The rural poor suffered too. Rising land values motivated rich landowners to expand their holdings and push small landholders off their property. An 1883 land law that required proof of land ownership resulted in the seizure of millions of acres of private and communal lands by government-supported land companies. Haciendas, or large privately owned estates, grew at the expense of small holders, turning many of them into peasants who labored on a hacienda for wages. Their payment might consist of advances in food and clothing or of a lease on land to work for themselves on their time off, for which they became indebted. By 1910 over onehalf of all Mexicans worked in debt peonage on the haciendas, or large estates, of a few wealthy families (Meyer and Sherman, pp. 457-58). A worldwide depression from 1907 to 1909, followed by Díaz’s decision to remain in the presidency after having promised to step down, pushed the crisis to the boiling point. The revolution began in late 1910 in the northern states but soon extended to the entire country. Díaz abdicated and went into exile in 1911, but the coalition of revolutionary forces soon broke down into factions.
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