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The Mexican Revolution

The Mexican Revolution, fought in several phases from 1910 until the 1930s, was the defining formative event of modern Mexico, setting it off both from previous Mexican history and from the general development of the rest of Latin America. It was on the one hand one of the most violent of the 20th century's revolutions, killing a larger proportion of the population--about one Mexican in ten--than any other revolution till the genocidal Khmer Rouge upheaval in Cambodia (Hellman 49). On the other hand, the outcome of the Revolution was to give Mexico one of the more stable regimes in Latin America. If the struggle between rich and poor, which has shaken and defined the politics of most Latin American countries, was not solved by the Mexican revolution, it was at any rate sublimated by a resultant regime that, while nominally revolutionary, was primarily responsive to the interest of elites, while offering just enough incentives to popular classes to limit unrest and repression to a relatively low level.

The essential background to the Revolution is the generation-long rule of dictator Porfirio Diaz. Diaz was shrewd enough to realize that by the late 19th century Mexico was already what would now be called an underdeveloped country. Under the influence of advisors known as cientificos, "scientific" development theorists, he established an economic policy based on encouragement of foreign investment (Hellman 45-46). In a material respect this policy was successful, and Mexico's economic infrastructure underwent rapid development during the Porfirio era.

The potential benefits of this development, however, were undercut by corruption and cronyism. Not only were the benefits unshared by the impoverished majority of Mexicans, most of whom were peasants; they were unshared even by most of the Mexican elite of landowners and industrialists. By 1910, when Porfirio's health and personal grip on power began to fade, the regime's ...

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The Mexican Revolution. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 13:09, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1681446.html