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video description or at the end of this video. It’s December 1920 and General Álvaro
Obregón is sworn in as President of Mexico. This brings and end to a bloody ten-year conflict
of shifting alliances, assassinations, US intervention, and bandits turned
heroes – it’s the Mexican Revolution. Hi, I’m Jesse Alexander and welcome to the
Great War. The Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920 was a watershed moment in the country’s
history. The decade-long struggle cost hundreds of thousands of lives, resulted in
new constitutions and governments, and created heroes and villains that are still talked about
today. So in this episode, we’ll take a look at all ten years of the Mexican Revolution which came
to an end exactly 100 years ago, in December 1920. The seeds of the Mexican Revolution were sown
in the final years of the rule of dictator Porfirio Díaz. Although his 31 years in power
had brought economic modernization in Mexico, this also caused serious
tensions in Mexican society. In the early 20th century, the vast
majority of Mexico’s 13 million people were rural peasants – and they were unhappy with
Diaz’ rule. This was because the countryside had become dominated by haciendas, which were big
farming estates owned by a few of rich landowners. By 1910, about 80% of villages were part of
haciendas, where people worked as unskilled labourers. That left only 20% of villages where
peasants controlled the land. To the peasants, the haciendas were swallowing up their
land, especially native communities, and replacing their independence with
low wages and poor working conditions. In 1910, these tensions boiled over. But the
challenge to Diaz’ power came not directly from peasants, but from Francisco Madero, who was
himself a landowner. He was supported by much of the middle class, who wanted political and
electoral reform but not an extreme revolution. Madero also wanted to get the support of the
unhappy peasants as well, so he announced the San Luis Plan, which promised to give them
back much of their land. On November 20, 1910 – even though he was still in exile in the US
– he called on Mexicans to rise up against Diaz. After some hesitation, peasants in the state of
Chihuahua did rise up, and managed to defeat the Federal Army. At first, they followed Madero,
but before long the uprising got out of Madero’s control. To contain the peasant revolution, Madero
and Diaz got together and signed the Ciudad Juárez Accords for a transition of power, and after Diaz
resigned Madero won the election in November 1911. So, the peasants had risen in
revolt against the landowners, which had led to Madero becoming president. For
Madero and the middle class, Diaz was gone and the revolution had done its job. Madero told the
peasants they had to give up their weapons before he could enact his plan to give them back
their land. But the peasants refused to disarm. One of the most important peasant leaders
was Emiliano Zapata, a skilled horseman from the rural state of Morelos. Under his
command, the Southern Liberation Army had already begun reclaiming and redistributing
land it had seized from the haciendas. When the revolution began
Madero approved of Zapata, but they moved apart as Zapata became more radical
and refused to disarm. Zapata envisioned a society in which armed peasants could protect their land
and force the hand of the central government. When Madero promised Zapata new laws
if he gave up his weapons, he replied: “[It] strikes me, [that] there won’t be
more laws than there are guns.” (Gilly 73) By November 1911, Zapata
was disappointed in Madero, and suspicious of his goals. So he created his
own manifesto, which he called the Ayala Plan. The 15 points of the Ayala Plan became an
influential call to arms for Mexican peasants: “We give notice: that [regarding] the fields,
timber, and water which the landlords... have usurped, the… citizens who have the titles
corresponding to those properties will immediately enter into possession of that real estate of
which they have been despoiled by the bad faith of our oppressors [and] maintain at any cost with
arms in hand the mentioned possession.” (Zapata) By early 1912, the split between Zapata and
Madero was complete. In a report to Congress, Madero was critical of the zapatistas: “Fortunately, this amorphous agrarian
socialism, which for the rude intelligence of the farmers of Morelos can only
take the form of sinister vandalism, has found no echo in other regions
of the country.” (Womack 142) So Madero had split from Zapata’s peasants, and
it turned out he was wrong about peasants in the rest of the country as well, since they
also began to rebel. But Madero’s downfall would not come at the hands of the peasants,
but from other enemies closer to home. In February, 1913 Generals
Bernardo Reyes and Félix Díaz, both of whom had served deposed dictator
Porfirio Diaz and rebelled against Madero, were broken out of prison. They quickly gathered
2,000 men and stormed the National Palace in Mexico City. Madero ordered General
Victoriano Huerta to crush the rebels, but Huerta was in no hurry, since he also
had his own aspirations for taking power. Instead Huerta negotiated with Diaz, since
Reyes had been killed in the fighting. They agreed to overthrow Madero, after which
Huerta would take power. This agreement was signed at the American embassy, since the US
ambassador supported the arrangement in the hopes Huerta could bring stability and
protect US business interests in Mexico. But stability was not to be.
Just days later, as Madero and his vice president were killed by
the troops escorting them to prison. Their deaths triggered insurrection in the
countryside, and resistance from the middle class, which was not happy about a democratically elected
president being overthrown and then murdered. Opposition to Huerta now took the form of a group
calling themselves the Constitutionalists. This group of opponents included politicians,
generals and peasant leaders, and they were led by politician Venustiano Carranza
and General Álvaro Obregón. In early 1914, the Constitutionalist Army won a series of
victories against Huerta’s Federal Army. Things got even worse for Huerta when the United
States military showed up. On April 21, 1914, US Marines occupied the port city of Veracruz
after a dispute involving the arrest of some US sailors. The port was the main source of
Huerta’s military supplies and was now cut off. Huerta tried to convince the Constitutionalists
that the American imperialists were attacking both sides in the Mexican conflict, but to no
avail. But US troops remained in Veracruz and the Constitutionalist Army continued its attacks
against Huerta’s Federal Army, and reached Mexico City in July. Huerta went into exile, and
Carranza took over the government in August 1914. So, between 1910 and 1914, power in Mexico had gone from Diaz to Madero
to Huerta and now, to Carranza. But the most famous figure to emerge from the chaos was some
else: the bandit-turned-general Pancho Villa. By 1914, Francisco Villa, also known as
Pancho, was one of the most important figures in the Mexican Revolution. He
had been a bandit and a horse thief, but in 1910 he began to lead peasant guerillas
against the Diaz dictatorship. His army, the División del Norte - or Northern Division
– played an important role in overthrowing Diaz and then formed the backbone of
Carranza’s Constitutionalist forces. Villa’s troops won numerous victories
against Huerta’s Federal Army, which made him an icon to the northern
peasantry. In addition to his military success, his unique character also drew attention.
Journalist John Reed described him this way: “He is the most natural human being I ever saw, natural in the sense of being nearest to a
wild animal. He says almost nothing and seems so quiet as to be almost diffident… If
he isn’t smiling, he’s looking gentle. All except his eyes, which are never still and
full of energy and brutality.” (McLynn 188) Villa soon allied himself with
fellow peasant revolutionary Zapata, and part of what united them was a distrust
of Carranza and the middle class. Both groups had cooperated against Diaz and Huerta, but
there were tensions. Once Huerta was defeated in 1914, the Constitutionalist leaders met to
discuss the future. Carranza wanted the convention to confirm his rule and end the violence,
but things soon went in another direction. The more radical peasant delegations,
including the zapatistas and villistas, adopted Zapata’s land reform plan and demanded
Carranza’s resignation but Carranza refused, and General Obregon supported him. The alliance
between Carranza and the peasant leaders against Huerta was now broken, and Carranza and
Obregon fled Mexico City for Córdoba in Veracruz. Villa and Zapata then attacked Mexico City and
captured it in December 1914. The peasant rebels now walked the corridors of power, an unusual
situation for most of them. Writer Martín Luis Guzmán described the scene as Zapata’s brother
Eufemio, gave a tour of the National Palace: “We went up the staircase of honour… as he claimed
each step, with his tight wide-seamed trousers, his drill-shirt open below the waist,
and his excessively broad sombrero, he seemed to symbolize the historic
days through which we were living. For his boorish, not humble, figure contrasted
with the refinement and culture heralded by the staircase... An ambassador would have
moved respectfully up these stairs. Eufemio moved like a young stableman who thinks
he will suddenly become president.” (Gilly 150) Peasant revolutionaries had conquered the capital,
but niether Villa nor Zapata claimed power. Their priority was regional power and land reform, not running the whole country. Pancho Villa
himself summed it up to Zapata this way: “I am a fighter, not a statesman. I am
not educated enough to be president. I only learned to read and write properly two
years ago. How could I, who never went to school, hope to be able to talk to foreign ambassadors
and the cultivated gentlemen of Congress. It would be bad for Mexico if an uneducated
man were to be president.” (McLynn 275) Villa and Zapata believed that
national power ought to rest with a representative of the middle class,
and supported Eulalio Gutiérrez as the interim president – and this
faction became known as the Conventionists. So as 1915 began, there were
two governments in Mexico: the Constitutionalists under Carranza and Obregón,
and their former allies the Conventionists under Gutiérrez with the support of the
peasants. The revolution now became a civil war. Villa and Zapata’s forces now held the
advantage, and there were some calls for marching on Carranza’s stronghold in
Veracruz. But neither peasant leader wanted to advance too far from their bases in Chihuahua
and Morelos. There were other internal tensions amongst the Conventionists as well. Many
opposed peasant soldiers attacking rich residents in Mexico city, and the resulting
clash saw Gutiérrez and many of his ministers flee the capital and join the Constitutionalist
camp in Veracruz in January 1915. Villa and Zapata’s refusal to attack Veracruz gave
General Obregon the time he needed to rebuild his forces into the new Operational Army. He launched
an offensive and recaptured Mexico City. There, Carranza was able to gain 9000 recruits
from trade unions for his new Red Brigades. Villa and Zapata now fell
back to their home states, and their armies separated. Obregon’s
Operational Army struck against Villa first, resulting in battles at Celaya in April and
Aguascalientes in July. As Obregon’s forces approached Aguascalientes, he reported on
the severe difficulties they were facing: “We have supplies only for tomorrow, and our
limited ammunition is only enough to take a town by assault. Four leagues from Aguascalientes;
impossible to retreat because there is not enough ammunition or provisions, and because it would
be very irksome; perfectly aware of the risks I am taking, all our men will begin the advance on
Aguascalientes at dawn tomorrow, with hopes but little assurance (given our ammunition shortages)
of occupying the town.” (Gilly 200/201) The all-or-nothing attack paid off. Obregón won a
decisive victory, and Villa’s forces fled into the mountains. The victorious Constitutionalists
offered Villa an amnesty, but he refused and returned to guerilla war. Obregon famously
lost an arm in the fighting as well. Meanwhile, Zapata was isolated in Morelos. He
did manage to briefly re-occupy Mexico City, but for the most part he was left
alone as Obregon concentrated on Villa. Zapata used this time to develop
his concept of the Morelos Commune, which planned for widespread
redistribution of land and industry. So the Mexican Revolution’s winners
had fallen out and begun a civil war. Across the border in the United States, President
Woodrow Wilson was beginning to worry about how the trouble in Mexico might affect US interests
and international politics, so he took action. US policy in Mexico during the revolution had
been inconsistent, and the Americans had supported various factions at different times, and even
sold weapons to Pancho Villa. Now that Villa had been defeated, Wilson wanted stability and
trade, and recognized Carranza’s government. Villa was outraged. When he heard
of the US decision, he stated: “I emphatically declare that there is much I have
to thank Mr. Wilson for, because he relieves me from the obligation of giving guarantees
to foreigners and especially to those who had at one time been free citizens and are today
vassals of an evangelical professor of philosophy… I take no responsibility for
future events.” (McLynn 319) Some observers have argued that
after his defeat at Aguascalientes, Villa began to behave more recklessly – and
his men certainly did so in January 1916. Villistas stopped a train carrying 17
American engineers in Chihuahua, and executed them. Villa denied he gave the
order for the killings, but this is debated. In February, Villa led 140 fighters on a
two-week expedition across the US border, arriving at Columbus New Mexico on March 8. His
forces attacked, but accidentally shot into a horse stable they had mistaken for a barracks, and
killed many of the horses they’d planned to steal. Nearly 300 men of the US Cavalry were based
in the town and returned fire, but Villa’s men managed to raid the town centre before
they were beaten back. This was the first invasion of US soil since 1812, and left
17 Americans and up to 100 villistas dead. Now there is a lively debate about why Villa
launched the raid on Columbus. Some have said it was to avenge Wilson’s recognition of
Carranza, others that it was a vendetta against an arms dealer who lived in the town, and still
others theorize that Villa wanted to trigger a Mexican-American War in which Mexicans would
unite around his anti-imperialist leadership. Whatever Villa’s reasons, the raid
put pressure on Wilson to retaliate, but he didn’t want to risk
full-scale war with Mexico. So Wilson ordered a cross-border Punitive
Expedition led by General Jack Pershing and supported by the First Aero Squadron. The goal
of the 10,000 man expedition was to capture Villa dead or alive – and at first it even had
clandestine logistical help from Carranza. Turns out the expedition was poorly planned and
supplied, did not know the terrain, and did not get the support of the local population. They
did defeat and wound Villa at Guerrero on March 29, but he managed to escape. Pershing’s force
marched more than 500km into Mexico, but could not corner the peasant fighters – and Villa’s
reputation amongst the peasants grew even more. And the longer the Americans were in
Mexico, the more tensions there were between them and Carranza. By June, he
ordered Pershing to leave the country, and small-scale skirmishes broke out between
US troops and Mexican Constitutionalist forces. Eventually, the American expedition returned
home in January 1917 without achieving its goal. Wilson’s desire to end the expedition
received a boost from the Zimmermann telegramme, in which Germany had proposed
an alliance with Mexico against the US. The Germans hoped that if the Mexico attacked
the US, the Americans would be less able to supply Germany’s enemies in the Great War,
France and Britain, with arms and supplies, as they had been doing since 1914. In the
end Mexico remained neutral in the Great War. So, by 1917, the Americans had come and gone,
the civil war was ongoing but less intense. Villa had been weakened, and Zapata
was busy with regional concerns. Carranza now sought to
reinforce his hold on power. In early 1917, Carranza announced a
new constitution designed to end the conflict. The Mexican Constitution of 1917
was one of the most progressive of the time, including land reform, equality of pay,
maternity leave, and a minimum wage. But the new constitution was opposed by the
wealthy upper classes. Jorge Vera Estanol, a minister under Diaz, called it “the
bastard offspring of a coup d’etat”. He and others criticized
the new document’s approach to religion, education, and especially
private property and foreign investment. Despite such opposition, Carranza was
elected president in March - although he had no serious opposition. General Obregón was
relieved of his military command and retreated into the background of Mexican politics.
Carranza now decided to eliminate Zapata, and he sent General Pablo González to Morelos to
break up the Commune. The Zapatistas fought well but by late 1918 the constant pressure
led to defections among the peasants. Zapata was desperate for allies, and even
contacted the Bolsheviks. He also learned of a dispute between General González and one of his
officers, Colonel Jesus Guajardo, and Zapata tried to convince Guajardo to join him. But González
learned of the plan, and blackmailed Guajardo into agreeing to gain Zapata’s trust,
before executing him. On April 10, 1919, Zapata arrived for a meeting with the Colonel,
and was promptly gunned down by Guajardo’s men. By spring 1919, Zapata was dead, and Morelos
was now reunited with the rest of Mexico under Carranza. It seemed that Carranza had
triumphed, but the revolution was not over yet. The 1917 constitution had certainly promised
a lot, but in the eyes of many left-leaning politicians and army officers, Carranza hadn’t
delivered much by 1920. The economy was weak thanks to years of war, and his Carranza’s
opponents called for him to step down. Carranza proposed a successor, but the military wanted
Carranza’s old ally, General Obregon to take over. Government authorities then tried to arrest
– and possibly assassinate – Obregon, but he survived. Obregon fled the capital and
called openly for Carranza’s removal, with the approval of many Mexican
state governors. Carranza once again tried to run to his old safe haven in
Veracruz, but he never made it. On May 21, 1920 one of his escorts had had enough of running
from Obregon’s troops, and shot Carranza while he was asleep – though it is possible, but
unlikely, that Carranza committed suicide. In the north, Pancho Villa felt that Obregon
was an improvement over Carranza, but soon fighting broke out between
villistas and government troops. But after years of fighting, neither side wanted
a war, and in July Villa agreed to lay down his arms in exchange for a military
pension and 25,000 acre estate. Obregon was now in control of the country,
and appointed an interim president before he himself won the election and was sworn in
as President of Mexico on December 1, 1920. For many historians, Obregón’s election
marks the end of the Mexican Revolution, though some argue it didn’t end until the 1940s. Although he did continue to ruthlessly suppress
his internal enemies, Obregon’s time as president is considered a period of relative stability. The
peasants received some concessions, a delicate balance was struck between revolutionary
and more conservative groups in society, and many former Zapatistas even joined his
government. On the other hand, Obregon’s term also saw renewed rebellions, and it is
likely that he ordered the murder of Pancho Villa in 1923 – just 5 years before Obregon himself
was shot by a disgruntled Catholic assassin. We want to thank Mark Newton for his help
with this episode. As usual, you can find all our sources for this episode in the video
description. If you want to support our channel, you can support us on Patreon - the links
are in the video description below as well. I’m Jesse Alexander and this is The Great
War 1920, a production of Real Time History and the only Youtube history channel
whose allegiance you can rely on.
Oh hell yes, can't wait for this one, hope I get some time today!