The Mexican Revolution

The Mexican Revolution of 1910 was a result of a long line of squelched rebellions in pursuit of independence without tyranny; most of the nineteenth century passed with the country wavering between democracy and dictatorship, with the population rising against the Spanish, the French, and its own rulers. Mexico was one of the few Latin American countries in which mestizos (people of mixed white and native blood) and natives actively participated in the struggle for independence. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Mexico was under the thirty-year autocratic rule of Porfirio Diaz, who let foreign investors take control of much of his land, selling its resources for ridiculously low prices; he also stifled a few industrial strikes with violence. The Mexican Revolution erupted when Diaz was reelected to the presidency in 1910; by 1917, the fight had claimed about one million lives in a struggle, on the...