9781422286869

A Troubled History

In 1910, a young man named Francisco I. Madero decided to run against Díaz in the presidential election. He promised to break up the haciendas and distribute land to the poor farmers of Mexico. To ensure that he would win, Díaz had Madero arrested and thrown into jail. Madero escaped, and soon led a revolt against the Díaz government. In 1911 Díaz resigned the presidency and went into exile . In the following decade, Mexico was

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torn apart by revolutionary violence and civil war . Madero briefly ran the national government, but he was overthrown by a military leader, Victoriano Huerta. The Huerta government was itself defeated by forces loyal to Venustiano Carranza. In the meantime, revolutionaries like Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata continued fighting the various Mexican governments on behalf of the landless peasants. Carranza was killed in 1920 by soldiers loyal to Álvaro Obregón. The subsequent election that year of Obregón as president ended the worst fighting of the Mexican Revolution.

Álvaro Obregón was president of Mexico from 1920 to 1924. He helped the country transition to peace after the long Mexican Revolution.

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