1. Mexican Revolution Questions of the Day
Daniel W. Blackmon
IB HL History
Coral Gables Senior High

2. Question # 1
How important were economic grievances in causing the Mexican Revolution that began in 1910 and to what extent were these grievances solved by the Constitution of 1917? (HL) (2001)

3. Key Terms
How important
Economic
Social
Political

4. Key Terms To what extent
Compare grievances to specific clauses in Constitution of 1917
Does the Constitution of 1917 solve the problem, or is there an issue with implementation?

5. Thesis
“Although Francisco Madero’s The Presidential Succession of 1910 called for political, rather than economic, reform, the fundamental cause of the Mexican Revolution was economic grievances.

6. Thesis
“The economic costs of the Porfiriato led to deep social unrest and a call for political reform that swept Díaz from office. However, although the Constitution of 1917 directly addressed economic and social grievances,

7. Thesis
“those provisions were inadequately implemented by Venustiano Carranza, Alvaro Obregón and Plutarco Calles .”

8. Context: The Porfiriato
Policies
Positivism
Order and Progress
Pan o Palo
Cientificos
Justo Sierra
José Ives Limantour

9. Limantour: Financial eliminated many import duties,
allowed special tariff exemptions, negotiated favorable loans,
shifted Mexico to the gold standard,
overhauled the administrative machinery,
balanced the budget.

10. Limantour: Harbor and Docking Facilities
Tampico and Vera Cruz
Increased government revenue from 50 million pesos to 488 million pesos by 1910

11. Foreign Investment: Railroads
Railroad mileage increased from 400 miles to 15,000.
80% of the capital came from the US.

12. New Mining Code
“In order to appeal to the foreign investor the code made no mention of traditional Hislpanic jurisprudence reserving ownership of the subsoil for the nation. Further, the proprietor of the surface was explicitly granted ownership of all bituminous and other mineral fuels.” (445)

13. New Mining Code
Foreign investors brought modern machinery and the cyanide process to work ores that previously were not profitable. Gold, silver, lead, and copper were mined.

14. New Mining Code
The Guggenheims invested in the American Smelting and Refining Company, the Aguascalientes Mining Company, the Guggenheim Exploration Company and the Mexican Exploration Company. Investments reached $12,000,000.

15. New Mining Code
In 1898, Colonel William Greene became the copper king of Sonora, investing his profits from copper into ranching and lumber

16. Oil
Edward Doheny (who will later be involved in the Teapot Dome Scandal in the US) forms the Mexican Petroleum Company in Tampico and Tuxpan.
Sir Weetman Dickinson Pearson formed the El Aguila Company.
These two companies made Mexico one of the leading oil producers in the world.

17. Political Cooptation: Pax Porfiriana

18. jefes politicos
Elites who cooperated with the regime became wealthier.
The rurales enforce Pan o Palo.

19. jefes politicos
Díaz spent 25% of his budget on the military.

20. jefes politicos
“The Díaz regime was self-reinforcing. The military provided the ordder necessary for economic development, and economic development provided the revenues necessary to keep the military loyal. Economic growth also built a modern communications network, which made it far easier for the army to stamp out disorders in the outlying areas.” (456)

21. The Hacendados
As was usually the case, the peasants bore most of the cost of modernization.
One of the most important trends was the seizure of communal and private lands by the hacendados.
There were 8,245 haciendas in 1910

22. The Terrazas-Creel Clan in Chihuahua
Luis Terrazas founded the power of the clan when he acquired property from a supporter of the French intervention. By 1910 he owned 7,000,000 acres of land, 500,000 head of cattle, 225,000 sheep, 25,000 horses, and 5,000 mules. His sons and sons-law held other substantial holdings.

23. The Terrazas-Creel Clan
His sons and sons-law held other substantial holdings.
Enrique Creel, his son-in-law held 1,700,000 acres. He also founded the Banco Minero de Chihuahua.

24. The Terrazas-Creel Clan
Through the Banco, the Terrazas-Creel clan controlled most other ways of making a living in Chihuahua. Through that, they controlled virtually all political activity as well. ( )

25. 1883 Land Law
“This law, designed to encourage foreign colonization of rural Mexico, authorized land companies to survey public lands for the purpose of subdivision and settlement. For their efforts the companies received up to one third of the land surveyed and the privilege of purchasing the remaining two-thirds at bargain prices.

26. 1883 Land Law
“If the private owners or traditional ejidos could not prove ownership through legal title, their land was considered public and subject to denunciation by the companies.” (449)

27. 1883 Land Law
By 1894, 20% of the land mass of Mexico was owned by land companies. By 1910, most villages had lost their ejidos, 134,000,000 acres had passed into a few very wealthy hands, and over half of all rural Mexicans worked on haciendas by (449)

28. Hacendados in Morelos A handful of sugar families controlled Morelos.
They needed income to pay for new machinery, and so they sought to increase production by squeezing ejidal lands ruthlessly

29. The Indians
In 1911, there were still 2,000,000 Indians who could not speak Spanish. (457)

30. Debt Peonage
“The scant wages he received most often were not paid in currency but in certificates or metal discs redeemable only at the local tienda de raya, an all-purpose company store located on the hacienda complex.

31. Debt Peonage
“Credit was extended liberally, but the prices, set by the hacendado or the mayordomo were invariably several times higher than those in a nearby village. For the hacendado the situation was perfect.

32. Debt Peonage
“The taxes on his land were negligible, his labor was, in effect, free, for all the wages that went out came back to him throuhg the tienda de raya with a handsome profit.

33. Debt Peonage
“The peon found himself in a state of perpetual debt, and by law he was bound to remain on the hacienda so long as he owed a single centavo. Debts were not eradicated at the time of death but passed on to the children.” (461)

34. Debt Peonage
Compare this with the practices in company towns such as Homestead, PA or the Pullman stikers in Chicago.
Since the mayordomo administered justice on a hacienda, the peon had no rights at all.

35. Condition of Labor
Wages in the 19th century ramained the same–about 35 centavos per day, but the cost of corn and chile doubled and beans increased six fold. ( )
Most Mexican workers had a 7 day work week and an 11 or 12 hour day.

36. Condition of Labor
There were no pensions or workmen’s compensation benefits.
Life expectancy remained at 30 years.
Infant mortality remained at 30%

37. Cananea Strike 1906
The strike was against William Greene’s Consolidated Cananea Copper Company. Greene called in Arizona Rangers, who invaded Mexico who violently broke the strike.

38. Rio Blanco Textile Strike 1907
Conditions in the Rio Blanco mills were abysmal.
The workers appealed to Díaz in vain.
When the tienda de raya refused wives of strikers credit for food, violence broke out.
Troops arrived to crush the strike

39. Economic Grievances under the Porfiriato
“Porfirio Díaz had developed his country at the expense of his countrymen. He hermetically sealed himelf off from the stark realities of Mexican masses. The great material benefits of the age of modernization in no way filtered down to the people.” (464)

40. The Liberal Program
The Flores Magon brothers (Jésus and Enrique) became outspoken opponents, publishing Regeneración

41. The Liberal Program
Published from St. Louis

42. The Liberal Program freedom of speech freedom of the press
suppression of the jefes politicos
secularization of education
nationalization of church property

43. The Liberal Program
abolition of the death penalty (except for treason)
educational reform in favor of the poor
prison reform
8 hour work day and a 6 day work week
abolition of the tienda de raya

44. The Liberal Program payment to all workers in legal tender
prohibition of child labor
Redistribution of all uncultivated lands to peasants
an agricultural credit bank
restoration of ejidal lands

45. Francisco Madero and the Anti-Re-electionist Campaign
Madero wrote The Presidential Succession of 1910 to express his opposition

46. Francisco Madero and the Anti-Re-electionist Campaign
Díaz once again manipulated the election, and was amazingly re-elected again

47. Francisco Madero and the Anti-Re-electionist Campaign
The Plan de San Luis Potosí“ ‘I declare the last election illegal and accordingly the republic, being without rulers, I assume the provisional presidency of the republic until designate their rulers pursuant in the law.’” (499)

48. Madero as President A political, not a social reformer
A Department of Labor was established but put in the hands of a conservative.
Juan Francisco Moncaleano, a Spanish anarchist, organized a union, but strikes were dispersed by troops.

49. Madero as President
Madero did nothing to increase funding for education
Ordered Zapata to disband his men even though the army in Morelos was led by Porfiristas (Huerta)

50. Pascual Orozco, Jr.
Capture of Ciudad Juarez with Pancho Villa in 1912 signaled end of the Porfiriato
Break with Madero in 1912

51. The Plan Orozquista 1912 10 hour workday restrictions on child labo
higher wage
suppression of the tienda de raya
nationalization of railroads

52. The Plan Orozquista 1912 Land illegally seized to be returned
Homestead rights to be applied retroactively
Government owned land to be distributed
Land owned by hacendados but not cultivated to be redistributed

53. The Revolutionaries: Zapata and Villa
Emiliano Zapata
Tierra y Liberdad!

54. The Revolutionaries: Zapata and Villa
Not only did Zapata appeal to villagers in Spanish, but he also addressed them in their native tongue, Náhuatl.
Some idea of his charisma may be gained by his statement, “I prefer to die on my feet than to live on my knees.” (“Prefiero morir de pie que vivir de robillas.”)

55. The Plan de Ayala 1911
“ ‘The lands, woods, and water that the landlords, cientificos, or bosses have usurped will be immediately restored to the villages or citizens who hold the corresponding titles to them lands, woods, and water are monopolized in a few hands .. .

56. The Plan de Ayala 1911
“ ‘one-third of these properties will be expropriated, with indemnification, so that the villages and citizens of Mexico may obtain ejidos, town sites and fields.’ ” (514-5)

57. The Convention of Aguascalientes
The Convention divided between delegations loyal to Zapata and Villa, on the one hand, and Carranza and Obregón on the other.

58. The Convention of Aguascalientes
“The underlying issue was whether the Revolution was going to follow the politically oriented Plans of San Luis Potosí and Guadalupe or the agrarian Plan de Ayala.” (536)

59. The Convention of Aguascalientes
When the revolutionaries gained control of the convention, Carranza withdrew to Veracruz.
This led to civil war which Carranza eventually won

60. The Constitution of 1917: Article 3
Free, obligatory, secular education

61. The Constitution of 1917: Article 3
Other anti-clerical provisions:
Marriage is a civil ceremony; religious organizations have no special legal status; priests are considered ordinary citizens; worship outside the church is banned

62. The Constitution of 1917: Article 3
State legislatures could determine the maximum number of priests in the state; all priests must be native-born; clergy are prohibited from forming political parties;
Clergy must register with the government; all new church buildings must be approved by the state.

63. The Constitution of 1917: Article 27
Restoration of lands seized illegally.
Private ownership of land no longer seen as a right but as a privilege.

64. The Constitution of 1917: Article 27
If land did not serve a socially useful function, it may be expropriated by the state.
Subsoil rights are reserved
Remember the new Mining Code

65. The Constitution of 1917: Article 123
an 8 hour work day, a 6 day workweek, a minimum wage, and equal pay for equal work, regardless of sex or nationality.
labor and capital have the right to organize.
Labor has the right to bargain collectively and to strike.

66. Implementation: Carranza
CROM 1917
Luis Morones founded the first national union, the Confederación Regional Obrera Mexicana

67. Implementation: Carranza
Carranza confused a change in government with a change in society (545)
Despite Article 27, he distributed only 450,000 acres of land. (545)

68. Implementation: Carranza
In 1915 and again in 1916, Carranza used troops to suppress strikes.
With respect to the Constitution, Carranza’s philosophy was Obedezco pero no cumplo. (550)

69. Implementation: Carranza
The Zapatistas are crushed after long and bitter fighting, with Zapata being lured into a trap and assasinated

70. Implementation: Obregón
Positive achievements supporting the Revolution
José Vasconcelos institutes a vigorous program of rural education. His purpose (at this time) was to integrate the Indians into mainstream mestizo society, to incorporate them into a raza cósmica. (Meyer 572-3)

71. Implementation: Obregón
Vasconcelos employed the Muralists– Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros– to decorate buildings with works that would also educate.

72. Implementation: Obregón
Obregón favored CROM over any other union organization. Morones chose to moderate his positions rather than risk being crushed. Membership rose from 50,000 in 1920 to 1,200,000 in (Meyer 575)

73. Implementation: Obregón
Limitations on his achievements
The Church
Obregón could not enforce the complete secularization of education because he lacked the resources to dispense with the Church.

74. Implementation: Obregón
Land Reform
Obregón is cautious. He did not wish to disrupt the hacienda system. Redistribution of the land would result in reduced productivity, and he also wished to avoid that.

75. Implementation: Obregón
Land Reform
Land redistribution is very modest: 3,000,000 acres.

76. Implementation: Obregón
Bought off Villa with a hacienda.
Villa later assassinated

77. Implementation: Obregón
Summary: Obregón “had been slow to implement the reforms promised by the Constitution [T]hrough shrewd pragmatism he had co-opted the radical thrust of the Revolution, and, while occasionally yielding to the rhetoric of reform, he had not done much to alter the sustaining structure of society.” (580)

78. Implementation: Obregón
Summary: Obregón “had been slow to implement the reforms promised by the Constitution [T]hrough shrewd pragmatism he had co-opted the radical thrust of the Revolution, and, while occasionally yielding to the rhetoric of reform, he had not done much to alter the sustaining structure of society.” (580)

79. Implementation: Calles
Positive achievements supporting the Revolution
Agrarian Reform: Calles redistributed 8,000,000 acres. Most of this land goes to the ejido rather than to individuals.

80. Implementation: Calles
Agricultural productivity declined as a result of this, so Calles began irrigation projects, established agricultural schools, and began to extend agricultural credit to small farmers. (583)

81. Implementation: Calles
Labor
Like Obregón, Calles favored CROM over all other unions. CROM’s membership continued to rise, and members were elected to Congress.

82. Implementation: Calles
Labor
By 1928, Luis Morones was a wealthy man, and it seems evident that the “system” had co-opted him. (584)

83. Implementation: Calles
Education
Vasconcelos’ program is continued, with heavy emphasis on the teaching of Spanish to Indians.

84. Implementation: Calles
Health: Sanitation and health is improved. Vaccination programs are begun, and food vendors (bakeries, butcher shops, dairies, cantinas, etc) begin to be inspected. (585)

85. Implementation: Calles
The Church
Calles decided to enforce the anti-clerical articles of the Constitution of 1917.

86. Implementation: Calles
When the archbishop of Mexico told an interviewer that, in all conscience, a Catholic could not accept the Constitution, Calles replied by deporting foreign priests and nuns, closing church schools, and ordering all priests to register with civil authorities.

87. Implementation: Calles
The archbishop ordered a strike.
For 3 years, the sacraments could not be obtained in Mexico. (587)

88. Implementation: Calles
The Cristero Rebellion
The war that erupted became vicious. The Cristeros rallied to the call of Viva Cristo Rey!

89. Implementation: Calles
In 1928, with his term coming to an end, Calles supported the election of Alvaro Obregón, thinking Obregón would repay the favor in 1934.
Obregón, however, was assassinated by a Cristero.

90. Implementation: Calles
Limitations on his achievements:
The Maximato
Calles, following Obregón’s death, continued as the power in Mexico, but he chose to be a puppet master–the Jefe Máximo

91. Implementation: Calles
Calles reorganizes the revolutionary party as the Partido Nacional Revolucionario (PNR) PNR would change its name but control the government for the rest of the century.
Calles shifts the Revolution strongly to the right.

92. Implementation: Calles
Land Reform
Land redistribution slows.
The Terrazas-Creel Clan was able to re-purchase land previously lost

93. Implementation: Calles
Education
Rural education is de-emphasized

94. Implementation: Calles
Labor
The government withdrew support for CROM.
Morones was exposed as corrupt.

95. Implementation: Calles
“The anti-Communist hysteria reached its apex in 1930 and 1931, years that witnessed the aberrance of the Gold Shirts, a fascist inspired organization of thugs whose self-appointed task was to terrorize all Communists and Jews.” (592)

96. Implementation: Cárdenas
To Calles’ surprise (and dismay), Cárdenas returns to revolutionary principles

97. Implementation: Cárdenas
Agrarian Reform
“Agrarian reform more than anything else dominated the administration’s concern during the first few years Cárdenas early made up his to fulfill twenty years of promises

98. Implementation: Cárdenas
[B]y the time his term expired, he had distributed 49 million acres, about twice as much as all his predecessors combined. By 1940 approximately one third of the Mexican population had received land under the agrarian reform program.

99. Implementation: Cárdenas
In fact, most of Mexico’s arable land had been redistributed. Only the large cattle haciendas on arid or semiarid land remained untouched.

100. Implementation: Cárdenas
“The vast majority of the land distributed did not go to individuals or even heads of households but rather to the communal ejidos.” (598-9)

101. Implementation: Cárdenas
The largest ejido was Laguna, with 8,000,000 acres.
The complex grew cotton, maize, wheat and alfalfa, provided schools and had a hospital.

102. Implementation: Cárdenas
Cárdenas created the Banco de Crédito Ejidal to provide loans for the small farmers.
Its performance is weakened by a population which grew faster than its assets, and by favoritism in its loans.

103. Implementation: Cárdenas
Still, this is a very positive step–agrarian reform must go beyond merely redistributing the land.

104. Implementation: Cárdenas
Economically, the ejidos were not as efficient, and agricultural production declined.

105. Implementation: Cárdenas
However, “Cárdenas’ dedication to agrarian reform spelled the demise of the traditional hacienda complex in Mexico. Millions of peasants were given a new faith in the revolutionary concept

106. Implementation: Cárdenas
. . . the type of servitude that had bound hacendado and peón for centuries was broken by If the ejido system was an economic failure, it was a political and social success.” (600)

107. Implementation: Cárdenas
The Church
Cárdenas is clearly anti-clerical. He instituted a socialist curriculum into the schools, which angered the Church.

108. Implementation: Cárdenas
When he added sex education, the Church became still more incensed.
In response, he backed off the sex education, and softened the socialist education by emphasizing positive attitudes and avoiding anti-religious propaganda.

109. Implementation: Cárdenas
Labor
Cárdenas supported the creation of a new labor organization, the Confederación de Trabajadores de México, (CTM) under the leadership of Vicente Lombardo Toledano

110. Implementation: Cárdenas
CTM set to improve the wage structure in Mexico

111. Implementation: Cárdenas
Education
Twice as much money is appropriated for rural education than any previous president.
Rapid population growth and high inflation however meant that the literacy rate actually seems to have fallen. The government could not keep up.

112. Implementation: Cárdenas
Expropriation of US Oil Companies
In 1936, Mexican workers at US owned fields went on strike. The companies refused to negotiate with the strikers.

113. Implementation: Cárdenas
The strike began to damage the economy, so Cárdenas ordered arbitration.
The arbitration board ruled in favor of the strikers, ordering a 33% increase in pay and improvements in the pension and welfare system.

114. Implementation: Cárdenas
The companies appealed to the Mexican Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the arbitrator.

115. Implementation: Cárdenas
The companies continued to defy the ruling, whereupon Cárdenas ruled that they had defied Mexican sovereignty and nationalized the holdings.

116. Implementation: Cárdenas
A storm of protest erupted in the US, with the oil companies, led by Standard Oil, urging intervention to prevent this Communist conspiracy.

117. Implementation: Cárdenas
But the President is Franklin D. Roosevelt, who has proposed the Good Neighbor Policy.
FDR refused to intervene, and instead insisted that the oil companies seek compensation through negotiations.
They eventually settled for $24 million
Compare this behavior with important strikes in the US: Homestead, Pullman, Anthracite Coal; compare Cardenas here with Teddy Roosevelt

118. Conclusion
Under Cárdenas, PNR is reorganized as PRM (Partido Revolucionario Mexicano) It consisted of representatives from the military, labor, agrarian and popular sectors.
.PRM is the official party, and Mexico remained a single party state. (606)