Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution (Spanish: Revolución mexicana) was a major armed struggle ca. 1910–20 that radically transformed Mexican politics and society. Although recent research has focused on local and regional aspects of the Revolution, it was a "genuinely national revolution."
The failure of the 35-year long regime of Porfirio Díaz to find a managed solution to the presidential succession meant there was a political crisis among competing elites and the opportunity for agrarian insurrection.Francisco I. Madero, cheated out of the 1910 presidential election, revolted under the Plan of San Luis Potosí which declared the Díaz presidency illegitimate, named Madero as provisional president, called for democracy, and demanded the return of lands unjustly taken from Mexican villages.
The armed conflict lasted for the better part of a decade, until around 1920, and had several distinct phases. The period 1920–1940 is often considered to be a phase of the Revolution during which power was consolidated and the revolutionary constitution of 1917 was implemented. Over time the Revolution changed from a revolt against the established order under Díaz to a multi-sided civil war in particular regions with frequently shifting power struggles among factions in the Mexican Revolution. The Constitutionalist faction of northern Mexico led by Venustiano Carranza were the victors in the military phase of the conflict. Northerner Pancho Villa joined the fight against Díaz and came to be a major military figure in the Mexican Revolution until 1915. Peasant leader Emiliano Zapata opposed the Díaz regime and consistently led the fight for campesinos in the state of Morelos for land reform in Mexico until his assassination in 1919.