The Mexican Revolution: Part III-The Fall of Porfiro Diaz

 

The Mexican Revolution lasted from 1910 to 1920. Although Francisco Madero managed to overthrow  the dictator Porfiro Diaz, he proved to be an ineffective president, who soon lost power. A succession of generals and rebel leaders struggled to gain the president's chair, but the fighting merely grew more destructive until Alvaro Obregon emerged as the victor in 1920. Part III explains how Francisco Madero's middle class supporters were easily crushed, but rebel leaders like Pazqual Orozco, Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata transformed Madero's polite, orderly revolt into a mass uprising that threatened to destroy the established social order.

Cast of Characters:
Porfiro Diaz-President of Mexico
Jose Yves Limantour-Minister of Finance, leader of the Cientificos faction
Luis Terrazas-former governor of Chihuahua, one of the wealthiest men in Mexico, head of the powerful Terraza-Creel clan
Enrique Creel-Minister of Foreign Relations and Luis Terrazas' son-in-law
Francisco Madero Jr.-presidential candidate and member of the wealthy Madero clan
Franciso Vazquez Gomez-Madero's running mate, former personal physician to Porfiro Diaz
Pazqual Orozco-primary rebel leader in Chihuahua against Diaz
Francisco Villa-rebel leader in Chihuahua
Emiliano Zapata-leader of an agrarian movement in Morelos

Sources:
Villa and Zapata: A Biography of the Mexican Revolution-Frank McLynn
The Mexican Revolution: Volumes I & II-Alan Knight
Mexico: Biography of Power, A History of Modern Mexico, 1810-1996-Enrique Krauze, translated by Hank Heifetz
Porfirio Diaz-Paul Garner
Francisco I. Madero: Apostle of Mexican Democracy-Stanley R. Ross
Empire and Revolution: The Americans in Mexico since the Civil War-John Mason Hart
Revolutionary Mexico: The Coming and Process of the Mexican Revolution-John Mason Hart
The Life and Times of Pancho Villa-Friedrich Katz
Centaur of the North: Francisco Villa, the Mexican Revolution, and Northern Mexico
Emiliano Zapata: Revolution and Betrayal in Mexico-Samuel Brunk
Zapata and the Mexican Revolution-John Womack, Jr.
Ranchero Revolt: The Mexican Revolution in Guerrero-Ian Jacobs
Orozco: The Life and Death of a Mexican Revolutionary-Raymond Caballero
In the Absence of Don Porfirio: Francisco Leon de la Barra and the Mexican Revolution-Peter Henderson

Image Credit:
Dec 6 1914 General Tomás Urbina, General Pancho Villa and General Emiliano Zapata, Creator: Casasola, Agustín Víctor, 1874-1938, Elmer and Diane Powell collection on Mexico and the Mexican Revolution, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, Wikimedia Commons