The Mexican Revolution Essay Sample

📌Category: Americas, History, World
📌Words: 615
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 12 April 2022

The Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) was an attempt to do away with the long dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. Díaz had ruled over Mexico for 35 years, taking advantage of the people for the benefit of himself and societal elites. The people were sick of the dictator and were ready for a change. In 1910, the Mexican Revolution got underway in an attempt to overthrow Porfirio Díaz and establish a constitutional republic. Through many years of bloody battle and struggle, the dictatorship ended. After a cruel dictatorship, the Mexican Revolution caused a shift in government to a more people-driven, united nation.

Porfirio Díaz had a 35-year reign over Mexico, and in that long period of time, he was not a kind ruler. Porfirio Díaz was known for willingly taking advantage of his citizens if it was of benefit to him. Along with being a cruel ruler, he was also an unfair one. “Díaz rose through the political ranks as a liberal leader... he developed close relations with the Catholic Church and relied on conservative and wealthy elites to assure his political survival.” (Darity 21-25). He would form close political alliances with the Church and other higher powers in order to help ensure his presidency after he had lost support from the people. Díaz was a terrible leader and could tell that the people were unhappy with his rule and promised not to run for president again. Despite promising not to run again, Díaz ran for president in the 1910 elections. 

Unexpectedly, Díaz had found a tough competitor in Francisco Madero. Madero, like most of the citizens, was sick of this dictatorial rule and was ready for a change. The promise of agrarian reforms attracted many and before long he had full support in taking out Díaz. However, when Díaz realized he would not win the election on his own, he had Madero arrested in order to win by a “landslide”. It quickly became apparent that the election was a product of fraud and the people wanted him out. From jail, Francisco Madero had been drafting the “Plan of San Luis Potosí”. This was “a document calling for revolution against Díaz” (Gale 16-17), and rebellion against his dictatorship. This plan jump-started the Mexican Revolution. In 1911, after the Plan of San Luis Potosí was first drafted, Díaz agreed to sign a treaty with Madero. The Treaty of Ciudad Juárez required Díaz to resign from the presidency which in turn ended his 35-year reign of dictatorship. After Díaz’s resignation, another presidential election was held and Madero, unsurprisingly, came out victorious. The people had finally accomplished their goal of overthrowing the dictatorship and forming a constitutional republic. 

The people had high hopes for a positive change with Madero as president, however many of the same problems were still occurring. “...armed rebellions continued. Many people did not believe that Madero was qualified to be president and tried to remove him from power.” (Gale 27-29). Unfortunately, even though the people had high hopes for Madero’s presidency when his promises were going unfulfilled, it made many people very upset and they also wanted to get Madero removed from power. William A. Darity Jr., the author of Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), states “He had stirred the passions of agrarian rebels who wanted the return of their communal ejido lands....In the north, Francisco (Pancho) Villa also demanded deep social and political changes.”. Even though Madero’s presidency had been failing, his initial goal of overthrowing Porfirio Díaz’s dictatorship had been successful. Mexico had become a constitutional republic, they were just in need of a president ready to take on the responsibility.

Mexico become a more united nation after a shift in government from a dictatorship to a constitutional republic. Mexico had been stuck under cruel rule for far too long and thanks to a brave man named Francisco Madero they were able to escape and have more say in political decisions. While the new government did not exactly turn out how everyone initially expected, the initial shift in government had been a success.

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