DOCUMENT A

from Encyclopaedia Britannicahttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/379167/Mexico/27368/The-northern-dynasty-Obregon-and-Calles

Obregón began to implement the ideals set forth in the constitution. Administrative machinery was set up to distribute land to the landless and to restore communal holdings (ejidos) to villages. The government supported the Regional Confederation of Mexican Labour (Confederación Regional de Obreros Mexicanos; CROM). José Vasconcelos, who was named minister of education, was to implement the program of rural education. He sponsored a cultural program that brought Mexico worldwide fame and importance. Radical mural painters such as Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, who were commissioned to portray Mexican and especially revolutionary history on public buildings, exalted the indigenous past.Frida Kahlo expressed similar concerns in social and political arenas, but her paintings were less public. Novelists Martín Luis Guzmán, Gregorio López y Fuentes, and Nellie Campobello used the written word to convey radical and revolutionary messages.At the end of his term, Obregón stepped aside for Calles. Calles’s presidency followed the same general lines as had Obregón’s. Land distribution was stepped up, an irrigation program was begun, and in 1925 renewed pressure was put on the petroleum companies to exchange for leases the titles they had obtained from Díaz. Problems with the church developed when Calles instituted vigorously anticlerical measures; in retaliation the church suspended all religious ceremonies and approved and possibly sponsored a rebellion in western Mexico known as the Cristeros. Mediation of the church-state controversy was unofficially accomplished by Dwight W. Morrow, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, whose sympathetic and skillful diplomacy also eased tensions between the two countries.In 1928 the presidential term was extended from four to six years, and the doctrine of “no reelection” was modified to mean “no successive reelection.” Obregón was the successful presidential candidate in 1928, but, as president-elect, he was assassinated by José de León Toral, a religious fanatic.With Calles legally barred from succeeding himself, a peculiarly Mexican political party was formed: the National Revolutionary Party, which, after several incarnations, would eventually become the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Its monopoly on power would occasion major controversy in the years ahead. Formed under Calles’s inspiration, it was initially a coalition of regional and local military bosses and labour and peasant leaders. To safeguard the gains of the revolution, Calles excluded the Roman Catholic Church and other possible reactionary elements. With Calles at its head, the official party governed in the name of the revolution. A congress, drawn from party ranks, named successive, short-term presidents to fill out the term to which Obregón had been elected.In the period 1928–34 a worldwide depression (see Great Depression) and increasing personal vested interests caused many of the older, now conservative revolutionaries, including Calles, to go slowly in implementing the reform mandates of the constitution. The ruling clique continued to be militantly anticlerical, but it withdrew support from CROM, which disintegrated. It also slowed the pace of land distribution and curtailed educational programs. On the positive side, the Calles years saw the beginnings of an irrigation and road-building program.

DOCUMENT B

from "A Brief History of Mexico: Repression & revolution" By Dan La Botzhttp://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/Mexico_history2.php

about UE International: Today UE is regarded as one of the most democratic and politically progressive national unions in the United States, and its philosophy and principle of democratic unionism is summed up in its longstanding slogan, "The members run this union." (wikipedia)

The Results of the Mexican RevolutionThe Mexican Revolution destroyed the old government and army of the dictator Porfirio Diaz, and eventually changed the country's economic and social system in important ways. Between 1920 and 1940, particularly under President Lazaro Cardenas (1934-1940), the Mexican revolutionary government radically altered the economic and social system in Mexico.

First, the hacienda system was ended after hundreds of years as haciendas' land was divided up and distributed to Indian communities and to peasants in the form of "ejidos." Second, the Mexican government recognized the labor unions and peasants organizations, and promoted their organization, and their incorporation into the state-party. Third, Cardenas expropriated the foreign-owned oil industry (owned by Standard and Royal Dutch Shell) and created the Mexican petroleum company (PEMEX). Fourth, a new Mexican business class grew up more based in banking and manufacturing than in land. While Mexico remained capitalist, it now had a mixed economy, part state-owned and part Mexican and foreign private capital. 

DOCUMENT C

DOCUMENT D

Source: Villa and Zapata by Frank McLynn

DOCUMENT E

source: Born in Blood and Fire by John C. Chasteen

Document F

source: Wikipedia, "Mexican Revolution"

LegacyThe legacy of the Mexican Revolution is mixed between scholars. Marxists claim it was a worker’s revolution betrayed by the government bureaucratic class that never wanted reforms to begin with. They believe the regime was Bonapartist, meaning it was co-opted by other forces, not the workers who fought for it, ending up as a political rather than social revolution.

Functionalists argue it was essentially an inevitable occurrence, citing that it was a collapsing civil society and a government elite that was unable to reform itself. The old Porfiran system was bound to collapse and some force was going to improve upon the old system or replace it.

There is even debate on whether it was a civil war or a revolution, or some combination of the two. The old Porfirian system was removed and replaced with a new dynamic system that rotated leadership and appealed to multiple social groups yet still operated on similar foundations. The old Díaz regime was replaced with a younger and more dynamic leadership representing different national interests, one able to mobilize popular support but still maintain stability and control. It is commonly agreed the new government was largely populist only for political stability. This is evident in post revolution rule of the PNR, now PRI.

Rise of the PRIThe PRI, or Institutional Revolutionary Party is one of the major lasting legacies of the Mexican revolution. It was formed in 1929 under Calles as the PNR, or National Revolutionary party, then changed to PMR (Party of the Mexican Revolution) in the 1930s during Cárdenas’ reign, and to its modern name in the 1940s.

It was established to build stability in the post revolution period. The PRI was built up as a big tent corporatist party, to bring every political faction and interest group together. To funnel the populace into the party, Calles and his supporters built various delegations composed of popular, agrarian, labour, and military groupings. This was an attempt to control people from all walks of life to keep political order. However, the leadership merely wished to make it appear the public was in power. In reality, most power came from a Central Executive Committee, which budgeted all government projects. This effectively turned the Parliament into a rubber stamp body for the PRI’s leadership.

The Party's name expresses the Mexican state's incorporation of the idea of revolution, and especially a continuous, nationalist, anti-imperialist, Mexican revolution, into political discourse, and its legitimization as a popular, revolutionary party. [7] The Revolution was a powerful memory and its slogans and promises were utilized to bolster the PRI's new power.

The Party was very authoritarian and hierarchical, leaving little room for opposition. However, it was not interested in oppression for its own sake. Its main goal was to keep order, preferring pragmatism over ideology. Throughout its rule in post-revolutionary Mexico, it avoided empowering one faction too much, preferring to build its own ruling caste rather than side with another. It tended to play off both sides of the political spectrum, both the populists and the emerging bourgeoisie.

Transformation of the political landscapeThe other major immediate part of the revolution’s legacy is the 1917 constitution. It was pushed forward by populist generals within Carranza’s government to gain popular support. It was not written by liberal elites or the military itself, but rather young populist professionals, giving the document some authenticity for the peasantry. The document brought numerous reforms demanded by populist factions of the revolution, most importantly the banning of the semi-feudal Hacienda system. It also introduced major labour reforms, including an 8 hour work day, a right to strike, equal pay laws for women, and an end to exploitative practices such as child labour and company stores.

It also streamlined the federal government, empowering it, but adding term limits to prevent a personal dictatorship. One article, article 27, specifically allows the federal government to intervene in all matters it deemed essential to national security, such as labour strikes. The tradition of strong-man rule was not completely thrown away, presidentialism (presidencialismo), the political arrangement of a powerful executive branch centered in the presidency, became the favored style of post-revolutionary politics. [42] In this the Mexican Revolution was not revolutionary, only making the mechanisms of power less autocratic and more efficient in the attainment of its interests. Octavio Paz wrote that the revolution strengthened the Mexican state more than ever, making Mexico a very state-centered and patriomonialist society. In such a development they betrayed their acknowledged liberal predecessors of the Restored Republic of 1867-1876 which saw the most significant break from authoritarian politics in Mexico's history.[43]