata took part in a land rights protest and was arrested and drafted into the Porphyrion army but when he was discharged six months later it wasn't into poverty was about a senior dead and as a partner in the Army the super-rich hassen Dada's had become super desperate for a great horse trader and now the powder was back they were willing to pay big bucks for Zapata this was almost like being gifted a bottomless piggy bank he competed in races in rodeos the hawked his skills to whoever could afford them while he certainly never got rich he did get not poor not poor enough to afford not just fancy clothes but also the bucket loads of Wax it presumably took to maintain his glorious moustache as a batters local Fame group so his interest in politics better than a possibly fake story about Zapata watching his father weep over an enclosed orchard well Zapata certainly seems to have remembered it because in 1906 he began sitting in on village meetings about how to stop Hassen dollars being such land stealing [ __ ] by 1908 25 percent of all land in Morales was owned by a mere 17 families given that the other 75 percent was mostly low-quality stuff that those families didn't want this was a serious issue but Zapata wasn't yet ready to pick up a gun and fight to make things Thera this was 1908 the porfiriato had stood for 32 years so long that revolting against it just seemed impossible yet 1908 was also the year the foundations of the porfiriato would be destroyed by an unlikely source and that source was Porfirio Diaz himself [Music] if you've ever accidentally blurted something out I need to immediately regret it just know there's no way you've ever regretted it as much as Porfirio Diaz in 1908 Diaz gave an interview to the American journalist James Creelman that was supposed to be full of softball questions that Creelman could then write up into a vomit-inducing puff piece unfortunately Creelman just happened to ask what would happen when Diaz now in his 70s became too old to run Mexico it's here that Diaz didn't just stick his foot in his mouth but he practically swallowed his own legs Diaz declared the Mexico would become a democracy he said that he would step down in 1910 and allow a fair election to choose his successor I have waited patiently for the day when the people of the Mexican Republic would be prepared to choose and change their government at every election I believe that day has come now this was all just the highest-grade of cattle dung Diaz just wanted to sound good decree omens American readers but Diaz forgot to tell anyone in Mexico that he was lying so when the interview was published in February 1908 everyone was suddenly all like is this for real - which porphyry ideas basically replies yeah well I mean I guess and so began the slow implosion of the porfiriato down in Morales Emiliano Zapata was one of those looking to test Diaz's word the state governor had just died and local elites had put in a jerk to replace him so as a partner and some other village leaders decided to run their own candidate if Diaz was for real he'd let them campaign and he did to everyone's surprise as a patter and the others were able to travel to Morales drumming up support for their guy this meant Zapata meaning many of the movers and shakers in other villages getting his name out across the state along with his candidates come the Morrell our selection in February 1909 the batter's group we're certain they would win but well know at the last moment Diaz remembered he was meant to be a dictator and he rigged the vote the numerals governor lost no time hiking taxes on the villages that had supported Zapatas candidate as a warning to never vote against Diaz again to say this maids a part of furious is kind of like saying Krakatoa made a bit of a bang from this point on he was no longer going to play the porfiriato z' game if Diaz wasn't going to change by his own accord maybe it was time that someone forced him the following year 1910 Zapata made his first stand a local Hassen dardo had fenced off a communal hillside so Zapata armed 80 men went up to that hillside and tore the fences down for his trouble he got labeled to bandits and had to flee into the mountains so far well so unimpressive but something was about to happen in wider Mexico that would change as the pattice fortunes while those in Marella's had got an early warning that Diaz wasn't really going to allow fair elections the rest of Mexico hadn't got the message so come the 1910 election a wealthy liberal named Francisco Madero ran against Diaz and crucially everyone decided to vote for him and suddenly Diaz was faced with a country full of people desperate to see the back of him of course Diaz didn't let that vote happen TrueType II had Madero arrested and declare himself winner of a new presidential Town but Diaz had unleashed a very powerful genie with the Creelman interview a genie called hope and once that particular genie was out of the bottle but it was impossible to put back later that year sympathizers helped Francisco Madero escape of Mexico and get into the u.s. there Madero made a momentous decision if Diaz wasn't going to leave voluntarily Madero would force him out at gunpoint now just before we get into the revolution that is obviously coming I want to take a quick moment to tell you about today's sponsor curiosity stream curiosity stream is a subscription streaming service that offers over 2000 documentaries and nonfiction titles from some of the world's best filmmakers including exclusive so if you're looking for a specific recommendation from me well I definitely check out 101 events that made the 20th century if you're enjoying this video if you enjoy our videos about 20th century figures that's gonna be a great fit for you well it's a serious program obviously it's also pretty chilled out there's this Australian guy innovating it which kind of adds that he does a great job it's super engaging just a really enjoyable program I would definitely check that one out curiosity stream is available on many platforms Roku Android Xbox one you know all the stuff on your smart TV Everywhere like that and also world wide so if you're watching this and you're like oh you know this is one of those ones I can only get if I'm an America not the case with curiosity stream unlimited access starts at just $2.99 a month and for our audience I see you guys you can get 30 days for free a curiosity stream calm /by graphics use the code buyer graphics when you sign up and yeah get yourself some curiosity stream it's a great way to support the show it keeps us making more videos and I just couldn't really think of a more aligned sponsor really so go check it out let's get to that revolution today Mexico celebrates November 20th as a public holiday and last when Madero declared his revolution against Diaz but if he had been in Mexico who won November the 20th 1910 you'd have barely noticed that's because maderos call to arms was heeded by no one well almost no one the only reason November the 20th has gone down in history is because one of the few people to heed maderos call was Pancho via and via was a guy who knew how to do a revolution what about sapota how did he respond to Madero school well he didn't really do anything down in Morales Zapata couldn't give a cat's gonad what Pancho Villa was doing way up in the North Shore he wanted Diaz gone but it's not like Madero is promising the land reform in early 1900 things changed on March the 11th Madero crossed back into Mexico to take control of the growing Revolutionary Army almost immediately they started absolutely warping Diaz's guys in battle it's a pattern now faced militant choice either jump onto this revolutionary bandwagon and hope things worked out or step back from the brink and wait for the next opportunity it's a bad had jumped all that maize apat as peasant army managed to capture the city of crapola at the same time Pancho Villa seized Ciudad Juarez faced with multiple revolutionary armies on multiple fronts Diaz saw the writing on the wall on May the 25th 1911 Porfirio Diaz resigned and boarded a boat to Europe he would die in exile just four years later for that warning here Diaz is just about the only person in this video who is not going to die violently in the wake of Diaz's fight and interim presidents took over for the sole purpose of organizing new elections since everyone knew that Madero would win the new interim president asked the revolutionary armies to stand down to which Sebata replied we're good and probably captured cryovac at if that seems strange to you just another Zapata had been burned before he wasn't going to end his rebellion until Madero had committed to land reform that dream the two men finally met in Mexico City to discuss the issue while Madero didn't give any firm commitments the PATA did leave the meeting thinking Madero was an honest man which he could do business with he was so convinced of this that even when the Federal Army attacked Morales under the bloodthirsty general Victoriano Huerta Zapata thought it was all the interim president's fault he thought that Madero would put an end to all of it when he was finally elected and so that's we just have to say that well as a better you are in for a bit of a nasty surprise that October 1911 Madero won the presidency in a landslide almost immediately he dispatched an agent to negotiate with Zapata at first things went well the agent seemed super Inter's apart as ideas on land reform and it really looks like things were going somewhere and then it all went wrong either acting under secret orders or because he'd gone rogue a general in the Federal Army surrounded Zapatas men in the middle of negotiations when Zapata tried to desperately contact Madero he got an odd message back we will negotiate midair assured him but only if you surrender unconditionally this was the last straw about a broke off negotiations taking a small band of men he fled into the morass mountains bitter at his apparent betrayal it was clearly time for another revolution only this time it would be as a patter leading the charge [Music] at this point you may be wondering why Zapata is a guy who deserves abaya graphics video sure he helped overthrow one dictator but there's got to be more right well there is and it's known as the plan of Ayala issued by Zapata R on November the 28th of 1911 barely three weeks after Madero double-crossed him the plan of Ayala is still one of history's key revolutionary texts a radical agrarian manifesto it would go on to influence nearly every latin-american revolutionary since and well there are a lot of Latin American revolutionaries so what was it at its heart the plan of Ayala was a vision for a fairer world based on land redistribution while it comprised of 15 points most of them were just trash talking Madero so ore concentrate strictly on points six through eight in a bridge form they go something like this point six communal land seized by hacendados will be given back to villagers point seven one-third of all land held by the rich will be expropriated and given to the poor so everyone has a chance to improve their lot in life landowners will be compensated 0.8 those who resist point 7 will have their lands nationalized without compensation with the government using this land to create a fund for war widows and the very poorest the plan of Ayala wasn't so much a game changer as it was the creation of a whole new game at the time it was written the Russian Revolution it was still several years off the idea of a revolt that put the very poorest in society that its heart was near unprecedented this was a really radical document and it was really gonna blow up Mexico that Windsor revolts against the Maduro government inspired by the plan broke out across Mexico so the governments while they fought fire with fire and Morales the Federal Army took Zapatas family hostage they started burning down villages and funneling the survivors into concentration camps semadar himself couldn't have run a better recruitment campaign as the atrocities mounted his ranks of guerrilla fighters they swelled to the tens of thousands not that Zapata n anything like a regular army though his soldiers were peasants they often took up arms when needed only to put them down again the moment the battle was won and they go back to farming nor was the patter actually their leader yet at first the peasants in morale support in small decentralized groups who occasionally came together to take a city or whatever it wasn't until early 1913 that Zapata could really be said to be in charge and by then his Zapatista army was on the verge of taking Mexico City when he issued the plan of Ayala the batter had also issued a promise to march into Mexico City and personally hang Madero from a tree come early 1913 it really looked like he was gonna do it but fate had other ideas an attempted coup broke out in Mexico City led by Porfirio díaz's nephew félix díaz while Madero managed to hunker down safely in the presidential palace he couldn't defeat the insurrectionists so he called in general Huerta the guy we last met killing civilians in Marius quasi took one look at the mounting death toll and decided that he could use this for his own ends On February the 17th quite a switched sides backed by the US ambassador he convinced Madero to surrender then he had Madero loaded into a car driven to a secluded spot and shot dead in the aftermath of the 10 tragic days Quetta sidelined félix díaz and had himself declared presidents his first act was to send a messenger to the batterer to see if he wanted to join forces and this was the beginning of a new era in the Mexican Revolution and it wouldn't end until nearly all its players were dead [Music] [Applause] [Music] the dictatorship of general Wesa was as short and as pointless as a blow-up Napoleon sex doll when's the part I got quitters offer to join forces he was all like dude whiny the guys killing all those villagers in Morell's no and then about I went straight back to fighting but Huerta was also unpopular outside of Zapatas clique in the north pantry via restarted his revolution in the state of Korea governor Carranza declared himself in rebellion and raised Nami known as the constitutionalists before water could even warm the president's chair his regime was crumbling on all sides it didn't help that quota was basically trying to be the new Porfirio Diaz nope even those who supported his coup didn't want to live under a porfiriato tribute act by mid 1914 the combines pressure of the soup artistas Pancho Villa's army and Carranza's constitutionalists at left quitter a dictator incapable of dictating to anyone on July the 14th quarter resigns and fled Mexico although he would later try to enter the country and raise a new army he'd be arrested at the border by US authorities he died in prison in 1916 but while who at his departure was a win for the revolutionaries it also made things a thousand times worse the problem was that Zapata Thea and Carranza were all in this fight for different reasons savato wanted a land reform and to hell with everything else via wanted money and fame and to hang with some elites while Carranza wanted to be President without knowing why when Creta fled all three of them started eyeing one another sideways like the three Cowboys at the end of the good the bad and the ugly knowing that they're going to have to draw pistols on one another but unsure until the last second who they were going to shoot Zapata finally made his decision in the fall after a failed meeting between the three revolutionary armies about a got frustrated and ordered his men to march on Mexico City on the 24th of November carrenza fled the city ahead of 25,000 armed Zapatistas incidentally those deputies days were also overwhelmed by the capital that instead of raiding it they went barefoot from door to door shyly asking for food and water but Sebata hadn't taken the city to show off he was there to do business on December the 6th that business finally arrived pantry via Road into Mexico City at the head of an even bigger army than Zapatas the two men met at the presidential palace to work out the basis of an alliance the basis was this they would both work to lock Kemper out of power in return Zapata would get his land reform while via would get a civilian president one whose name likely rhymed with Banco beer as these two great revolutionaries left the palace they must have felt their time had finally come and that they were unstoppable neither man knew that the high-water mark of the revolution had already come and had already gone all that was left now was for the two of them to be swallowed by the waves [Music] not long after his meeting with via Zapata abandoned Mexico City back in Morales he started putting the plan of Ayala into action in practice this meant redistributing lands however he saw fit mostly that involved expropriating haciendas but Sebata he wasn't above burning them to the ground if the local Hasan Dada refused to comply the Zapatistas even set up a rural loan bank helping peasants to buy their own plots to farm it was a transformation from arias one that Zapata was sure would provide a template for the entire country he even contacted Woodrow Wilson's White House to see if they fancied recognizing him as Mexico's legitimate president the White House passed on the offer but whatever high is about her was feeling in early 1915 it was about to be lost forever as was his newest ally in April Pancho Villa fort Carranza's forces of the Battle of celaya via used his classic near suicidal cavalry charge which in this case turned out to be completely suicidal Alvaro Obregon had been studying tactics from World War one and used machine guns to mow down vias army by the end of the battle via was alive but no longer a threat last man's there was nothing to stop Carranza from turning his attention solely on zapata that october the united states officially recognized Carranza as Mexico's head of state around the same time the Federal Army moved into marios determined to bring Zapata to heel once again villages were burned once again civilians were killed but this time sapota didn't just flee to the hills as a noble folk hero he tried to fight back using Carranza's own tactics the results left indelible bloodstains on sapatos legacy in November 1916 Zapatistas bombed two passenger trains heading into Mexico City the terror attack killed almost 400 people doubled the death toll of the 2004 Madrid train bombings while the slaughter didn't dent Zapatas popularity in Moorea it left him isolated in the rest of mexican society the final nail in the coffin came in early 1917 after months of deliberation Carranza promulgated a new constitution that basically ripped off the plan of Ayala it opens the door for expropriations for nationalization of communal lands for redistribution for a fairer society where peasants are actually treated as he for most Mexicans the constitution of 1917 made as about as a fight seemed pretty pointless it was sort of a case of well dude you've already won just stop fighting but spatter wouldn't stop or maybe he couldn't and realistically who could make him he was still popular mareas no matter how many trains about a bombs no matter how many constitutions Carranza issued nothing would change the fact that Morales was going to stand by Zapata to the bitter end so currents are simply made sure that that ends was quicker and more bitter than anyone had expected in 1919 a federal general fighting in Morell's named hazers guardo abruptly switched sides his unit turned on the other federal forces killing 59 people when he got the news Zapata arranged a meeting with Grado to bring him into the Zapatista fold wildoe suggested that they meet in a remote Hacienda apparently having never heard of the concept of a trap Zapata agreed on April the 10th 1919 Emiliano Zapata and ten armed men rode to the abandoned Hacienda to negotiate with guado before the powder could even open his mouth dozens and dozens of fellow soldiers opened fire from their hiding places the revolutionary never stood a chance Zapata died that day in hell of bullets just like the latest Mexican revolutionary to meet a violent fate he would not be the last barely a year later on May the 21st Carranza would be assassinated in turn by his former general Alvaro Obregon Oregon's black would last a little longer before he too was assassinated in 1928 by then the only other leader to survive the revolution was also dead Pancho Villa was gunned down in 1923 in an ambush not unlike the one that killed sir Potter and just to tie things up we should probably mention that guardo was also assassinated after helping arrange the patterns assassination because apparently that's just how things roll in revolutionary Mexico and like I said at the beginning of this video we did warn you that everyone was gonna die violently at the end of all that bloodshed what did Emiliano Zapata really achieve why do we still know his name today for an answer to that just look back at the plan of Ayala in the decade of the Revolution land reform had gone from a drum being banged by a few obsessed sinn morales to something the whole of mexico cared about even though Carranza's 1917 Constitution was scrapped after he was assassinated elements of the plan of Ayala still crept into its successor even today it affect so many in Latin America think about land rights but Zapata was more than just a guy who wrote an influential plan in his years as a revolutionary Zapata became famous as someone who cared about the poor who was uncompromising in his beliefs who was willing to stand up to a rotten system he was far from a perfect man but he was also something more than a mere human he was a folk hero a Robin Hood who existed a myth brought to life for all his faults Emiliano Zapata is one folk hero the world will never forget sorry I hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below and don't forget to check out our fantastic sponsor curiosity stream I'll link to them below don't forget to use the code bio graphics to try it for free and as always thank you for watching [Music]

Channel: Biographics

Views: 543,794

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler, Emiliano Zapata, Emiliano Zapata life story, Emiliano Zapata death, Emiliano Zapata bio, Emiliano Zapata biography, Emiliano Zapata mexico revolution, Mexico’s Greatest Revolutionary

Id: p6yntbVfmNE

Length: 27min 57sec (1677 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 12 2019