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The Mexican Revolution Juárez died in 1872, and four years later, one of his generals seized power. Porfirio Díaz ruled Mexico with an iron fist for almost 35 years. Though he stabilized the country, increased agricultural output, and built harbors and railroads, the improvements came with the price of political suppres- sion. Díaz also re-established the privileges of the church, army, and old aristocracy, leading many of Mexico’s indigenous peoples and working class to become impoverished. This would prove to be a condition that, for generations up through the current day, these groups would never be able to escape.

The staggering problem of Mexican poverty.

For many in Mexico, Díaz’s improvements to the oil industry and in- frastructure could not offset the suppression of civil rights and liberties. In 1910, a former bandit and guerilla leader named Pancho Villa led an uprising in the northern part of Mexico, and the cause of landlessAmerin- dians became the crusade of peasant leader Emiliano Zapata. Díaz was forced to resign, and Francisco Madero, a liberal and champion of reform, was elected president in 1911. Mexico’s revolution lasted for seven turbulent years as rival revolu- tionary leaders engaged in almost constant fighting and violence. Con- servative general Victoriano Huerta engineered Madero’s assassination in 1913 and took power for himself. Villa and Zapata again rebelled, deposing Huerta, and Venustiano Carranza became president in 1914. But Carranza also faced conflict with Villa and Zapata, prompting U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to intervene twice to attempt to capture Pancho Villa. In 1916, Carranza finally achieved victory and called for a constitutional convention. The 1917 Constitution harked back to the reforms of Benito Juárez, establishing free public education, regulating hours andwages for workers,

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