Mexican+Civil+War

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The Mexican Civil War, 1910-20, was a bloody armed war between the mexican civilians against the autocratic rule of Porfrio Diaz. After a long struggle, a compromise was reached at the Signing of the Mexican Constution of 1917. The revolution is considered to go through till the twentites due to the bloodshed.

The U.S.-Mexican relations have long been turbulent. During the Mexican independence movement, the U.S. assisted the Mexican insurgents in achieving independence, using the Monroe Docterine as the justification. With the reign of dictators such as Iturbide and Santa Anna, the U.S.-Mexico relationship deteriorated. When the liberal president Benito Juarez came to power with his agenda for a democratic Mexican society, President Lincoln personally commended him and sent supplies to help Juárez overthrow emperor Maximilian I of Mexico. This support during the US Civil War ended with the upheaval following Lincoln's assassination. After the death of Juarez, Mexico reverted to a dictatorial government under the rule of Porfirio Díaz

Emiliano Zapata Salazar was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution. People have long taken different sides on their opinion of Emiliano Zapata and his followers. Some considered them bandits, but to others they were true revolutionaries who worked for the peasants. Peasant and indigenous Mexicans admired Zapata as a practical revolutionary whose populist battle cry was for land reform. He fought for political and economic emancipation of the peasants in Southern Mexico. Zapata was killed in 1919 by General Pablo Gonzalez and his aide in a crazy ambush. Guajardo set up the meeting under the pretext of wanting to defect to Zapata's side. At the meeting, Gonzalez's men assassinated Zapata. Under the Porfiriato, the rural peasants suffered the most. The regime confiscated large sections of land which resulted in a major loss of land by the agrarian work force. In 1883 a land law was passed which gave ownership of more than 27.5 million hect of land to foreign companies. By 1894, one out of every five acres of Mexican land was owned by a foreign interest. Many wealthy families also owned large estates, resulting in landless rural peasants working on the property as virtual slaves. In 1910 at the beginning of the revolution, about one half the rural population lived and worked on such plantations.

The Revolution ended with the death of the Constitutional Army's First Chief Venustiano Carranza in 1920, and the ascension to power of General Alvaro Obregon. Coup attempts and sporadic uprisings continued, for instance in the Cristero Wars of 1926–1929. Effective implementation of the social provisions of the 1917 Constituion of Mexico and near cession of revolutionary activity did not occur until the administration of Lazaro Cardenas.

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