Was The Failure Of Madero's Presidency Due To The Rising Expectations Of The People?

To what extent was the failure of Madero’s presidency due to the rising expectations of the people?

To begin, it is important to understand what problems the people of Mexico faced during Diaz’s regime. The main component of Diaz’s presidency was that he led a brutal dictatorship, full of corruption and inequality. Diaz focused more on economic benefit than the safety and security of the people in his country, and listened to no one outside of his circle of power. Under Diaz, people could not change classes. Everyone who was born a mestiso or an Indian stayed low-class for their entire lives. The Indians laboured on haciendas, were poor and sick, and Diaz didn’t do anything to fix it. That is why, when 1911 came and Diaz was put into exile,

the people put faith in a new man named Francisco Madero to change Mexico for the better.
Francisco Madero was the unofficial leader of Mexico between 1911 and 1913.

There had not been an election to officially give him the presidential title and after Diaz was put into exile, Madero took over control of the country. Madero had a lot of supporters leading up to Diaz’s exile. Diaz had been in power for 35 years, and when he neared his retirement, Madero stepped in and began running for president. Madero made an abundance of extravagant promises to the people of Mexico, most of which proved impossible to fulfill. When the people realized that Madero was using the presidential power to fix Mexico for white foreigners, and not the native Mexicans like he promised, he lost supporters. How much support did he lose because of rising expectations from the

public?
Madero promised the Mexican farmers that he would return control of the ejidos to them. This promise caused serious backlash from the public when it was not fulfilled. This promise was critical in the eventual failure of Madero as a president because getting their land back was the principal concern on the Mexican’s minds when they supported Madero. During the Diaz regime, Indians worked on haciendas, owned by hacendados, for 35 years. Once Diaz was exiled, the people saw a man who would give them control of their own land. It was a dream come true and because of it, people sided with Francisco Madero. They supported him, and believed in his ideologies the whole way to presidency, but it was then that their faith was lost. Madero wasn’t going to return land to Indians. He was doing lots of things to make the lives of white men better, but not native Mexicans and this resulted in a serious decrease in supporters.
Francisco Madero gained most of his support early when he openly opposed Diaz and his government. After almost 35 years of continued rule, Mexicans wanted to see a new man in charge. Madero was the solution to the problem, but after he gained power, he didn’t completely purge the government of Diaz’s people. He kept the same group of cientificos and rurales in charge, which meant that Madero was getting the same advice from the same people who gave advice to Diaz. This means that the public put their faith in Madero thinking that he would be a better president than Diaz, but there weren’t many differences because the cabinet stayed the same. The cientificos had a big impact on Madero because he was new in the world of politics, and frequently sought the help of the cabinet. The people had huge expectations for Madero to put the natives back on their feet, but with Diaz supporters giving advice to the new president, Madero became a weak, naive version of Diaz. This caused Madero to gradually lose supporters among the public.
Finally, Madero lost support from the public because he did not end the Mexican revolution with a happy ending.

The time period during which Diaz was being exiled was a stressful and monumental time for the people of Mexico. Suddenly the people of Mexico were free from the tyrant that had them under control with an iron fist for almost 35 years. They wanted a peaceful transition from the tough, brutal Diaz, to the peaceful, democracy loving Madero. Instead, what the people received was a period of uprisings from numerous groups, all wanting a piece of the power pie. Madero was the symbol of the Mexican Revolution which greatly hindered his ability to promote his beliefs. Madero didn’t know how to lead a country through a revolution and when the public realized this, they left him. Emiliano Zapata was one of the first people to break rank with Madero. He saw that Madero wasn’t the one to rule Mexico, but instead, he believed Pasqual Orozco should lead. He then led revolts against his former companion. Because Madero did not end the revolution peacefully like the public wanted, he provoked more revolts and violence. Once the people saw this, they realized that there was no hope of having their needs for land seen to, so they stopped supporting

Madero.
In conclusion, Madero’s failure as a president was to a great extent due to rising expectations of the people. In the time period leading up to Madero becoming president, Mexicans believed that Madero would return control of the ejidos to farmers, that he would govern Mexico differently than Diaz, and that he would end the revolution peacefully. Francisco Madero failed to do these things, and lost support from Mexicans. Not giving the ejidos to farmers was the broken promise that made people lose their faith to a great extent. This is how the people’s expectations of Madero resulted in his failure as a president.