Lázaro Cárdenas del Río (May 21, 1895 – October 19, 1970) was President of Mexico from 1934 to 1940. From Cárdenas plebian roots, in the lower-middle class he eked out a substantial, moving and largely successful leadership role in a reformative Mexico. Born in the village of Jiquilpan, Michoacán, Cárdenas supported his widowed mother and seven younger siblings from the age of sixteen. His many professional pursuits included a tax collector, a printer’s devil (apprentice to a printer) and a jail keeper, all by the age of eighteen. Cárdenas had very little formal education, leaving school at eleven to help support his family he often sought opportunities to further his own knowledge, as can be seen by his choices of profession before the age of eighteen, additionally Lázaro Cárdenas was a consummate student of history seeking to understand and learn about all the national and international historical underpinnings of Mexico and the world. When Cárdenas was young he sought to become a teacher but was fouled in his plan by being drawn fully into the politics and military of Mexico, at a time when Mexico was in serious transition. (Wikipedia 2009, “Lázaro Cárdenas”) The Mexican Revolution drew Cárdenas, as it did many others into service of the new government, after Victoriano Huerta overthrew the former President Francisco Madero. Cárdenas was a supporter of Plutarco Elías Calles as the new president of Mexico and was rewarded, after his successful bid, for appointment as the governor of his home province, Michoacán in 1928. (Fallow 2001, 11)…
As social inequality, hunger and unfair distribution of currency and land saturated Mexico and political problems heightened; Mexico entered into the Mexican Revolution under the 29th president of Mexico General Porfirio Diaz. Diaz had a controversial rule and with his barbarous tactics, such as his campaign sloan "pan o palo" or "bread or the stick/club" meant to accept his policies would guarantee a prosperous future with wealth and land, however revolting…
In 1810, Father Manuel Hidalgo, a criollos (spaniard born in Mexico) started an independence war in which he lost his life. The independency came in 1821 with a joint force of Vicente Guerrero and Agustin de Iturbide. Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana overthrew Iturbide when he declared himself as the emperor of Mexico and serve as a president between 1823-1836. By 1848 Mexico lost Northwest part of the country to America. Mid 1800s during French occupation, Porfirio Diaz, a mestizo (Indian-European mix) modernized and progressed the country. However he ruled oppressively. Inequitable income and power distribution led the country to the Mexican Revolution in 1910. Peasants revolt under the leadership of Emiliano Zapata, a land reform called ejido system begins in 1934. Lazaro Cardenas distributes farmlands to people for agriculture. It helped the country’s economy along with the industrial…
• Diaz eventually lost power in 1911, after several public uproars and criticism’s about Diaz came forth, and the Maderistas took up arms against him. Soon, a revolution at the battle of Casas Grandes, took place, defeating Porfirio Diaz. [6]…
Hidalgo 's liberal ideas led him to join forces with a group of people who opposed the Spanish dominance. Together with this group of liberals, they reached an agreement to begin a revolution in October of 1810. However, they were discovered and forced to move up the date to September 16, 1810.…
There are several different economic, social, and political causes that credited to the start of the Mexican Revolution in 1910. In the second half of the eighteenth century to the start of the revolution in 1910, the economic base first started to show substantial growth but took a turn for the worse when foreign investors came into the scene. This caused a movement down hill to where the general working population where worried about what the future may hold. The same was happening in the worldwide economy. Social aspects of the Mexican Revolution can be attributed to the change of ownership of the land, which attributed to the weak social class structure, and the labor disputes that occurred because peoples’ revolt. Political causes to the Mexican Revolution can be related to the political workings of some of Mexico’s presidents and famous people that had involvement with the country. People like Porfirio Diaz, Benito Juarez, Francisco Madero, Emiliano Zapata, and many more all contributed somehow into the beginning the Mexican Revolution. With contribution from each spectrum of economics, social, politics, and the important events leading up to 1910, the Mexican Revolution became an important event in the history of Latin America that would leave a lasting impact for several years to come.…
The Mexican Revolution occurred around the 1930s to the 1990s and during this time the United States imperialism and notion of civilization and progress was taking place in Mexico. The three main characters each have different stories and different reasons for being in Mexico to achieve redemption. Ambrose Bierce also known as the old gringo was a journalist for William Hearst in the 1900s. His whole family left him because they were so shamed by what he wrote. He describes his writing as mocking God, his Homeland, and Money; and his family thought when would they be next for him to go against them, judging them, telling them their no exception, they prove the rule, and are all part of the ludicrous filth, the farts of God, we call humanity. (Fuentes, p.75) Some of the family left him through death and others left by just choosing to never see him again. The old gringo joked, “I think my sons killed themselves so I wouldn’t ridicule them in the newspapers of my boss William Randolph Hearst” (Fuentes, p. 73). Through his journey of redemption he met up with General Tomás Arroyo’s revolutionary group on the Miranda hacienda in northern Mexico. His plan of redemption was through death, “He wanted to die because everything he loved died before him” (Fuentes, p. 37)…
* September 16 is a day of celebration all through Mexico. Even the president emerges from the royal palace, decorated with a sash to represent Mexico, rings a bell three times just as Miguel Hidalgo did on that same day in 1810 to commemorate the beginning of the revolution and to unite Mexico behind the ideals of equality and freedom that Miguel Hidalgo fought for. All Mexico celebrates on that day as one united country regardless of class or the color of one’s skin. Yet, the wars of independence from 1810 – 1821, according to Timothy J. Henderson in his historical account, The Mexican Wars of Independence, failed to realize the original ideals envisioned by its leaders. In the end, the compromise, ultimately reached in 1821, resulting in independence from Spain, deepened the already existing divisions of race, ethnicity, class, and regions. The revolution that was to ignite social, economic, and political change was doomed to fail not just because of military mistakes, class divisions and misunderstandings, but more importantly because of the deeply rooted social divisions created by 300 years of Spanish colonial rule, which were too difficult to change in a matter of years by the first leaders of the effort. Such change would take generations. Henderson’s argument is so well researched and written in a gripping style that it is impossible to attribute mythic status to the revolutionary heroes that Mexico values and praises to this day. Mexico still remains a society of divisions that were never addressed through Mexico’s independence because the final leader of the war of independence avoided it.…
The election of 1910 was the controversy that marked the beginning of the Mexican Revolution. Francisco I. Madero decided to run against Diaz as a candidate in the election. Diaz allowed Madero to run, thinking that it would make the process look more…
In 1910, Francisco Madero, a son of wealthy plantation owners, instigated a revolution against the government of president Díaz. Even though most of his motives were political (institute effective suffrage and disallow reelections of presidents), Madero's revolutionary plan included provisions for returning seized lands to peasant farmers. The latter became a rallying cry for the peasantry and Zapata began…
Parallels may be drawn between the revolutionary movements in Mexico in 1910 and in Russia in 1917. In both Mexico and Russia, democratic rule was experimented with during the revolution. In Mexico it resulted in a democratic government, but communism ultimately prevailed in Russia. In both cases foreign involvement played a role. Mexico was trying to escape economic dependency on foreign investors and limited military involvement by the United States in the revolution had little impact, while in Russia foreign powers who favored a democratic rule of the country went so far as to send troops to undermine communist progress.…
He was said to have been a great rebel, and was promoted to a colonel in Madero’s army. Later on Mexico would have a civil war, going against the federal army and Porfirio Diaz. The war lasted for about a decade, and Villa was one of the only revolutionaries who survived the decade of bloody battles. As the rebels kept fighting against the federal army, Diaz went into exile. After this, Madero became the new president. But, Villa was arrested because of General Victoriano Huerta’s accusation that Villa stole his horse, and was sentenced to death. Right before the firing squad killed him, Madero stepped in and stopped the whole ordeal, taking note of the fact that Villa has always been loyal to him. It was later revealed that Huerta was now against Madero, and had assassinated Madero. After this occurrence, Villa teamed up with Emiliano Zapata and Venustiano Carranza to take down Huerta to take revenge for his long lost friend. Fast forward a bit, General Obregon found out Villa’s weakness was the use of horses in his battles. Villa liked using barbed wires against his enemies, but now it was used against him. Whenever a horse passed through the barbed wire, the result was carnage. This then led to many instances of defeat, so Villa retreated back to the mountains and participating once again in guerilla warfare. All the while, Americans saw Carranza as the head of the Mexican government, and gave him and his army access to American railroads to try and defeat Villa’s band of guerillas. Villa was angered, and planned to take revenge on Americans. So, he entered Columbus, New Mexico, and attacked and killed people there. President Wilson then put a wanted sign on Villa, offering $5,000 dollars to anyone who could find Villa, dead or alive. American soldiers, led by General Pershing spent about eleven months and a lot of money, but they never…
In 1911, Madero won the first Battle of Ciudad Juarez. Diaz who at that time was the president was eventually driven out of power and Madero became the president. Madero promised change for the lower classes. Villa joined forces with Madero and became the leader of the revolutionary army. In May 1911, Villa resigned because of issues he was having with another commander, Pascual Orozco.…
The Mexican Revolution was led by Francisco Madero, Ricardo Flores Magon, Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, and Adelitas, foe decade to end the Dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz, who had power of Mexico for over three decades. Diaz was wanted out because of him violating principles and the Mexican constitution of 1857. However, Francisco Madero who was elected by the…
Finally, after being able to keep his rule year after year, he was taken out of office because of the revolution that started to get him out. Francisco Madero became president and didn’t last long. He was later assassinated. After Madero, Victoriano Huerta took power. But Huerta didn’t last long either. He was overthrown in 1914. Finally, Venustiano Carranza took power and the revolution came to an end soon after. The revolution was meant to get rid of Diaz, but it ended up lasting and also got rid of two presidents after…