Chronology of the Mexican Revolution
1904
1908
It is very likely, however, that Díaz did not intend to stop aside after the elections, but that he believe that the people would “refuse to accept his resignation.” In fact, on May 30, 1908, Díaz allowed he advisors to ‘convince’ him that he needed to agree to another term as president. Therefore, the focus shifted to the office of the Vice President, as many believed that Díaz would not live through another term. [5]
It is also possible that Díaz made the statement in order to bring his opponents out into the open where they were vulnerable to attack from the Díaz regime. Thus, Madero and other opponents did nothing in response for a couple of months.[6]
1909
1910
April 15, 1910: The nominating convention for the Partido Nacional Antirreeleccionista is held.[8] The night before Corral ordered Madero’s arrest, and Madero, after receiving word of the order, was forced to hide in a friend’s house.[9] Madero was chosen as the Presidential candidate for both the Partido Nacionalista Democrático and the Partido Nacional Antirreeleccionista. Dr. Francisco Vázquez Gómez was named the vice presidential candidate for both parties. [10]
June 26, 1910: The Primary elections are held and there is strong evidence for fraud on the part of the Díaz government.[11]
July 10, 1910: the Electoral College announced that Díaz and Corral had received the majority of the votes in the Primary Election.[12]
September 27, 1910: Congress declared that the attempt by the Partido Nacional Antirreeleccionista to nullify the election results was unjustified and named Díaz and Corral as the President and Vice President for the next term. [13]
October 6, 1910: Madero fled Mexico to the San Antonio, Texas in the United States with the intention of beginning a revolution.[14]
Madero calls for armed revolution, to start on 20 November 1910,
1911
October 5, 1910: Madero drafts the Plan de San Luis Potosí, which declares that the elections were void and that they had not established a legal government. Madero declared himself to be the president of the provisional government with the power to declare war on Díaz. The plan also stipulated that as soon as Mexico City was held by the revolution, along with half of the Mexican States, elections for a new president would be held.[15]
February 5, 1911: This was set as the date when Madero would return to Mexico and rejoin the revolution, but a warrant for his arrest prevented his return until February 14, 1911.[16]
March 17, 1911: The Díaz government suspended constitutional guarantees in response to their inability to put down the revolution. This was followed by the resignation of Díaz’s entire cabinet. All positions were filled that same day.[17]
May 7, 1911: Díaz announced his plans to retire when he felt that “on retiring he [would] not deliver the country to anarchy.”[18] The official paperwork ending the revolution was signed on May 21. It stipulated that Díaz and Corral would resign by the end of the month, and named Francisco León de la Barra as interim president. Finally, on May 25, Díaz resigned his office.[19] General elections were set for October 1, with the electoral elections to be held on October 15. Madero received 98% of the votes and was sworn into office on November 6, 1911.
During the interim government, Barra experienced some problems with Zapata, who began an armed rebellion against the new government in September of 1911. Zapata hoped there would be some major regime changes when Madero came into power, but unfortunately was not able to work with Madero and his opposition to the Madero government continued. [20[
1912
Throughout 1912 opposition to the Madero government grew. Pascual Orozco was on of the main leaders of the opposition, along with Felix Díaz and Bernardo Reyes. Orozco was a former member of the Revolution and of the Madero government. He led a rebellion against the government in 1912. At this time Mexico City and the government was defended by Victoriano Huerta.[21] In late October 1912, Felix Díaz led an armed rebellion ageist Madero and failed and resulted in his own arrest on October 23, 1912.
In November, along with Otilio Montaño, a local school teacher, Emiliano Zapata composed the Plan of Avala, which expressed the goals of the local peasants. The plan called for the “return of the land the haciendas had stolen…the expropriation of one-third of all hacienda holding for villages without land titles, and the confiscation of the property of those who oppose Zapata’s rebellion.”[22]
1913
February 9, 1913: Coup d’etat
On February 21 Madero and his vice President, Pino Suárez, were assassinated, under the orders of the Huerta government.[26] Many individuals in Mexico did not recognize the Huerta’s regime as legitimate, and the revolution against his government was begun on March fifth and led by Alvaro Obregón.]27] Obregón was soon joined in the rebellion by Francisco Villa, Zapata, and Venustiano Carranza.[28]
Carranza refused to recognize the coup and began an unsuccessful revolt where he was forced to flee to the northwest of Mexico. On March 26, 1913 Carranza issued the Plan de Guadalupe in which he vowed to return constitutional rule back to Mexico, and he proceeded to establish his own government in the north, while others revolted against Huerta.[29] Carranza’s government (the Constitutionalist government), managed to gain control of many of the states and the run as an effective opposition government until Huerta’s overthow in 1914.[30]
1914
By spring of 1914, Carranza’s men had control of most of northern Mexico and almost all of the railroads that connect Mexico to the United States.31 By the end of May the Constitutionalist forces had control of all the roads leading to central Mexico and they had weakened the Huerta regime to the point of collapse.32
On April 21, 1914 President Wilson ordered the U.S. Marines to land at the port of Veracruz, in response to the arrest of some U.S. soldiers and officers by the Huerta police force. This was seen as a definite aid to the Constitutionalists, because it cut off Huerta’s supply of arms, however, the Mexican people saw it as a return of United States involvement in their affairs and many rushed to support Huerta in an attempt to remove the Americans from the port.33
Between March and July, Carranza and Villa had a number of altercations that almost ended their partnership. Villa disliked Carranza’s dealings with the U.S. Department of State. Finally, on July 8, 1914, Carranza and Villa signed a pact that stipulated that Villa acknowledged that Carranza was the First Chief of the armed resistance and the general of the northern division, and Carranza agreed to send arms, ammunition, and coal to Villa’s troops.34
During this period Zapata continued his fight against the Huerta government. He recognized the Constitutionalist as co-belligerents, but did not acknowledge any special policital power on their behalf. Zapata tried to tie the Members of the reistance to his Plan of Ayala, and in 1913 rewrote it so that it named Zapata as the “Supreme Chief of the Revolution.”35
1915
1916
Carranza’s plan for the Mexican government set the date for elections to elect delegates to the conventions on October 22, 1916, with the convention meeting from November 20 to November 30, and then from December 1 to January 31 to create a new constitution. The Convention was to meet at Querétaro. After releasing his schedule, Carranza issued a decree establishing universal manhood suffrage.40
Carranza submitted his draft of the Constitution to the Convention on December 1. It was in essence just a rewrite of the 1857 constitution. He had added, however, stipulations for no reelection of the president or for state governors, direct elections, the elimination of the vice-presidency, free education, freedom of religion, restriction on monopolies, and government support for communal property.41
Carranza’s plan for the Mexican government set the date for elections to elect delegates to the conventions on October 22, 1916, with the convention meeting from November 20 to November 30, and then from December 1 to January 31 to create a new constitution. The Convention was to meet at Querétaro. After releasing his schedule, Carranza issued a decree establishing universal manhood suffrage.40
Carranza submitted his draft of the Constitution to the Convention on December 1. It was in essence just a rewrite of the 1857 constitution. He had added, however, stipulations for no reelection of the president or for state governors, direct elections, the elimination of the vice-presidency, free education, freedom of religion, restriction on monopolies, and government support for communal property.41
The Convention created a committee to rewrite the constitution, going from Carranza’s draft. On December 11, the committee submitted the preamble and Carranza’s first two articles without any alterations (this articles guarantee the constitutional rights of Mexican citizens and outlaw slavery in Mexico). They significantly changed article three, which deals with education. The committee then proceeded to write the constitution article by article and approve it piece by piece in the convention. Article 27, dealing with issues of land ownership, has become the most significant article in the constitution.42
1917
1919
Zapata continued to fight Carranza, as he felt that his demands were not being taken seriously. Unfortunately Zapata was loosing support for his movement outside of the peasant population. As a final attempt at an Alliance, Zapata asked Jesús Guajardo, a disaffected colonel in Carranza’s army, to join him for talks. On April 10, 1919 Zapata and Guajardo met at Chinameco, and when Zapata road threw the gate of the hacienda he was shot dead by Guajardo’s troops.46
On June 1, 1919 Obregón announced his candidacy for the presidency. He warned that the revolution was in jeopardy and needed new leadership.47
1920
On April 2, 1920, Carranza summoned Obregón to Mexico City in an attempt to arrest him and stop him from gaining the presidency. Obregón managed to flee to safety in Guerrero. On April 20, 1920, Obregón, issued a manifest in opposition to Carranza, and his popularity increases.
[1] Charles C. Cumberland, Mexican Revolution: Genesis under Madero (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1952), 39
[2] Ibid., 35.
[3] Ibid., 40.
[4] Ibid., 47.
[5] Ibid., 48-49.
[6] Ibid., 48.
[7] Ibid., 71.
[10] Ibid., 104-105.
[11] Ibid., 114.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ibid., 117.
[14] Ibid., 118.
15 Ibid., 122.
16 Ibid., 129.
17 Ibid., 134-36.
18 Ibid., 148.
19 Ibid., 150.
20 Ibid., 170.
21 Ibid., 193, 198.
22 Emiliano Zapata,” Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, ed. Barbara A. Tenenbaum, vol 5 (New York: Charles Scribners’s Sons, 1996) 493.
23 Cumberland, 234.
24 Ibid., 238.
25 Charles C. Cumberland, Mexican Revolution: The Constitutionalist Years (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1972), 11.
26 Ibid., 12.
27 Ibid., 25.
28 Ibid., 27.
[29] Barbara A. Tenenbaum, ed., Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1996) 1, 573.
30 Cumberland, The Constitutionalist Years, 77.
31 Ibid., 112.
32 Ibid., 123.
33 Ibid., 124-5.
34 Ibid., 138.
35 Ibid., 141.
36 Ibid., 148-9.
37 Ibid., 171.
38 Ibid., 200-209.
39 Ibid., 233.
40 Ibid., 328-9.
45 Ibid., 362.
46 “Emiliano Zapata,” Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, ed. Barbara A. Tenenbaum, vol 5 (New York: Charles Scribners’s Sons, 1996) 494.
47 Cumberland, The Constitutionalist Years, 402. Years
48 Ibid., 412-13.