The Mexican Revolution

The Mexican Revolution

The prevailing concern of the Mexican revolution was the welfare of the common Mexican worker, be he a farm worker on a Southern hacienda, or a rancher in the North. The presidents of Mexico, starting most notably with Benito Juárez, really incited the revolution, though laterthe main course of protest and turmoil focused on the presidents themselves.

Díaz served as Mexican president until 1910. During his time in office, the Mexican economy and lifestyle were fairly successful; Mexico had good trade relations with the U.S. and other countries, and the wealthy landowners were making a sizeable profit. However, the huge population of laborers who worked to produce that success were suffering bitterly. Mexico was in a state of prime capitalism, surviving on the exploitation of the lower classes. Because of their lowly state, Mexico's poor had little, if any, pride in themselves or their country. The Mexican identity was crumbling.

In 1910, Madero replaced Díaz as president. Madero had the misfortune of inheriting an angry nation. Most ordinary Mexicans were dissatisfied with the government's lack of attention to them, and by this time they had found leaders who were strong enough to fight for their basic rights. Madero wanted desperately to reach a compromised agreement of some kind, if for no other reason than to quiet things down.

Emilio Zapata, leader of the Southern farm workers, opposed him bitterly. Zapata felt that people's basic needs were being neglected,that Madero was focusing too much on re-establishing a higher classs sense of order. In response, Zapata and his armed followers, the Zapatistas(from whom the present "Zapatista" guerrillas take their name--WW), made chaos of Southern M...

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... the working class became revered and respected, and the actions of the government were now to be watched more closely. Much of the modern Mexican political state exists as it does because of the revolution. Even music in Mexico owes much of its basis to the days of the revolution, when patriotic songs were composed by everyday campesinos. Mexico's history is somewhat similar to that of France, in that it was once an aristocratic, feudal nation that has slowly become a land of relative freedom and opportunity; never as successful in that regard as the U.S., but still very much improved in its social awareness.

WORKS CITED

Deas, Malcolm. (Ed.). (1980). CAUDILLO AND PEASANT IN THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Joslin, David, & Street, John. (Eds.). (1968). THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION, 1910-1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.