In the history of Mexico , the Plan Orozquista was a plan issued by revolutionary general Pascual Orozco on 25 March 1912. It is sometimes called the Plan of the Empacadora , since it was signed in a cotton factory. In it, Orozco repudiated the government of President Francisco I. Madero , which he charged had betrayed the Mexican Revolution .
180-626: Orozco along with Pancho Villa had defeated the Federal Army in the Battle of Ciudad Juárez, which pushed Porfirio Díaz to resign as president and go into exile. Madero signed the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez , which called for an interim government, new elections, and the retention of the Federal Army, which Orozco’s forces had just defeated. Revolutionary forces were demobilized. Once Madero
360-407: A "military mission" to Europe, distancing him from Mexico and potential political supporters. "The potential challenge from Reyes would remain one of Díaz's political obsessions through the rest of the decade, which ultimately blinded him to the danger of the challenge of Francisco Madero's anti-re-electionist campaign." In 1910, Francisco I. Madero , a young man from a wealthy landowning family in
540-707: A Mexican mayor named Juan Muñoz, Villa recruited more men into his guerrilla militia and had 400 men under his command. Villa then met with his lieutenants Martin Lopez, Pablo Lopez, Francisco Beltran, and Candelario Cervantes , and commissioned an additional 100 men to the command of Joaquin Alvarez , Bernabe Cifuentes , and Ernesto Rios. Pablo Lopez and Cervantes were later killed in the early part of 1916. Villa and his 500 guerrillas then started planning an attack on U.S. soil. On 9 March 1916, General Villa ordered nearly 100 Mexican members of his revolutionary group to make
720-616: A broad movement against Díaz, he was not sufficiently radical for anarcho-syndicalists of the Mexican Liberal Party , who challenged his leadership. Madero ordered Villa to deal with the threat, which he did, disarming and arresting them. Madero rewarded Villa by promoting him to colonel in the revolutionary forces. Much of the fighting was in the north of Mexico, near the border with the United States. Fearful of U.S. intervention, Madero ordered his officers to call off
900-414: A coup to oppose the re-election of Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada , he could not run for re-election in 1880. His close ally, General Manuel González , was elected president (1880–1884). Díaz saw himself as indispensable, and after that interruption, he ran for the presidency again and served in office continuously until 1911. The constitution had been amended to allow unlimited presidential re-election. During
1080-456: A cross-border attack against Columbus, New Mexico . Some historians believe that Villa attacked Columbus due to his concern for what Villa believed was American imperialistic interference in Mexican internal affairs. From a purely military standpoint Villa carried out the raid because he needed more military equipment and supplies in order to continue his fight against Carranza. Many believed
1260-533: A factor in the Revolution. He decided to split his remaining forces into independent bands under his authority, ban soldaderas , and take to the hills as guerrillas. This strategy was effective and one that Villa knew well from his bandit days. He had loyal followers from western Chihuahua and northern Durango. A pattern of towns being under government control and the countryside under guerrilla control reasserted itself. Civilian populations during warfare are often
1440-608: A follower of Emiliano Zapata , revolutionary leader in Morelos. Magaña also informed him of Zapata's Plan de Ayala , which repudiated Madero and called for land reform in Mexico. Villa was transferred to the Santiago Tlatelolco Prison on 7 June 1912. There he received further tutelage in civics and history from imprisoned Federal Army general Bernardo Reyes . Villa escaped on Christmas Day 1912, crossing into
1620-646: A huge challenge to the new and weak Madero government. Orozco’s rebellion was ultimately suppressed by General Victoriano Huerta and the Federal Army, but Madero’s government and hold on power was undermined by this challenge from a revolutionary hero. Mexican Revolution Plans in Mexican history Pancho Villa Francisco " Pancho " Villa ( UK : / ˈ p æ n tʃ oʊ ˈ v iː ə / PAN -choh VEE -ə , US : / ˈ p ɑː n tʃ oʊ ˈ v iː ( j ) ə / PAHN -choh VEE -(y)ə , Spanish: [ˈpantʃo ˈβiʎa] ; born José Doroteo Arango Arámbula ; 5 June 1878 – 20 July 1923)
1800-422: A huge public ceremony. Villa told a number of conflicting stories about his early life. According to most sources, he was born on 5 June 1878, and named José Doroteo Arango Arámbula at birth. As a child, he received some education from a local church-run school, but was not proficient in more than basic literacy. His father was a sharecropper named Agustín Arango, and his mother was Micaela Arámbula. He grew up at
1980-406: A major impact on him. Villa's outlook on banditry changed after he met Abraham González , the local representative for presidential candidate Francisco Madero , a rich hacendado turned politician from the northern state of Coahuila, who opposed the continued rule of Díaz and convinced Villa that through his banditry he could fight for the people and hurt the hacienda owners. At the outbreak of
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#17327797795442160-411: A major socioeconomic revolution but offered hopes of change for many disadvantaged Mexicans. The plan strongly opposed militarism in Mexico as it was constituted under Díaz, calling on Federal Army generals to resign before true democracy could prevail in Mexico. Madero realized he needed a revolutionary armed force, enticing men to join with the promise of formal rank, and encouraged Federales to join
2340-572: A million acres). Many Mexicans became landless peasants laboring on these vast estates or industrial workers toiling long hours for low wages. Foreign companies (mostly from the United Kingdom, France, and the U.S.) also exercised influence in Mexico. Díaz had legitimacy as a leader through his battlefield accomplishments. He knew that the long tradition of military intervention in politics and its resistance to civilian control would prove challenging to his remaining in power. He set about curbing
2520-617: A more formidable army and had demonstrated his brilliance in battle against the now-defunct Federal Army, Carranza's general Obregón was a better tactician. With Obregón's help, Carranza was able to use the Mexican press to portray Villa as a sociopathic bandit and undermine his standing with the U.S. In late 1914, Villa was dealt an additional blow with the death from typhus of Toribio Ortega, one of his top generals. While Convention forces occupied Mexico City, Carranza maintained control over two key Mexican states, Veracruz and Tamaulipas , where Mexico's two largest ports were located. Carranza
2700-431: A political machine, first working with regional strongmen and bringing them into his regime, then replacing them with jefes políticos (political bosses) who were loyal to him. He skillfully managed political conflict and reined in tendencies toward autonomy. He appointed several military officers to state governorships, including General Bernardo Reyes , who became governor of the northern state of Nuevo León , but over
2880-517: A powerful figure for conservative forces opposing the Madero regime. During the Orozco revolt, the governor of Chihuahua mobilized the state militia to support the Federal Army. Pancho Villa , now a colonel in the militia, was called up at this time. In mid-April, at the head of 400 irregular troops, he joined the forces commanded by Huerta. Huerta, however, viewed Villa as an ambitious competitor. During
3060-484: A powerful military union in the north and, although they were not especially committed to Madero, took Mexicali and Chihuahua City . These victories encouraged alliances with other revolutionary leaders, including Villa. Against Madero's wishes, Orozco and Villa fought for and won Ciudad Juárez, bordering El Paso , Texas, on the south side of the Rio Grande . Madero's call to action had unanticipated results, such as
3240-538: A proper funeral in Chihuahua.) The governor of Coahuila , Venustiano Carranza , who had been appointed by Madero, also refused to recognize Huerta's authority. He proclaimed the Plan of Guadalupe to oust Huerta as an unconstitutional usurper. Considering Carranza the lesser of two evils, Villa joined him to overthrow his old enemy, Huerta, but he also made him the butt of jokes and pranks. Carranza's political plan gained
3420-466: A regulatory law for land reform. The Plan ends with rhetorical flourishes urging Mexicans to join the defense of institutions and "withdraw recognition of the government of an ominous man [Madero] who is carrying the country to ruin and slavery. Your heroism and discipline in the last contest won you the admiration of the world: If the chivalrous spirit in your souls evokes scruples about having to shoot fellow Mexicans, we ask that you bear in mind that this
3600-409: A respectable revolutionary, with the explanation that Orozco had not reached the legal age to serve as governor, a tactic that was "a useful constitutional alibi for thwarting the ambitions of young, popular, revolutionary leaders". Madero had put Orozco in charge of the large force of rurales in Chihuahua, but to a gifted revolutionary fighter who had helped bring about Díaz's fall, Madero's reward
3780-534: A sharecropper, muleskinner ( arriero ), butcher, bricklayer, and foreman for a U.S. railway company. According to his dictated remembrances, published as Memorias de Pancho Villa, at the age of 16 he moved to Chihuahua, but soon returned to Durango to track down and kill an hacienda owner named Agustín López Negrete who had raped his sister, afterward stealing a horse and fleeing to the Sierra Madre Occidental region of Durango, where he roamed
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#17327797795443960-497: A short period to San Antonio, Texas . Díaz was announced the winner of the election by a "landslide". On 5 October 1910, Madero issued a "letter from jail", known as the Plan de San Luis Potosí , with its main slogan Sufragio Efectivo, No Re-elección ("effective voting, no re-election"). It declared the Díaz presidency illegal and called for a revolt against him, starting on 20 November 1910. Madero's political plan did not outline
4140-620: A soft civilian, while Villa's Division of the North was the largest and most successful revolutionary army. In August and September Obregón traveled to meet with and persuade Villa not to fracture the Constitutionalist movement. In their August meeting, the two agreed that Carranza should now take the title of interim president of Mexico, now that Huerta had been ousted. Despite the generals' joint petition, Carranza did not want to do that, since it would have meant being ineligible to run in
4320-422: A stable Mexican government. Villa was further enraged by Obregón's use of searchlights, powered by U.S. generated electricity, to help repel a Villista night attack on the border town of Agua Prieta , Sonora on 1 November 1915. In Mexico and U.S. bordering towns, a vendetta was launched by Villa against Americans as he blamed Wilson for his defeat against Carranza. In January 1916, a group of Villistas attacked
4500-493: A staunch supporter of Diaz until Diaz refused to appoint him as Governor of Coahuila in 1909 ) as his Minister of War. Madero's "refusal personally to accommodate Orozco was a major political blunder." Orozco rebelled in March 1912, both for Madero's continuing failure to enact land reform and because he felt insufficiently rewarded for his role in bringing the new president to power. At the request of Madero's chief political ally in
4680-625: A story told by Pancho Villa , a leader who had defeated Díaz's army and forced his resignation and exile, he told Madero at a banquet in Ciudad Juárez in 1911, "You [Madero], sir, have destroyed the revolution ... It's simple: this bunch of dandies have made a fool of you, and this will eventually cost us our necks, yours included." Ignoring the warning, Madero increasingly relied on the Federal Army as armed rebellions broke out in Mexico in 1911–12, with particularly threatening insurrections led by Emiliano Zapata in Morelos and Pascual Orozco in
4860-481: A strategic railroad station heavily defended by Federal troops and considered nearly impregnable. Zacatecas was the source of much of Mexico's silver, and thus a supply of funds for whoever held it. Villa accepted his staff's advice and cancelled his resignation, and the División del Norte defied Carranza and attacked Zacatecas. Fighting up steep slopes, the División del Norte defeated a force of 12,000 Federals in
5040-640: A supporter of Carranza. Only 200 men in Villa's army remained loyal to him, and he was forced to retreat back into the mountains of Chihuahua. However, Villa and his men were determined to keep fighting Carranza's forces. Villa's position further was weakened by the United States' refusal to sell him weapons. By the end of 1915, Villa was on the run and the United States government recognized Carranza. The period after Villa's defeat by Obregón has many dark episodes. His fighting force had shrunk significantly, no longer an army. Villa's opponents believed him finished as
5220-412: A term ending in 1920. He attempted to impose a civilian successor, prompting northern revolutionary generals to rebel. Carranza fled Mexico City and was killed. From 1920 to 1940, revolutionary generals held the office of president, each completing their terms (except from 1928-1934). This was a period when state power became more centralized, and revolutionary reform implemented, bringing the military under
5400-400: A train he held 122 bars of silver and a Wells Fargo employee hostage, forcing Wells Fargo to help him sell the bars for cash. A rapid, hard-fought series of victories at Ciudad Juárez , Tierra Blanca , Chihuahua , and Ojinaga followed. The well-known American journalist and fiction writer Ambrose Bierce , then in his seventies, accompanied Villa's army during this period and witnessed
5580-607: A train on the Mexico North Western Railway , near Santa Isabel , Chihuahua, and killed a number of U.S. nationals employed by the American Smelting and Refining Company . The passengers included eighteen Americans, 15 of whom worked for American Smelting. There was only one survivor, who gave the details to the press. Villa admitted to ordering the attack, but denied that he had authorized the shedding of blood of U.S. citizens. After meeting with
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5760-684: A visit to Huerta's headquarters in June 1912, after an incident in which he refused to return a number of stolen horses, Villa was imprisoned on charges of insubordination and robbery and sentenced to death. Raúl Madero, the President's brother, intervened to save Villa's life. Jailed in Mexico City, Villa escaped and fled to the United States, later to return and play a major role in the civil wars of 1913–1915. There were other rebellions, one led by Bernardo Reyes and another by Félix Díaz , nephew of
5940-729: Is a true fight of emancipation. In Chihuahua Orozco was already a hero for his role in the Mexican Revolution. His repudiation of Madero’s government in early March 1912 attracted men willing to follow his lead. The articulation of the plan laid out what he was fighting for, giving followers an understanding of what they were fighting for. Orozco’s issuing of a formal plan gave Orozco and his movement put Madero’s government on notice about Orozco’s specific personal and political grievances against Madero. Orozco had hoped other northern states would rally to his plan, but only Chihuahua did, but some 5,000 men answered his call to arms and posed
6120-525: The 1910 presidential election and Díaz jailed him, Madero called for an armed uprising against Díaz in the Plan of San Luis Potosí . Rebellions broke out first in Morelos and then to a much greater extent in northern Mexico. The Federal Army could not suppress the widespread uprisings, showing the military's weakness and encouraging the rebels. Díaz resigned in May 1911 and went into exile, an interim government
6300-505: The Battle of Tierra Blanca . Villa considered Tierra Blanca, fought from 23 to 24 November 1913, his most spectacular victory, although General Talamantes died in the fighting. Bierce vanished on or after December 1913. His disappearance has never been solved. Oral accounts of his execution by firing squad were never verified. U.S. Army Chief of Staff Hugh L. Scott charged Villa's American agent, Sommerfeld, with finding out what happened, but
6480-620: The Magonista rebellion of 1911 in Baja California. With the Federal Army defeated in several battles with irregular, voluntary forces, Díaz's government began negotiations with the revolutionaries in the north. In historian Edwin Lieuwen's assessment, "Victors always attribute their success to their own heroic deeds and superior fighting abilities ... In the spring of 1911, armed bands under self-appointed chiefs arose all over
6660-645: The Mexican Liberal Party ( Partido Liberal de México ) drew up a radical program of reform, specifically addressing what they considered to be the worst aspects of the Díaz regime. Most prominent in the PLM were Ricardo Flores Magón and his two brothers, Enrique and Jesús . They, along with Luis Cabrera and Antonio Díaz Soto y Gama , were connected to the anti-Díaz publication El Hijo del Ahuizote . Political cartoons by José Guadalupe Posada lampooned politicians and cultural elites with mordant humor, portraying them as skeletons. The Liberal Party of Mexico founded
6840-606: The Rancho de la Coyotada , one of the largest haciendas in the state of Durango . The family's residence now houses the Casa de Pancho Villa historic museum in San Juan del Rio. Doroteo later claimed to be the son of the bandit Agustín Villa, but according to at least one scholar, "the identity of his real father is still unknown." He was the oldest of five children. He quit school to help his mother after his father died, and worked as
7020-529: The Toma de Zacatecas (Taking of Zacatecas), the single bloodiest battle of the Revolution, with Federal casualties numbering approximately 7,000 dead and 5,000 wounded, and unknown numbers of civilian casualties. Villa's victory at Zacatecas in June 1914 broke the back of the Huerta regime. Huerta left the country on 14 July 1914. The Federal Army collapsed, ceasing to exist as an institution. As Villa moved towards
7200-517: The company store , binding them to the company. These strikes were ruthlessly suppressed, with factory owners receiving support from government forces. In the Cananea strike, mine owner William Cornell Greene received support from Díaz's rurales in Sonora as well as Arizona Rangers called in from across the U.S. border. This Arizona Rangers were ordered to use violence to combat labor unrest. In
7380-428: The "true authors" of the Mexican Revolution for agitating the masses. As the 1910 election approached, Francisco I. Madero , an emerging political figure and member of one of Mexico's richest families, funded the newspaper Anti-Reelectionista , in opposition to the continual re-election of Díaz. Organized labor conducted strikes for better wages and just treatment. Demands for better labor conditions were central to
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7560-447: The 1910 election. At age 80, this set the scene for a possible peaceful transition in the presidency. It set off a flurry of political activity. To the dismay of potential candidates to replace him, he reversed himself and ran again. His later reversal on retiring from the presidency set off tremendous activity among opposition groups. Díaz seems to have initially considered Finance Minister José Yves Limantour as his successor. Limantour
7740-595: The 30,000 in the army and another 30,000 in the federal auxiliaries, irregulars and National Guard. Despite their small numbers, the rurales were highly effective in controlling the countryside, especially along the 12,000 miles of railway lines. They were a mobile force, often sent on trains with their horses to put down rebellions in relatively remote areas of Mexico. The construction of railways had been transformative in Mexico (as well as elsewhere in Latin America), accelerating economic activity and increasing
7920-430: The Díaz regime was authoritarian and centralizing, it was not a military dictatorship. His first presidential cabinet was staffed with military men, but over successive terms as president, important posts were held by able and loyal civilians. He did not create a personal dynasty, excluding family from the realms of power, although his nephew Félix attempted to seize power after the fall of the regime in 1911. Díaz created
8100-682: The Díaz regime, such as Ricardo Flores Magón and Práxedis Guerrero, went into exile in the relative safety of the United States, but cooperation between the U.S. government and Díaz's agents resulted in the arrest of some radicals. Díaz had ruled continuously since 1884. The question of presidential succession was an issue as early as 1900 when he turned 70. Díaz re-established the office of vice president in 1906, choosing Ramón Corral . Rather than managing political succession, Díaz marginalized Corral, keeping him away from decision-making. Díaz publicly announced in an interview with journalist James Creelman for Pearson's Magazine that he would not run in
8280-434: The Federal Army and the Huerta regime fell. Like Porfirio Díaz, Huerta went into exile. The Federal Army was disbanded, leaving only revolutionary military forces. Upon taking power, Huerta had moved swiftly to consolidate his hold in the North, having learned the lesson from Díaz's fall that the north was a crucial region to hold. Within a month of the coup, rebellions began to spread throughout Mexico, most prominently led by
8460-642: The Federal Army eagerly responded to the call, most prominently Pancho Villa. Alvaro Obregón of Sonora, a successful rancher and businessman who had not participated in the Madero revolution, now joined the revolutionary forces in the north, the Constitutionalist Army under the Primer Jefe ("First Chief") Venustiano Carranza. Huerta had Governor González arrested and murdered, for fear he would foment rebellion. When northern General Pancho Villa became governor of Chihuahua in 1914, following
8640-587: The Federal Army's weakness and inability to suppress them. Madero's vague promises of land reform attracted many peasants throughout the country. Spontaneous rebellions arose in which ordinary farm laborers, miners and other working-class Mexicans, along with much of the country's population of indigenous peoples, fought Díaz's forces with some success. Madero attracted the forces of rebel leaders such as Pascual Orozco , Pancho Villa , Emiliano Zapata , and Venustiano Carranza . A young and able revolutionary, Orozco—along with Chihuahua Governor Abraham González —formed
8820-457: The French in the 1860s. Some 9,000 officers commanded the 25,000 rank-and-file on the books, with some 7,000 padding the rosters and nonexistent so that officers could receive the subsidies for the numbers they commanded. Officers used their positions for personal enrichment through salary and opportunities for graft. Although Mexicans had enthusiastically volunteered in the war against the French ,
9000-829: The Germans after Villa's split with the Constitutionalists. This was principally in the person of Felix A. Sommerfeld (noted in Katz's book), who allegedly funneled $ 340,000 of German money to the Western Cartridge Company in 1915, to purchase ammunition. Sommerfeld had been Villa's representative in the United States since 1914 and had close contact with the German naval attaché in Washington Karl Boy-Ed , as well as other German agents in
9180-401: The Germans, after 1915, is that they were a futile extension of increasingly desperate German diplomatic efforts and Villista dreams of victory as progress of their respective wars bogged down. Villa effectively did not have anything useful to offer in exchange for German help at that point. When assessing claims of Villa conspiring with Germans, portrayal of Villa as a German sympathizer served
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#17327797795449360-510: The Interim President, said of him that "De la Barra wants to accommodate himself with dignity to the inevitable advance of the ex-revolutionary influence, while accelerating the widespread collapse of the Madero party." The Federal Army, despite its numerous defeats by the revolutionaries, remained intact as the government's force. Madero called on revolutionary fighters to lay down their arms and demobilize, which Emiliano Zapata and
9540-631: The Liberal Party program, drawn up in 1905. Mexican copper miners in the northern state of Sonora took action in the 1906 Cananea strike . Starting June 1, 1906, 5,400 miners began organizing labor strikes. Among other grievances, they were paid less than U.S. nationals working in the mines. In the state of Veracruz, textile workers rioted in January 1907 at the huge Río Blanco factory, the world's largest, protesting against unfair labor practices. They were paid in credit that could be used only at
9720-620: The Madero era, including El País and La Nación , only to be later suppressed under the Victoriano Huerta regime (1913–1914). Under Díaz relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Mexican government were stable, with the anticlerical laws of the Mexican Constitution of 1857 remaining in place, but not enforced, so conflict was muted. During Madero's presidency, Church-state conflict
9900-414: The Madero regime, "Madero clearly welcomed the emergence of a kind of two-party system (Catholic and liberal); he encouraged Catholic political involvement, echoing the exhortations of the episcopate." What was emerging during the Madero regime was "Díaz's old policy of Church-state detente was being continued, perhaps more rapidly and on surer foundations." The Catholic Church in Mexico was working within
10080-417: The Mexican Revolution in 1910, Villa was 32 years old. At the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution, for Villa and men like him operating as bandits, the turmoil provided expanded horizons, "a change of title, not of occupation" in one assessment. Villa joined in the armed rebellion that Francisco Madero called for in 1910 to oust incumbent President Porfirio Díaz in the Plan de San Luis Potosí . In Chihuahua,
10260-420: The Mexico City revolt as interim commander. He did not know that Huerta had been invited to join the conspiracy, but had initially held back. During the fighting that took place in the capital, the civilian population was subjected to artillery exchanges, street fighting and economic disruption, perhaps deliberately caused by the coupists to demonstrate that Madero was unable to keep order. The Madero presidency
10440-576: The Orozquistas’ presumed victory. Article 32 calls for the complete nationalization of the railways. This was in process under the Díaz regime. Article 33 calls for the replacement of personnel for Mexicans in private companies and equal pay for Mexicans and foreigners. This is reminiscent of the Liberal Party Program of 1906. Article 34 seeks to "improve and raise the conditions of the working class", outlining in five sub-articles
10620-682: The Porfiriato, there were regular elections, widely considered sham exercises, marked by contentious irregularities. In his early years in the presidency, Díaz consolidated power by playing opposing factions against each other and by expanding the Rurales , an armed police militia directly under his control that seized land from local peasants. Peasants were forced to make futile attempts to win back their land through courts and petitions. By 1900, over ninety percent of Mexico's communal lands were sold, with an estimated 9.5 million peasants forced into
10800-588: The Punitive Expedition. During the expedition, Carranza's forces captured one of Villa's top generals, Pablo López, and executed him on 5 June 1916. Before the Villa-Carranza irregular forces had left to the mountains in 1915, there is no credible evidence that Villa cooperated with or accepted any help from the German government or agents. Villa was supplied arms from the U.S., employed international mercenaries and doctors including Americans,
10980-569: The Revolution and sidelined him once he was elected president. Orozco’s biographer Michael C. Meyer sees the Plan as "highly significant" for addressing socio-economic issues. The is published in English translation. Article 1 is brief, stating "The initiator of the Revolution, Francisco I. Madero, falsified and violated the Plan of San Luis Potosi." Articles 2, 3, 4, 7, and 8 denounce Madero and his family for malfeasance and an alleged alliance between
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#173277977954411160-403: The Revolution and withdraw support from Madero. A series of articles deal with the structure of the political system. Article 16 repudiates personalism and explicitly does not name a provisional or interim president, rather than Orozco as author of the plan naming himself in that role. Article 16 calls for the abolition of the office of vice president. Article 17 lays out the transition following
11340-535: The Revolution, he was one of its most charismatic and prominent figures. In life, Villa helped fashion his own image as an internationally known revolutionary hero, starring as himself in Hollywood films and giving interviews to foreign journalists, most notably John Reed . After his death he was excluded from the pantheon of revolutionary heroes until the Sonoran generals Obregón and Calles, whom he battled during
11520-457: The Revolution, were gone from the political stage. Villa's exclusion from the official narrative of the Revolution might have contributed to his continued posthumous popular acclaim. He was celebrated during the Revolution and long afterward by corridos , films about his life and novels by prominent writers. In 1976, his remains were reburied in the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City in
11700-540: The U.S. considered recognizing Villa as Mexico's legitimate president. In Mexico, Villa is generally regarded as a hero of the Mexican Revolution who dared to stand up to the United States. The Mexican government declared 2023 as the Year of Pancho Villa. Some American media outlets describe Villa as a villain and a murderer. After 1914 Pancho Villa's previous political rise seems to have come to an end. In November 1915 civil war broke out when Carranza challenged Villa. Villa
11880-410: The U.S. into invading Mexico in 1916 . Despite a major contingent of soldiers and superior military technology, the U.S. failed to capture Villa. When Carranza was ousted from power in 1920, Villa negotiated an amnesty with interim President Adolfo de la Huerta and was given a landed estate, on the condition he retire from politics. Villa was assassinated in 1923. Although his faction did not prevail in
12060-588: The U.S., Wall Street bankers, which "placed the destiny of the Fatherland [patria] in the hands of the American government…." Historian Alan Knight considers the anti-Americanism in the Plan as “the stock-in-trade not only of Mexican polemicists (of different hues), but also of a good many Americans too," continuing "Orozquistas [did not] display strong or consistent hostility to American interests." Article 9 sums up Orozco’s position regarding Madero. "Because of
12240-486: The United States including Franz von Rintelen and Horst von der Goltz . In May 1914, Sommerfeld formally entered the employ of Boy-Ed and the German secret service in the United States. However, Villa's actions were hardly that of a German catspaw ; rather, it appeared that Villa resorted to German assistance only after other sources of money and arms were cut off. At the time of Villa's 1916 attack on Columbus, New Mexico, Villa's military power had been marginalized. He
12420-885: The United States near Nogales, Arizona on 2 January 1913. Arriving in El Paso, Texas, he attempted to convey a message to Madero via Abraham González about the upcoming coup d'état, to no avail; Madero was murdered in February 1913, and Huerta became president. Villa was in the U.S. when the coup occurred. With just seven men, some mules, and scant supplies, he returned into Mexico in April 1913 to fight Madero's usurper and his own would-be executioner, President Victoriano Huerta. Huerta immediately moved to consolidate power. He had Abraham González , governor of Chihuahua, Madero's ally and Villa's mentor, murdered in March 1913. (Villa later recovered González's remains and gave his friend and mentor
12600-622: The World Worker) was founded in September 1912 by Antonio Díaz Soto y Gama , Manuel Sarabia, and Lázaro Gutiérrez de Lara and served as a center of agitation and propaganda, but it was not a formal labor union. Political parties proliferated. One of the most important was the National Catholic Party, which in several regions of the country was particularly strong. Several Catholic newspapers were in circulation during
12780-400: The abolition of company stores [tiendas de raya]; wages to be paid in cash not company scrip ; limitation on number of hours worked; prohibition of labor for children under age 10 and limitation of hours to those age 10-16; increase in daily wages; demands for hygienic conditions in factories that "guarantee the health of the workers." Article 35 deals with the agrarian problem, which "demands
12960-669: The above-mentioned indiscretions and crimes, Francisco I. Madero and his accomplices are declared traitors to the Fatherland and outside the law." Article 10 challenges the election of 1911, which he calls fraudulent. Article 10 says “the election for the presidency and vice presidency are considered null and void. As a consequence, Francisco I. Madero is not recognized as president nor José María Pino Suárez as vice president." Article 12 repudiates any concessions and contracts of Madero, his family, and his allies and calls for their confiscation. Articles 13 and 14 promise that existing civil authorities will remain in place, so long as they support
13140-432: The alternatives often rebelled and were crushed. It took him some 15 years to accomplish the transformation, reducing the army by 500 officers and 25 generals, creating an army subordinate to central power. He also created the military academy to train officers, but their training aimed to repel foreign invasions. Díaz expanded the rural police force, the rurales as an elite guard, including many former bandits , under
13320-482: The amount of productive land; labor reforms including workman's compensation and the eight-hour day; but also defended the right of the government to intervene in strikes. According to historian Peter V. N. Henderson, De la Barra's and congress's actions "suggests that few Porfirians wished to return to the status quo of the dictatorship. Rather, the thoughtful, progressive members of the Porfirian meritocracy recognized
13500-494: The anti-Díaz anarchist newspaper Regeneración , which appeared in both Spanish and English. In exile in the United States, Práxedis Guerrero began publishing an anti-Díaz newspaper, Alba Roja ("Red Dawn"), in San Francisco, California. Although leftist groups were small, they became influential through their publications, articulating their opposition to the Díaz regime. Francisco Bulnes described these men as
13680-437: The army intact as an institution, using it to put down domestic rebellions against his regime. Huerta was a professional soldier and continued to serve in the army under the new commander-in-chief. Huerta's loyalty lay with General Bernardo Reyes rather than with the civilian Madero. In 1912, under pressure from his cabinet, Madero called on Huerta to suppress Orozco's rebellion. With Huerta's success against Orozco, he emerged as
13860-423: The army of former ally Francisco "Pancho" Villa by the summer of 1915. Carranza consolidated power and a new constitution was promulgated in February 1917. The Mexican Constitution of 1917 established universal male suffrage , promoted secularism , workers' rights , economic nationalism , and land reform , and enhanced the power of the federal government. Carranza became President of Mexico in 1917, serving
14040-443: The battlefield. This meeting set out a path towards democracy. None of the armed revolutionaries were allowed to be nominated for government positions, and Eulalio Gutiérrez was chosen as interim president. Emiliano Zapata , a military general from southern Mexico also sent a number of delegates to the convention, however these delegates did not participate until they were convinced the convention aimed for true reform, and an alliance
14220-472: The capital his progress was halted due to a lack of coal to fuel the railroad engines, and critically, an embargo placed by the U.S. government on importation to Mexico. Before this Villa had strong relationships with the Wilson administration, due in part to Carranza's distinctly anti-American rhetoric with which Villa publicly disagreed. Although nothing had changed for Villa historian Friedrich Katz writes that
14400-530: The case for Madero, who was murdered during a military coup in February 1913 in a period known as the Ten Tragic Days ( Decena Trágica ). Once elected president in November 1911, Madero proved a disastrous politician, dismissing his revolutionary supporters and relying on the existing power structure. Villa strongly disapproved of Madero's decision to name Venustiano Carranza (who previously had been
14580-465: The case of the Banco Minero he held a member of the bank's owning family, the wealthy Terrazas clan, as a hostage until the location of the bank's hidden gold reserves was revealed. He also appropriated land owned by the hacendados (owners of the haciendas ) and redistributed the money generated by the haciendas to fund military efforts and the pensions of citizens who had lost family members in
14760-516: The civilian government's control. The Revolution was a decade-long civil war, with new political leadership that gained power and legitimacy through their participation in revolutionary conflicts. The political party those leaders founded in 1929, which would become the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), ruled Mexico until the presidential election of 2000 . When the Revolution ended, is not well defined, and even
14940-467: The command of General Victoriano Huerta . Huerta initially welcomed the successful Villa, and sought to bring him under his control by naming Villa an honorary brigadier general in the Federal Army, but Villa was not flattered or controlled easily. Huerta then sought to discredit and eliminate Villa by accusing him of stealing a fine horse and calling him a bandit. Villa struck Huerta, who then ordered Villa's execution for insubordination and theft. As he
15120-404: The condition to which it had reduced Huerta's in 1914. The celebrated Division of the North thus was eliminated as a capital military force." In November 1915, Carranza's forces captured and executed Contreras, Pereyra, and son. Severianco Ceniceros also accepted amnesty from Carranza and turned on Villa as well. Although Villa's secretary Perez Rul also broke with Villa, he refused to become
15300-413: The conservative winner of the 2000 election, Vicente Fox , contended his election was heir to the 1910 democratic election of Francisco Madero, thereby claiming the heritage and legitimacy of the Revolution. Liberal general and war veteran Porfirio Díaz came to the presidency of Mexico in 1876 and remained almost continuously in office until 1911 in an era now called Porfiriato . Coming to power after
15480-489: The counter-revolutionary regime of Huerta, the Constitutionalist Army led by the Governor of Coahuila Venustiano Carranza , entered the conflict. Zapata's forces continued their armed rebellion in Morelos. Huerta's regime lasted from February 1913 to July 1914, and the Federal Army was defeated by revolutionary armies. The revolutionary armies then fought each other, with the Constitutionalist faction under Carranza defeating
15660-486: The defeat and exile of Huerta in July 1914, Villa broke with Carranza. Villa dominated the meeting of revolutionary generals that excluded Carranza and helped create a coalition government . Emiliano Zapata and Villa became formal allies in this period. Like Zapata, Villa was strongly in favor of land reform, but did not implement it when he had power. At the height of his power and popularity in late 1914 and early 1915,
15840-434: The defeat of Huerta, he located González's bones and had them reburied with full honors. In Morelos, Emiliano Zapata continued his rebellion under the Plan of Ayala (while expunging the name of counter-revolutionary Pascual Orozco from it), calling for the expropriation of land and redistribution to peasants. Huerta offered peace to Zapata, who rejected it. The Huerta government was thus challenged by revolutionary forces in
16020-412: The demands of the Plan de Ayala and in rebellion against every central government up until his assassination by an agent of President Venustiano Carranza in 1919. The northern revolutionary General Pascual Orozco , a leader in taking Ciudad Juárez, had expected to become governor of Chihuahua. In 1911, although Orozco was "the man of the hour", Madero gave the governorship instead to Abraham González ,
16200-401: The destruction of the Federal Army , its replacement by a revolutionary army , and the transformation of Mexican culture and government . The northern Constitutionalist faction prevailed on the battlefield and drafted the present-day Constitution of Mexico , which aimed to create a strong central government. Revolutionary generals held power from 1920 to 1940. The revolutionary conflict
16380-430: The direct control of the president. With these forces, Díaz attempted to appease the Mexican countryside, led by a stable government that was nominally civilian, and the conditions to develop the country economically with the infusion of foreign investments. During Díaz's long tenure in office, the Federal Army became overstaffed and top-heavy with officers, many of them elderly who last saw active military service against
16560-457: The domestic production of wheat, corn and livestock that peasants had lived on. Wealth, political power and access to education were concentrated among a handful of elite landholding families mainly of European and mixed descent. These hacendados controlled vast swaths of the country through their huge estates (for example, the Terrazas had one estate in Sonora that alone comprised more than
16740-410: The essential structure of the Díaz regime, including the Federal Army, was kept in place. Madero fervently held to his position that Mexico needed real democracy, which included regime change by free elections, a free press, and the right of labor to organize and strike. The rebels who brought him to power were demobilized and Madero called on these men of action to return to civilian life. According to
16920-514: The exact motives of the U.S. government are hotly contested, it is likely that it was attempting to establish some type of control over Mexico by not allowing any one faction to become powerful enough to not need U.S. assistance. The break between Villa and Carranza had been anticipated. The Pact of Torreón , an agreement between the Division of the Northeast and Villa's Division of the North,
17100-450: The expected presidential election. The two also agreed that there should be immediate action on land reform. They also agreed that the military needed to be separated from politics. By the time of Obregón's second meeting with Villa in September, Obregón had given up on coming to an agreement with him, but he hoped to lure soldiers of the Division of the North away from Villa, sensing that some disapproved of Villa's violent tendencies. During
17280-445: The experience or the ideological inclination to reward men who had helped bring him to power. Some revolutionary leaders expected personal rewards, such as Pascual Orozco of Chihuahua. Others wanted major reforms, most especially Emiliano Zapata and Andrés Molina Enríquez , who had long worked for land reform . Madero met personally with Zapata, telling the guerrilla leader that the agrarian question needed careful study. His meaning
17460-437: The final defeat and dissolution of the Federal Army. In August 1914, Carranza and his revolutionary army entered Mexico City ahead of Villa. The unity of fighting against Huerta was no longer the underpinnings of the Constitutionalists under Carranza's leadership. Carranza was a wealthy estate owner and governor of Coahuila, and he considered Villa little more than a bandit, despite his military successes. Villa viewed Carranza as
17640-539: The firm of Washington lawyer Sherburne Hopkins , the "world's best rigger of Latin-American revolutions", to encourage support in the U.S. A strategy to discredit Díaz with U.S. business and the U.S. government achieved some success, with Standard Oil representatives engaging in talks with Gustavo Madero. More importantly, the U.S. government "bent neutrality laws for the revolutionaries". In late 1910, revolutionary movements arose in response to Madero's Plan de San Luis Potosí . Still, their ultimate success resulted from
17820-506: The first time in U.S. Army history, Pershing's force fruitlessly pursued Villa until February 1917. Villa eluded them, but some of his senior commanders, including Colonel Candelario Cervantes, General Francisco Beltrán, Beltrán's son, Villa's second-in-command Julio Cárdenas , and a total of 190 of his men were killed during the expedition. The Carranza government and the Mexican population were against U.S. troops violating Mexican territories. There were several demonstrations of opposition to
18000-493: The former president, that were quickly put down and the generals jailed. They were both in Mexico City prisons and, despite their geographical separation, they were able to foment yet another rebellion in February 1913. This period came to be known as the Ten Tragic Days ( La Decena Trágica ), which ended with Madero's resignation and assassination and Huerta assuming the presidency. Although Madero had reason to distrust Victoriano Huerta, Madero placed him in charge of suppressing
18180-423: The governor Villa retired from the position at the suggestion of Carranza, leaving Manuel Chao as governor. With so many sources of money, Villa expanded and modernized his forces, purchasing draft animals, cavalry horses, arms, ammunition, mobile hospital facilities (railroad cars and horse ambulances staffed with Mexican and foreign volunteer doctors, known as Servicio sanitario ), and other supplies, and rebuilt
18360-481: The governor of the state of Coahuila, Venustiano Carranza , along with Pablo González . Huerta expected state governors to fall into line with the new government. But Carranza and Abraham González , Governor of Chihuahua did not. Carranza issued the Plan of Guadalupe , a strictly political plan to reject the legitimacy of the Huerta government, and called on revolutionaries to take up arms. Revolutionaries who had brought Madero to power only to be dismissed in favor of
18540-530: The heart of Huerta's regime in Zacatecas . After Villa captured the strategic prize of Torreón, Carranza ordered Villa to break off action south of Torreón and instead to divert to attack Saltillo . He threatened to cut off Villa's coal supply, immobilizing his supply trains, if he did not comply. This was seen widely as an attempt by Carranza to divert Villa from a direct assault on Mexico City in order to allow Carranza's forces under Obregón, driving in from
18720-427: The hills as a thief. Eventually, he became a member of a bandit band where he went by the name "Arango". In 1898 he was arrested for gun and mule theft. In 1902, the rurales , the crack rural police force of President Porfirio Díaz , arrested Pancho for stealing mules and for assault. Because of his connections with the powerful Pablo Valenzuela, who allegedly had been a recipient of goods stolen by Villa/Arango, he
18900-423: The land to Carranza in the hope of ending the hostility between the two. Carranza refused to reach any compromise with Villa, and ordered that 5000 members of the División del Norte be sent to Zacatecas to assist in its capture. A Constitutionalist general had recently staged an attack that had failed due to the superior artillery of the federal forces. Villa believed that sending troops to assist would only lead to
19080-474: The leader of the anti-re-electionists, Abraham González , reached out to Villa to join the movement. Villa captured a large hacienda, then a train of Federal Army soldiers, and the town of San Andrés. He went on to beat the Federal Army in Naica, Camargo, and Pilar de Conchos, but lost at Tecolote. Villa met in person with Madero in March 1911, as the struggle to oust Díaz was ongoing. Although Madero had created
19260-474: The moment to the civilian First Chief. Obregón saw Villa "as a bandit who would not keep his promises." Villa broke with Carranza in September 1914 and issued a manifesto. Once Huerta was ousted, the power struggle between factions of the revolution came into the open. The revolutionary caudillos convened the Convention of Aguascalientes , attempting to sort out power in the political sphere rather than on
19440-758: The months of the Interim Presidency and left in place the Federal Army. Madero had drawn some loyal and militarily adept supporters who brought down the Díaz regime by force of arms. Madero himself was not a natural soldier, and his decision to dismiss the revolutionary forces that brought him to power isolated him politically. He was an inexperienced politician, who had never held office before. He firmly held to democratic ideals, which many consider evidence of naivete. His election as president in October 1911 raised high expectations among many Mexicans for positive change. The Treaty of Ciudad Juárez guaranteed that
19620-687: The most careful and violent solution," laying out seven principles for achieving that. 1. Recognition of property rights of those occupying land peacefully for 20 years; 2. Revalidation and improvement of land titles; 3. "Lands seized by despoilment will be returned"; 4. "Uncultivated and nationalized land throughout the Republic will be redistributed." 5. Expropriation of land from large landowners who do not keep land under cultivation, "The land thus expropriated will be partitioned to improve intensive agriculture." 6. The government will float an agricultural bond to pay for expropriated lands; 7. The establishment of
19800-570: The need for change." De la Barra's government sent General Victoriano Huerta to fight in Morelos against the Zapatistas, burning villages and wreaking havoc. His actions drove a wedge between Zapata and Madero, which widened when Madero was inaugurated as president. Zapata remained in arms continuously until his assassination in 1919. Madero won the 1911 election decisively and was inaugurated as president in November 1911, but his movement had lost crucial momentum and revolutionary supporters in
19980-480: The new democratic system promoted by Madero, but it had its interests to promote, some of which were the forces of the old conservative Church, while the new, progressive Church supporting social Catholicism of the 1891 papal encyclical Rerum Novarum was also a current. When Madero was overthrown in February 1913 by counter-revolutionaries, the conservative wing of the Church supported the coup. Madero did not have
20160-401: The north of Mexico and the strategic state of Morelos, just south of the capital. Huerta's presidency is usually characterized as a dictatorship. From the point of view of revolutionaries at the time and the construction of historical memory of the Revolution, it is without any positive aspects. "Despite recent attempts to portray Victoriano Huerta as a reformer, there is little question that he
20340-570: The north. Both Zapata and Orozco had led revolts that had put pressure on Díaz to resign, and both felt betrayed by Madero once he became president. The press embraced its newfound freedom and Madero became a target of its criticism. Organized labor, which had been suppressed under Díaz, could and did stage strikes, which foreign entrepreneurs saw as threatening their interests. Although there had been labor unrest under Díaz, labor's new freedom to organize also came with anti-American currents. The anarcho-syndicalist Casa del Obrero Mundial (House of
20520-478: The northern state of Coahuila , announced his intent to challenge Díaz for the presidency in the next election , under the banner of the Anti-Reelectionist Party. Madero chose as his running mate Francisco Vázquez Gómez , a physician who had opposed Díaz. Madero campaigned vigorously and effectively. To ensure Madero did not win, Díaz had him jailed before the election. He escaped and fled for
20700-466: The only result of the inquiry was the finding that Bierce most likely survived after Ojinaga and died in Durango. John Reed , who graduated from Harvard in 1910 and became a leftist journalist, wrote magazine articles that were highly important in shaping Villa's epic image for Americans. Reed spent four months embedded with Villa's army and published vivid word portraits of Villa, his fighting men, and
20880-444: The other led by Talamantes and Contreras' former deputy, Severianco Ceniceros. As governor of Chihuahua, Villa raised more money for a drive to the south against Huerta's Federal Army by various methods. He printed his own currency and decreed that it could be traded and accepted at par with gold Mexican pesos. He forced the wealthy to give loans to fund the revolutionary war machinery. He confiscated gold from several banks, and in
21060-526: The port and oil fields of Tampico to enable German ships to dock there, but Villa rejected the offer. German agents tried to interfere in the Mexican Revolution but were unsuccessful. They attempted to plot with Victoriano Huerta to assist him to retake the country and, in the infamous Zimmermann Telegram to the Mexican government, proposed an alliance with the government of Venustiano Carranza. There were documented contacts between Villa and
21240-476: The power of the Mexican state. The isolation from the central government that many remote areas had enjoyed or suffered was ending. Telegraph lines constructed next to the railroad tracks meant instant communication between distant states and the capital. The political acumen and flexibility Díaz exhibited in his early years in office began to decline after 1900. He brought the state governors under his control, replacing them at will. The Federal Army, while large,
21420-539: The power of the military, reining in provincial military chieftains, and making them subordinate to the central government. He contended with a whole new group of generals who had fought for the liberal cause and who expected rewards for their services. He systematically dealt with them, providing some rivals with opportunities to enrich themselves, ensuring the loyalty of others with high salaries, and others were bought off by rewards of landed estates and redirecting their political ambitions. Military rivals who did not accept
21600-446: The power structure of the old regime remained firmly in place. Francisco León de la Barra became interim president, pending an election to be held in October 1911. Madero considered De la Barra an acceptable figure for the interim presidency since he was not a Científico or politician, but rather a Catholic lawyer and diplomat. He appeared to be a moderate, but the German ambassador to Mexico, Paul von Hintze , who associated with
21780-506: The presidency along with his vice president, Ramón Corral, by the end of May 1911 to be replaced by an interim president, Francisco León de la Barra , until elections were held. Díaz and his family and a number of top supporters were allowed to go into exile. When Díaz left for exile in Paris, he was reported as saying, "Madero has unleashed a tiger; let us see if he can control it." With Díaz in exile and new elections to be called in October,
21960-553: The propaganda needs of both Carranza and Wilson and has to be taken into account. Mexican Revolution Revolutionary victory [REDACTED] Pro-government: [REDACTED] Anti-government: Supported by: Supported by: The Mexican Revolution ( Spanish : Revolución mexicana ) was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from 20 November 1910 to 1 December 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It saw
22140-408: The properties from their owners and then distribute them to the revolutionaries at some future date. According to a story recounted by Villa, he told Madero at a banquet in Ciudad Juárez after the victory in 1911, "You, sir [Madero], have destroyed the revolution... It's simple: this bunch of dandies have made a fool of you, and this will eventually cost us our necks, yours included." This proved to be
22320-711: The raid was conducted because of the U.S. government's official recognition of the Carranza regime and for the loss of lives in battle due to defective cartridges purchased from the U.S., They attacked a detachment of the 13th Cavalry Regiment (United States) , burned the town, and seized 100 horses and mules and other military supplies. Eighteen Americans and about 80 Villistas were killed. Other attacks in U.S. territory allegedly were carried out by Villa, but none of these attacks were confirmed to have been carried out by Villistas. These were: As result of Villa's raid on Columbus, President Wilson had to take action. Publicly it
22500-530: The railroad south of Chihuahua City. He also recruited fighters from Chihuahua and Durango and created a large army known as the Division del Norte (Division of the North) , the most powerful and feared military unit in all of Mexico. The rebuilt railroad transported Villa's troops and artillery south, where he defeated the Federal Army forces in a series of battles at Gómez Palacio , Torreón , and eventually at
22680-402: The ranks were now filled by draftees . There was a vast gulf between officers and the lower ranks. "The officer corps epitomized everything the masses resented about the Díaz system." With multiple rebellions breaking out in the wake of the fraudulent 1910 election, the military was unable to suppress them, revealing the regime's weakness and leading to Díaz's resignation in May 1911. Although
22860-428: The rebellion. When he failed after a military disaster, González Salas committed suicide. Orozco issued his plan on the same day as the general's suicide. Madero then sent General Victoriano Huerta to suppress the rebellion. The plan is lengthy compared to Madero’s Plan de San Luis Potosí, with over 35 separate articles. The plan was prefaced by a bitter denunciation of Madero, who had dismissed Orozco’s contribution to
23040-519: The rebels under Félix Díaz (Bernardo Reyes having been killed on the first day of the open armed conflict). U.S. Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson , who had done all he could to undermine U.S. confidence in Madero's presidency, brokered the Pact of the Embassy , which formalized the alliance between Félix Díaz and Huerta, with the backing of the United States. Huerta was to become provisional president following
23220-454: The regions under the greatest stress were not the ones that rebelled. Díaz effectively suppressed strikes, rebellions, and political opposition until the early 1900s. Mexicans began to organize in opposition to Díaz, who had welcomed foreign capital and capitalists, suppressed nascent labor unions, and consistently moved against peasants as agriculture flourished. In 1905 the group of Mexican intellectuals and political agitators who had created
23400-470: The republic, drove Díaz officials from the vicinity, seized money and stamps, and staked out spheres of local authority. Towns, cities, and the countryside passed into the hands of the Maderistas." Díaz sued for peace with Madero, who himself did not want a prolonged and bloody conflict. The result was the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez , signed on 21 May 1911. The signed treaty stated that Díaz would abdicate
23580-415: The resignations of Madero and his vice president, José María Pino Suárez. Rather than being sent into exile with their families, the two were murdered while being transported to prison—a shocking event, but one that did not prevent the Huerta regime's recognition by most world governments, with the notable exception of the U.S. Historian Friedrich Katz considers Madero's retention of the Federal Army, which
23760-478: The revolution and committed crimes which were later attributed to Villa. After years of public and documented support for Villa's fight, the United States refused to allow more arms to be supplied to his army, and allowed Carranza's troops to be relocated over U.S. railroads in the Second Battle of Aguaprieta . Woodrow Wilson believed that supporting Carranza was the best way to expedite establishment of
23940-549: The revolution. Villa also decreed that after the completion of the revolution the land would be redistributed, away from the hands of the oligarchy, to revolutionary veterans, former owners of the land from before the hacendados took the land, and the state itself in equal parts. These motions accompanied with gifts and cost reductions for poorer sections of the state represented large changes from previous revolutionary governments, and led to large support for Villa in significant portions of Chihuahua's population. After four weeks as
24120-455: The revolution. The Army of the convention was constituted with the alliance of Villa and Zapata, and a civil war of the winners ensued. Although both Villa and Zapata were defeated in their attempt to advance an alternative state power, their social demands were copied (in their way) by their adversaries (Obregón and Carranza). Carranza and Alvaro Obregón retreated to Veracruz , leaving Villa and Zapata to occupy Mexico City. Although Villa had
24300-529: The revolutionaries in Morelos refused to do. The cabinet of De la Barra and the Mexican congress was filled with supporters of the Díaz regime. Madero campaigned vigorously for the presidency during this interim period, but revolutionaries who had supported him and brought about Díaz's resignation were dismayed that the sweeping reforms they sought were not immediately instituted. He did introduce some progressive reforms, including improved funding for rural schools; promoting some aspects of agrarian reform to increase
24480-416: The revolutionary fighters who had helped bring him to power. In the aftermath of his assassination and Huerta's seizure of power via a military coup, former revolutionaries had no formal organization through which to raise opposition to Huerta. Madero's "martyrdom accomplished what he was unable to do while alive: unite all the revolutionists under one banner." Within 16 months, revolutionary armies defeated
24660-429: The revolutionary forces in the north under "First Chief" Carranza and his Plan of Guadalupe. The period 1913–1914 was the time of Villa's greatest international fame and military and political success. Through this time Villa focused on accessing funding from wealthy hacendados and raised money using methods such as forced assessments on hostile hacienda owners and train robberies. In one notable escapade, after robbing
24840-424: The revolutionary forces with the promise of promotion. Madero's plan was aimed at fomenting a popular uprising against Díaz, but he also understood that the support of the United States and U.S. financiers would be of crucial importance in undermining the regime. The rich and powerful Madero family drew on its resources to make regime change possible, with Madero's brother Gustavo A. Madero hiring, in October 1910,
25020-774: The rich in order to give to the poor. He had even at some point kept a butcher's shop for the purpose of distributing to the poor the proceeds of his innumerable cattle raids." Villa was a brilliant tactician on the battlefield, which translated to political support. In 1913, local military commanders elected him provisional governor of the state of Chihuahua against the wishes of First Chief Carranza, who wished to name Manuel Chao instead. As Governor of Chihuahua, Villa recruited more experienced generals, including Toribio Ortega, Porfirio Talamantes, and Calixto Contreras, to his military staff and achieved more success than ever. Villa's secretary, Pérez Rul, divided his army into two groups, one led by Ortega, Contreras, and Orestes Pereira and
25200-399: The same power structure, including the recently defeated Federal Army, was retained. The rebel forces, including Villa, were demobilized, and Madero called on the men of action to return to civilian life. Orozco and Villa demanded that hacienda land seized during the violence bringing Madero to power be distributed to revolutionary soldiers. Madero refused, saying that the government would buy
25380-454: The same result unless he was to lead the attack himself. Carranza declined to rescind the order as he did not want Villa to receive the credit as the victor of Zacatecas. Upon receiving Carranza's refusal Villa resigned from his post, which further led to the majority of revolutionary generals rallying behind Villa. Felipe Ángeles and the rest of Villa's staff officers argued for Villa to withdraw his resignation, and proceed to attack Zacatecas,
25560-552: The service of wealthy landowners or hacendados . Diaz rigged elections, arguing that only he knew what was best for his country, and he enforced his belief with a strong hand. "Order and Progress" were the watchwords of his rule. Díaz's presidency was characterized by the promotion of industry and the development of infrastructure by opening the country to foreign investment. Díaz suppressed opposition and promoted stability to reassure foreign investors. Farmers and peasants both complained of oppression and exploitation. The situation
25740-399: The siege of the strategic border city of Ciudad Juárez . Villa and Pascual Orozco attacked instead, capturing the city after two days of fighting, thus winning the first Battle of Ciudad Juárez in 1911. Facing a series of defeats in many places, Díaz resigned on 25 May 1911, afterward going into exile. However, Madero signed the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez with the Díaz regime, under which
25920-603: The state of Veracruz, the Mexican army gunned down Rio Blanco textile workers and put the bodies on train cars that transported them to Veracruz, "where the bodies were dumped in the harbor as food for sharks". Since the press was censored in Mexico under Díaz, little was published that was critical of the regime. Newspapers barely reported on the Rio Blanco textile strike, the Cananea strike or harsh labor practices on plantations in Oaxaca and Yucatán. Leftist Mexican opponents of
26100-463: The state, Chihuahua Governor Abraham González, Villa returned to military service under Madero to fight the rebellion led by his former comrade Orozco. Although Orozco appealed with him to join his rebellion, Villa again gave Madero key military victories. With 400 cavalrymen, he captured Parral from the Orozquistas and then joined forces in the strategic city of Torreón with the Federal Army under
26280-513: The support of politicians and generals, including Pablo González , Álvaro Obregón , and Villa. The movement collectively was called the Ejército Constitucionalista de México ( Constitutionalist Army of Mexico ). The Constitucionalista adjective was added to stress the point that Huerta legally had not obtained power through lawful avenues laid out by Mexico's Constitution of 1857 . Until Huerta's ouster, Villa joined with
26460-497: The supporters of the old [Díaz] regime are the main causes of the unsettling situation in which the government that emerged from the revolution finds itself ... The regime appears relentlessly bent on suicide." Huerta, formally in charge of the defense of Madero's regime, allowed the rebels to hold the armory in Mexico City—the Ciudadela—while he consolidated his political power. He changed allegiance from Madero to
26640-658: The victims of violence. In Namiquipa , Villa sought to punish civilians who had formed a home guard, but when they learned Villa's men were approaching the village men took to the hills, leaving their families behind. Villa rounded up the wives and allowed his soldiers to rape them. The story of the rapes in Namiquipa was spread throughout Chihuahua. Some historians have contended that crimes that he did not commit have been attributed to him; in addition, his enemies always told false stories to increase his status as an "evil person", since there were cases of bandits who were not part of
26820-531: The villagers' land and water rights. With the expansion of Mexican agriculture, landless peasants were forced to work for low wages or move to the cities. Peasant agriculture was under pressure as haciendas expanded, such as in the state of Morelos , just south of Mexico City, with its burgeoning sugar plantations. There was what one scholar has called "agrarian compression", in which "population growth intersected with land loss , declining wages and insecure tenancies to produce widespread economic deterioration", but
27000-494: The visit, Villa became incensed at Obregón and called for a firing squad to execute him immediately. Obregón soothed him and Villa dismissed the squad. Villa allowed Obregón to leave by train to Mexico City, but then Villa attempted to stop the train and bring Obregón back to Chihuahua. The telegram was not received or was ignored, and Obregón arrived safely in the capital. Even though Obregón had his differences with Carranza, his two visits with Villa convinced him to remain loyal for
27180-463: The west via Guadalajara , to take the capital first. This was an expensive and disruptive diversion for the División del Norte . Villa's enlisted men were not unpaid volunteers but paid soldiers, earning the then enormous sum of one peso per day. Each day of delay cost thousands of pesos. Disgusted but having no practical alternative, Villa complied with Carranza's order and captured the less important city of Saltillo, and proceeded to give control of
27360-475: The women soldaderas , who were a vital part of the fighting force. Reed's articles were collected as Insurgent Mexico and published in 1914 for an American readership. Reed includes stories of Villa confiscating cattle, corn, and bullion and redistributing them to the poor. President Woodrow Wilson knew some version of Villa's reputation, saying he was "a sort of Robin Hood [who] had spent an eventful life robbing
27540-416: The years military men were largely replaced by civilians loyal to Díaz. As a military man himself, and one who had intervened directly in politics to seize the presidency in 1876, Díaz was acutely aware that the Federal Army could oppose him. He augmented the rurales , a police force created by Benito Juárez , making them his private armed force. The rurales were only 2,500 in number, as opposed to
27720-412: Was a Mexican revolutionary and prominent figure in the Mexican Revolution . He was a key figure in the revolutionary movement that forced out President Porfirio Díaz and brought Francisco I. Madero to power in 1911. When Madero was ousted by a coup led by General Victoriano Huerta in February 1913, Villa joined the anti-Huerta forces in the Constitutionalist Army led by Venustiano Carranza . After
27900-603: Was a key member of the Científicos , the circle of technocratic advisers steeped in positivist political science. Another potential successor was General Bernardo Reyes , Díaz's Minister of War, who also served as governor of Nuevo León. Reyes, an opponent of the Científicos, was a moderate reformer with a considerable base of support. Díaz became concerned about him as a rival and forced him to resign from his cabinet. He attempted to marginalize Reyes by sending him on
28080-456: Was a self-serving dictator." There are few biographies of Huerta, but one strongly asserts that Huerta should not be labeled simply as a counter-revolutionary, arguing that his regime consisted of two distinct periods: from the coup in February 1913 up to October 1913. During that time he attempted to legitimize his regime and demonstrate its legality by pursuing reformist policies; and after October 1913, when he dropped all attempts to rule within
28260-548: Was a stopgap to keep the Constitutionalists united prior to the defeat of the Federal Army. The pact was ostensibly an updating of Carranza's narrow Plan of Guadalupe , adding radical language about land distribution and sanctions for the Roman Catholic Church for its support of Huerta. Neither Villa nor Carranza took the provisions of the pact seriously, one which was for Carranza to renew the flow of ammunition to Villa and supply coal so his troops could be transported by train. The truce between Villa and Carranza held long enough for
28440-501: Was able to collect more revenue than Villa. In 1915, Villa was forced to abandon the capital after a number of incidents involving his troops, which helped pave the way for the return of Carranza and his followers. To combat Villa, Carranza sent his ablest general Obregón north, who defeated Villa in a series of battles. Meeting at the Battle of Celaya in the Bajío, Villa and Obregón first fought from 6 to 15 April 1915, and Villa's army
28620-490: Was about to be executed by firing squad, he made appeal to Generals Emilio Madero and Raul Madero , brothers of President Madero. Their intervention delayed the execution until the president could be contacted by telegraph, and he ordered Huerta to spare Villa's life but imprison him. Villa first was imprisoned in Belem Prison , in Mexico City. While in prison he was tutored in reading and writing by Gildardo Magaña ,
28800-401: Was announced that General Pershing would be sent to Mexico to capture Villa. In a private order to General Pershing, Pershing was told to cease the search for Villa once Villa's armies had been broken up. President Wilson sent 5,000 U.S. Army soldiers under the command of General Frederick Funston, who oversaw John Pershing as he pursued Villa through Mexico. Employing aircraft and trucks for
28980-545: Was channeled peacefully. The National Catholic Party became an important political opposition force during the Madero presidency. In the June 1912 congressional elections, "militarily quiescent states ... the Catholic Party (PCN) did conspicuously well." During that period, the Catholic Association of Mexican Youth (ACJM) was founded. Although the National Catholic Party was an opposition party to
29160-438: Was clear: Madero, a member of a rich northern hacendado family, was not about to implement comprehensive agrarian reform for aggrieved peasants. In response to this lack of action, Zapata promulgated the Plan de Ayala in November 1911, declaring himself in rebellion against Madero. He renewed guerrilla warfare in the state of Morelos . Madero sent the Federal Army to deal with Zapata, unsuccessfully. Zapata remained true to
29340-428: Was decisively defeated by Constitutionalist general Álvaro Obregón in summer 1915, and the U.S. aided Carranza directly against Villa in the Second Battle of Agua Prieta . Much of Villa's army left after his defeat on the battlefield and because of his lack of resources to buy arms and pay soldiers' salaries. Angered at the U.S. aid to Carranza, Villa conducted a raid on the border town of Columbus, New Mexico to goad
29520-409: Was defeated badly, suffering 4,000 killed and 6,000 captured. Obregón engaged Villa again at the Battle of Trinidad, which was fought between 29 April and 5 June 1915, where Villa suffered another huge loss. In October 1915, Villa crossed into Sonora , the main stronghold of Obregón and Carranza's armies, where he hoped to crush Carranza's regime. However, Carranza had reinforced Sonora, and Villa again
29700-400: Was defeated badly. Rodolfo Fierro , a loyal officer and cruel hatchet man, was killed while Villa's army was crossing into Sonora. After losing the Battle of Agua Prieta in Sonora, an overwhelming number of Villa's men in the Division del Norte were killed and 1,500 of the army's surviving members soon turned on him, accepting an amnesty offer from Carranza. "Villa's army [was] reduced to
29880-431: Was defeated by the revolutionary forces and resulted in Díaz's resignation, "was the basic cause of his fall". His failure is also attributable to "the failure of the social class to which he belonged and whose interests he considered to be identical to those of Mexico: the liberal hacendados" (owners of large estates). Madero had created no political organization that could survive his death and had alienated and demobilized
30060-452: Was elected President in October 1911, he did not move on land reform, which had been one of the promises in his 1910 Plan of San Luis Potosí . Emiliano Zapata rebelled against Madero in November 1911, issuing the Plan of Ayala . By March 1912, Orozco himself rebelled against Madero. His plan brought together armed forces in Chihuahua, which posed a significant challenge to Madero. Madero initially sent General José González Salas to put down
30240-406: Was fragile, and further regional rebellions broke out. In February 1913, prominent army generals from the Díaz regime staged a coup d'etat in Mexico City , forcing Madero and Vice President Pino Suárez to resign. Days later, both men were assassinated by orders of the new President, Victoriano Huerta . This initiated a new and bloody phase of the Revolution, as a coalition of northerners opposed to
30420-452: Was further exacerbated by the drought that lasted from 1907 to 1909. The economy took a great leap during the Porfiriato, through the construction of factories, industries and infrastructure such as railroads and dams, as well as improving agriculture. Foreign investors bought large tracts of land to cultivate crops and range cattle for export. The cultivation of exportable goods such as coffee, tobacco, henequen for cordage, and sugar replaced
30600-616: Was increasingly an ineffective force with aging leadership and troops conscripted into service. Díaz attempted the same kind of manipulation he executed with the Mexican political system with business interests, showing favoritism to European interests against those of the U.S. Rival interests, particularly those of the foreign powers with a presence in Mexico, further complicated an already complex system of favoritism. As economic activity increased and industries thrived, industrial workers began organizing for better conditions. Díaz enacted policies that encouraged large landowners to intrude upon
30780-433: Was installed until elections could be held, the Federal Army was retained, and revolutionary forces demobilized. The first phase of the Revolution was relatively bloodless and short-lived. Madero was elected President, taking office in November 1911. He immediately faced the armed rebellion of Emiliano Zapata in Morelos, where peasants demanded rapid action on agrarian reform . Politically inexperienced, Madero's government
30960-574: Was insulting. After Madero refused to agree to social reforms calling for better working hours, pay, and conditions, Orozco organized his army, the Orozquistas , also called the Colorados ("Red Flaggers") and issued his Plan Orozquista on 25 March 1912, enumerating why he was rising in revolt against Madero. In April 1912, Madero dispatched General Victoriano Huerta of the Federal Army to put down Orozco's dangerous revolt. Madero had kept
31140-410: Was made between Zapata's forces and Villa's. Zapata was sympathetic to Villa's hostile views of Carranza and told Villa he feared Carranza's intentions were those of a dictator and not of a democratic president. Fearing that Carranza was intending to impose a dictatorship, Villa and Zapata broke with him. Carranza opposed the agreements of the convention, which rejected his leadership as "first chief" of
31320-466: Was no foreboding in 1910 that a revolution was about to break out. The aging Díaz failed to find a controlled solution to presidential succession, resulting in a power struggle among competing elites and the middle classes, which occurred during a period of intense labor unrest, exemplified by the Cananea and Río Blanco strikes. When wealthy northern landowner Francisco I. Madero challenged Díaz in
31500-426: Was no longer known as Arango but Francisco "Pancho" Villa after his paternal grandfather, Jesús Villa. However, others claim he appropriated the name from a bandit from Coahuila . He was known to his friends as La Cucaracha or ("the cockroach"). Until 1910, Villa is said to have alternated episodes of thievery with more legitimate pursuits. At one point he was employed as a miner, but that stint did not have
31680-658: Was portrayed as a hero in the U.S. media, made business arrangements with Hollywood, and did not object to the 1914 U.S. naval occupation of Veracruz . Villa's observation was that the occupation merely hurt Huerta. Villa opposed the armed participation of the United States in Mexico, but he did not act against the Veracruz occupation in order to maintain the connections in the U.S. that were necessary to buy American cartridges and other supplies. The German consul in Torreón made entreaties to Villa, offering him arms and money to occupy
31860-403: Was primarily a civil war , but foreign powers, having important economic and strategic interests in Mexico, figured in the outcome of Mexico's power struggles; the U.S. involvement was particularly high. The conflict led to the deaths of around one million people, mostly non-combatants. Although the decades-long regime of President Porfirio Díaz (1876–1911) was increasingly unpopular, there
32040-441: Was repulsed at Columbus by a small cavalry detachment, albeit after doing a lot of damage. His theater of operations was limited mainly to western Chihuahua. He was persona non grata with Mexico's ruling Carranza constitutionalists and was the subject of an embargo by the U.S., so communication or further shipments of arms between the Germans and Villa would have been difficult. A plausible explanation for contacts between Villa and
32220-639: Was spared the death sentence sometimes imposed on captured bandits. Pancho Villa was forcibly inducted into the Federal Army , a practice often adopted under the Diaz regime to deal with troublemakers. Several months later, he deserted and fled to the neighboring state of Chihuahua. He tried to work as a butcher in Hidalgo del Parro but was forced out of business by the Terrazas-Creel monopoly. In 1903, after killing an army officer and stealing his horse, he
32400-466: Was unravelling, to no one's surprise except perhaps Madero's, whose support continued to deteriorate, even among his political allies. Madero's supporters in congress before the coup, the so-called Renovadores ("the renewers"), criticized him, saying, "The revolution is heading toward collapse and is pulling the government to which it gave rise down with it, for the simple reason that it is not governing with revolutionaries. Compromises and concessions to
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