ever, did not receive the support of any nonrural classes before 1900. The reason for this was because the transformation of the frontier had beneficial effects for the middle classes and the industrial working class who therefore had little reason to support the fighting peasants. Foreign investment in such projects as railroad construction greatly multiplied the economic opportunities of these classes and, until 1900, brought about a significant rise in real wages.
Not until 1900-1910, was the favorable disposition of these groups toward the regime reversed, for in those 10 years, foreign investment began to have an adverse affect. It was accelerating at an alarming rate. One of the results of this was a soaring inflation rate that cut deep into the real wages of the middle and industrial working classes and sharply curtailed the investment opportunities of the middle class entrepreneurs by tightening the available credit. The government raised taxes on these two groups to make up for the reduced value of taxes paid by foreign investors and the local oligarchy. Another result of increased foreign investment was Mexico's vulnerability to the business cycle of the United States, notably the economic crisis of 1907, when the return of thousands of Mexican workers were discharged from American mines and factories.
In the Revolution of 1910 and 1911, political mobilization in the form of mass movement took place. The 1913-1914 revolutionary movement was primarily of a military nature. By 1914, there were four revolutionary parties and they commenced a revolutionary convention. One of the parties was formed by Venustiano Carranza, who drew his support from the traditional upper class. The next party was centered on Pancho Villa, later joined by Emilio Zapata and his followers. A fourth group, which had no firm political, geographical, or organizational unity. Its common objective was the elimination of Villa, Carranza, ...