The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 21: The Recent Days (1910-1914)
History
The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 21: The Recent Days (1910-1914)
World history
These are some of the causes and circumstances that made the revolution
of 1910-11--not all of them, for there must be remembered in addition
the Yaqui slave traffic, the contract-labor system of the great
southern haciendas, and a dozen other iniquities, greater and lesser,
which also contributed to precipitating the revolt. It was fortunate
that that revolt was captained by a man of Francisco Madero's _type_--a
man who knew how to win the world's sympathy for his cause and how to
make his subordinates merit that sympathy by their observance of the
rules of civilized warfare.
The actual armed contention of the Madero revolution was singularly
brief, culminating in the capture of Ciudad Juarez, which was followed
by the resignation of Diaz and Corral. There can be no doubt that the
dictatorship could have held together for a considerable time longer
and that Diaz surrendered before he actually had to. But he could
probably see by this time that it was inevitable in any case, and he
was willing to sacrifice his personal pride and ambition sooner than
necessary to avoid bloodshed in Mexico if he could. And also he had it
upon his conscience, and it was brought home to him by the mobs outside
his palace, that he was not the constitutional President of Mexico, but
the tool of the betrayers of her Constitution. That he had been
shamelessly deceived and played upon by the impassable cordon of
Cientificos about him is easy to judge. His message of resignation was
one to touch any heart, combining pathos with absolute dignity.
The resignation of Diaz and Corral was taken by many to signify the
complete surrender of the old régime and the triumph of the revolution.
Indeed, for the moment it so appeared. But although the Cientificos
were ousted from direct political control, their wealth and power and
the tremendous machinery of their domination were still to be contended
with before the revolution could follow up its political success with
the economic reforms which were its real object.
Madero had pledged himself primarily to the division of the lands. He
realized that only by the abolition of the landed aristocracy, and an
equitable distribution among moderate holders for active development of
the huge estates, held idle in great part or worked by peons, could the
progress and prosperity of the nation be put upon a solid basis. He
knew exactly what the remedy was and, though a landed aristocrat
himself by birth and inheritance, was not afraid of it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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