Introduction
Mexican revolution was a revolt led by Francisco Madero against Porfirio Diaz autocracy. The armed struggle began in 1910 though the decade up to 1929. Numerous socialist, anarchist, populist, anarchist and agrarian movement typified the rebellion. The revolution eventually transformed to revolt upon the conventional order to a multi-dimensional civil war. It was regarded as most essential sociopolitical incident in Mexico and one of the major turmoil of the last century. Mexican constitution of 1917 was the result of the extended struggles. It was assumed that it finalized in 1920, though the country experienced intermittent and relatively trivial warfare outbreaks. A greater significance of the war was that it resulted to the creation of National Revolutionary Party in 1929. Pancho villa is one of the major leaders that steered the revolution from 1911 to 1916. This paper addresses the factors that led to revolution, causes and effect of the changes and explains the importance of the revolution.
The first factor that contributed to the upheaval was the extreme dissimilarity among the people of Mexico over Porfirio Diaz dictatorial rule. Porfirio had ruled for thirty-one years. Mexicans were piqued by the mode of administration, since power was centered in the hands of few selected people. The favored few had no authority to express their views or appoint their own public officials. Additionally, wealth discrepancy, characterized by few rich and prejudice, dominated all corners of the country. With such poor leadership practices and wealth inequality, Mexicans mounted an upheaval against Porfirio long time reign.
Secondly, the upcoming generation of new leaders emerged and showed interest in political status of their country. However, the already ingrained power hungry persons in the country’s governance who were not willing to step down for this upcoming generation denied them a chance. The youth leaders had a strong belief that they could presume their appropriate role in Mexican political environment in the event that Porfirio proclaims a democratic country. On the contrary, President Diaz and his followers employed the economic and political resources to continue ruling indefinitely. This created an irritation among the youth who resorted to revolt to express their concern in political matters.
Democratic Francisco Madero was a factor that led to uprising. He was a strong advocator for democracy and making of government decisions to severe limits of the law. His character portrayed him as an opposition to President Diaz’s rule. Moreover, Madero’s movement was gaining ground, which was unpleasant to Porfirio. He was detained immediately after the 1910 elections and incarcerated in San Luis Potosi. He realized the reelection of Diaz and resorted to fly to the US. While in exile, he issued a proposal affirming that Diaz was not the legitimate winner of the elections. This proposal and infuriated youth further steered the revolution.
Mexican revolution had immediate results attributed to it, such as the production of Mexican constitution of 1917. It was the most noteworthy immediate result of the revolution. Some historians regard it as final goal of all the struggles for the rights of Mexicans, constitutionalists. The struggle for power between Carranza and Veracruz, in which Carranza emerged as a winner led to the formation of a supreme law to cater for the rights of Mexicans. It was referred to as Constitution Politica De Los Estados Unidos De mexicanos. It was perceived as one of policies of liberalism of the 20th century because it addressed the land reforms and women right. Moreover, it had a complex labor policy that stressed the rights of people of Mexico above everything.
Secondly, there was the formation of Institutional Revolutionary Party, Partido Revolucionario Institucional. This party conquered Mexico’s political foundation from its establishment in 1929 up to the late 20th century. It is notable that almost all essential political figures were members of this party. The party was democratic since candidate’s nomination to any public service office was indistinguishable from election. Initially it was called National Revolutionary Party and it was renamed after Mexican revolutionary party in 1938.
The revolution also had effects that were noted over period, they were not immediate. The first one is the culture and politics after the Mexican revolution. Nationalism and the regard for Indians and their involvement in Mexican culture were facilitated by many changes. Formerly, Mexico was unable to incorporate Indians into their national life, however it now sought to indianize the nation, through secular schools that supported nationalism and a revelation of the Mexican past, which overestimated the its Indian culture and criticized the western capitalism. The common Mexican culture embraces the heroes and events of the rebellion in gain of songs sang to celebrate and inform the Mexicans. The stimulus and extreme emergence of creativity such as arts, literature and music is linked to the Mexican revolution.
Revolution provided a nationalistic foundation between Mexico and other nations such as United States. The diplomatic intervention of United during the revolution aggravated a temporal US attack of Veracruz in 1914. Pancho Villa’s forces raided the across the border and as a result the US countered by sending its forces to capture him but the mission faltered. European war had destructed American foreign strategies until 1918. When the American oil companies experienced problems, it suspected the new government leading to a serious conflict. The companies requested the American intervention to aid them when President Cardenas seized companies in 1934. This led to an agreement but Mexico state-owned its petroleum industry. This take over was regarded as economic independence declaration which denoted a basis of various goals of revolution.
Mexican revolution had an essential role in reforming the ancient Mexico to modern one. The first need for reform was the disputable social and economic base in which the rich owned the land similar to medieval Dukes in vast estates. They reserved their workers in insolvent, deep in debt and hardly having basic needs to survive. Mexico had factories but its economy was poor and concentrated more on agriculture and mining. Porfirio brought modernization, but it benefited the chosen rich. This approves that a radical change was appropriate to eradicate the social imbalances in the country.
Corruption was one of the unethical practices in Mexico, which needed to be eliminated. Mexico possesses extreme resources such as oil, minerals, agriculture to hardworking people. With such possession, its revolution was anticipated to be fast and relatively effective. However, corruption provided a hindrance slowing down the process. Corrupt leaders, such as Porfirio and his allies, were on the forefront promoting corruption. Lazaro Cadenas’ honesty in 1934 elections gave an opportunity to Mexico to revert to its feet and continue revolution.
In conclusion, Mexico is one of the countries that have experienced revolution in its economical and political environment. Mexicans were the initiators of the own revolution through strong perpetrators of democracy such as Pancho Villa and Francisco Madero. There are several reasons that contributed to the revolution namely dictatorial leaders, upcoming youthful leaders and the rise of democrats such as Francisco Madero. The revolution yielded some fruits such as the Mexican constitution of 1917, political parties and nationalistic foundation between America and other countries. Corruption and the disputable social and economic foundation were some of the areas that needed reforms. In addition to, revolution has proved to be an inspiration for artists