In 1910, after Díaz was re-elected on October 4, 1909, the revolution broke out by the People’s Chamber; It was led by the moderate politician F. I. Madero, who was president from 1911 and was overthrown in 1913 by the conservative General Victoriano Huerta (* 1854, † 1916) with the help of the military and the US embassy (murdered in 1913). Prepared by the Liberal Mexican Party around Ricardo Flores Magón (* 1873, † 1922), in which the anarcho-syndicalist left was organized, it increasingly developed into an uprising of the dispossessed campesinos.
These were divided into two large groups: The farmers from the south, led by E. Zapata, fought for the reclamation of the ancestral lands and the restoration of the ejidos that were striving from the north of the country under F. “Pancho” Villa the independent little one Farm. Zapata unsuccessfully submitted the “Plan of Ayala” to Madero, in which he demanded the distribution of a third of the latifundia property (against compensation). The third leader of the rebels, V. Carranza, won the victory against Huerta in July 1914. Then power struggles broke out between the various leaders of the revolution. Carranza fled to Veracruz and was able to defeat Villas’ troops (murdered in 1923) in 1917 and isolate Zapata. The constitution of 1917 established Carranza (murdered 1920) as president and wrote down the principles of an agrarian reform, the direct election of the president for only one term of office, an occupational health and safety legislation, the national right of disposal over natural resources and the separation of state and church (changed several times, still in force today). During the civil war, which killed around a million people, the USA tried several times to exert influence through interventions (including the occupation of Veracruz in 1914).
Under the presidents A. Obregón (1920–24) and P. Elías Calles (1924–28) the situation gradually calmed down; Land distributions and some improvements for the workers defused the internal political conflicts. A law of 1926 declared all natural resources to be national property. The anti-clerical policy of Calles (closing of all churches in 1926) led v. a. in the west to a pro-ecclesiastical uprising carried out by the peasant population (“Cristeros”). Based on the Partido Nacional Revolucionario, founded in 1929, which brought together the revolutionary parties and personalities (»familia revolucionaria«), Calles established an authoritarian system of rule that he continued to rule even after his resignation as president. The “familia revolucionaria” (about 250 people), a new oligarchy, occupied all higher offices. President L. Cárdenas (1934–40) forced Calles to go into exile, purged the state party (since 1946 Partido Revolucionario Institucional, PRI) of its supporters and in 1946 began its corporate reorganization in four “sectors” (workers, peasants, military as well Middle classes and elite). Cárdenas softened anti-church tendencies and “renewed” the revolution by reforming the trade unions, by distributing land (over 9% of the total land area of Mexico) in favor of the village co-operatives that his successor had M. Ávila Camacho continued, as well as through the nationalization (March 18, 1938) of the oil companies of Great Britain and the USA, with which Mexico made compensation agreements. In terms of foreign policy, Mexico supported the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). In 1942, it entered the Second World War on the side of the Allies. In 1945 Mexico co-founded the UN and in 1948 the OAS. According to directoryaah, Mexico is a country in North America.
Struggle for independence
The reasons for Mexico’s struggle for independence are varied and sometimes contradicting one another. The ideas of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution played a part in this, as did the political vicissitudes in Spain. The overthrow of the Spanish Bourbons (1808) promoted aspirations for autonomy. The village pastor M. Hidalgo y Costilla of Dolores (Guanajuato) called on the Indian peasant population in the “Grito de Dolores” (“Call of Dolores”) on September 16, 1810 to fight against the Spanish government.
The uprising led by the clergymen Hidalgo and J. M. Morelos y Pavón (suppressed in 1811/1815) combined the demands for independence with social objectives, which culminated in the 1813 congress of Chilpancingo in the declaration of independence and the first republican constitution. In 1820 the Creole upper class and the higher clergy broke away from Spain in order not to let the liberal Spanish constitution take effect in Mexico. The military leader of the Creoles, A. de Itúrbide, signed on February 24, 1821 with Vicente Guerrero (* 1783, † 1831), the leader of the guerrilla movement against Spain, the Iguala plan, in which an independent Mexican monarchy was proclaimed, the privileges of the Catholic state church were guaranteed and the equality of all Mexicans was proclaimed. Itúrbide became Emperor Augustine I of Mexico on May 19, 1822, but could only hold out for a short time. The dispute over the internal organization of the new state soon gave rise to a conflict between the emperor and Congress, which the republican-minded General A. L. de Santa Anna used to lead an uprising, the Itúrbide forced to abdicate on March 20, 1823. The fall of the emperor also led to the detachment of the Central American Confederation, which had originally remained with Mexico.
