Student Essay on Causes of the Mexican Revolution

The Mexican revolution, beginning in 1910 and officially ending in 1946, was a time of constant bloodshed for the Mexican people. The presidential power changed from one man to another approximately 75 times during these 36 years. This revolution was main cause was Porifirio Diaz and his extremely corrupt government. This government created severe poverty with their corrupt system that caused a sever separation between the classes and created tension between the classes, finally the Mexican economy (which was already suffering) was completely dependent on foreign nations.

Diaz¡¦s Government was an extremely corrupt organization which favored the rich over the poor. Diaz himself was a very harsh and repressive ruler, who refused to come out of power. He would hold ¡§democratic¡¨ elections every four years, but would rig them so that he would win. Year after year Diaz was reelected. He once allowed another to win the election but he remained in control through a puppet regime. During his rule he took large amounts of land from the poor and gave it to the rich. This created only two classes the rich, and the poor. The separation between those classes was immense and this significantly affected their suffering economy.

This separation created a huge poverty problem in the lower class. Very few people owned land and because of the government¡¦s land grabs the lower class could not make any money and they could not afford food. So as the poor became poorer the rich became richer. This lack of money to afford food created a hunger epidemic that devastated the lower class. This corrupt system of favoring one class over the other was the cause Mexico to experience a demoralizing depression in 1907 and lasting until 1908. This depression exposed the problems of the Diaz administration which fueled the idea of a revolution.

The economy was not only suffering because of extreme poverty; it was also completely dependent on foreign nations. Almost everything in Mexico was foreign owned. Some of the countries with the largest shares in Mexico were; France, Spain, and The United States of America. This foreign dependency caused the Mexican economy to have no stability or control of either its growth or decay. Prior to the revolution these nations began to demand that Mexico pay back its debt to them. This was absolutely devastating to the already crippled Mexican economy.

This Revolution significantly changed how the Mexican government operated. If the Diaz administration had been able to stabilize the economy and keep the people under control while keeping their moral up, this revolution might have never happened. As the revolution came to an end the Mexican government became more of a democracy with legitimate elections than a monarchy. The lower class received land on which they could farm on and generate revenue from. When the lower class finally had the ability to generate a profit and afford food once again the economy quickly began to recover.

,,« Foster, V. lynn. A Brief History of Mexico. NewYork, 1997, ¡§The Economy was ruled by foreign trade¡¨, ¡§Just about everything in Mexico was foreign owned.¡¨ (page 146/147)