IB HL History Mr. Blackmon Mexican Revolution: The Constructive Phase 1920-40 A Brief Sketch All quotes are from Meyer, Michael C. and Sherman, William L. The Course of Mexican History. 4th Ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. unless otherwise stated Event Date Significance Presidency of 1920-1924 His administration faced the post World War I depression. Alvaro Obregón Mexico was the 3rd largest producer of petroleum in the world. This will certainly not reduce US interest Obregón: José Vasconcelos institutes a vigorous program of rural education. His purpose (at this time) Education was to integrate the Indians into mainstream mestizo society, to incorporate them into a raza cósmica. (Meyer 572-3) Vasconcelos and Vasconcelos employed the Muralists– Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro the Muralists Siqueiros– to decorate buildings with works that would also educate. Obregón: Obregón could not enforce the complete secularization of education because he lacked the Education resources to dispense with the Church. To prevent himself from being perceived as pro-Church, he encouraged Protestant missionaries to enter the country. Page 1 of 43 Event Date Significance Obregón: Labor Obregón favored CROM over any other union organization. Morones chose to moderate his positions rather than risk being crushed. Membership rose from 50,000 in 1920 to 1,200,000 in 1924. (Meyer 575) Obregón: Obregón is cautious. He did not wish to disrupt the hacienda system. Redistribution of the land Agrarian Reform would result in reduced productivity, and he also wished to avoid that. Land redistribution is very modest: 3,000,000 acres. Obregón and the Oil and US property in Mexico dominated relationship. US businessmen, such as Harry Sinclair, US Edward L. Doheny, and Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall (all of whom branded in the Teapot Dome Scandal that wracked the extremely pro-business Warren G. Harding) were concerned that US properties would be seized under Article 27. As a result of pressure from oil interests, Harding refused to recognize the Obregón government until 1923. Obregón’s problem is that he needed oil revenue (especially with the post-war depression) but could not cave in to US pressure for political reasons. Mexican Supreme Court decisions provided a compromise, using the principle of “positive acts” prior to 1917. The principle is then ratified in the Bucareli Agreements in 1923, which obtained Obregón diplomatic recognition. ((577-79) Page 2 of 43 Event Date Significance Obregón and Villa had been bought off in 1920 with a hacienda, but he is assassinated in 1923. Rebellion Obregón chose to support Plutarco Calles for President, which triggered violence from conservatives and Catholics, who feared Calles might be genuinely radical. However, US recognition allowed Obregón to crush the opposition. (580) Obregón “had been slow to implement the reforms promised by the Constitution. [T]hrough shrewd pragmatism he had co-opted the radical thrust of the Revolution, and, while occasionally yielding to the rhetoric of reform, he had not done much to alter the sustaining structure of society.” (580) The Plutarco 1924-1934 Calles had a liberal reputation, and inherits a stronger economy than did Obregón. As time went Calles Years on, Calles became increasingly domineering and dictatorial. (582-3) Calles: Agrarian Calles redistributed 8,000,000 acres. Most of this land goes to the ejido rather than to Reform individuals. Agricultural productivity declined as a result of this, so Calles began irrigation projects, established agricultural schools, and began to extend agricultural credit to small farmers. (583) Calles: Labor Like Obregón, Calles favored CROM over all other unions. CROM’s membership continued to rise, and members were elected to Congress. By 1928, Luis Morones was a wealthy man, and it seems evident that the “system” had co-opted him. (584) Page 3 of 43 Event Date Significance Calles: Vasconcelos’ program is continued, with heavy emphasis on the teaching of Spanish to Indians. Education and Health Sanitation and health is improved. Vaccination programs are begun, and food vendors (bakeries, butcher shops, dairies, cantinas, etc.) Begin to be inspected. (585) Calles and the US fears over the expropriation of US companies under Article 27 continued. The US US Ambassador was deeply hostile, and convinced that a Bolshevist plot existed to take our property. Calles responds to pressure by having a bill passed that repeated the Bucareli Agreements, but for a limited period (50 years). In 1927, Dwight Morrow was sent to Mexico as Ambassador. Morrow was more conciliatory, even learning Spanish. Morrow proves a sensitive negotiator, and is able to receive favorable rulings from Mexican courts while carefully observing Mexico’s “full legal sovereignty, even when the interests of United States citizens were involved.” (587) Page 4 of 43 Event Date Significance The Cristero 1926-29 Calles decided to enforce the anti-clerical articles of the Constitution of 1917. Rebellion When the archbishop of Mexico told an interviewer that, in all conscience, a Catholic could not accept the Constitution, Calles replied by deporting foreign priests and nuns, closing church schools, and ordering all priests to register with civil authorities. The archbishop ordered a strike. For 3 years, the sacraments could not be obtained in Mexico. (587) The war that erupted became vicious. The Cristeros rallied to the call of Viva Cristo Rey! In 1928, with his term coming to an end, Calles supported the election of Alvaro Obregón, thinking Obregón would repay the favor in 1934. Obregón, however, was assassinated by a Cristero. The Maximato 1929-1934 Calles, following Obregón’s death, continued as the power in Mexico, but he chose to be a puppet master–the Jefe Máximo Calles reorganizes the revolutionary party as the Partido Nacional Revolucionario (PNR) PNR would change its name but control the government for the rest of the century. Calles shifts the Revolution strongly to the right. Page 5 of 43 Event Date Significance The Maximato Calles co-opted the military by giving the generals a larger share in PNR. and the Military Ambassador Morrow helped negotiate an end to the Cristero Rebellion. The government agreed that it would not attack the integrity of the Church or prohibit religious instruction within the Church grounds. The archbishop called the strike off. The Maximato Land redistribution slows. The Terrazas-Creel Clan was able to re-purchase land previously lost. and Agrarian Reform Rural education is de-emphasized. The government withdrew support for CROM. Morones was exposed as corrupt. “The anti-Communist hysteria reached its apex in 1930 and 1931, years that witnessed the aberrance of the Gold Shirts, a fascist inspired organization of thugs whose self-appointed task was to terrorize all Communists and Jews.” (592) The Presidency 1934-1940 Calles engineered the election of Lázaro Cárdenas, thinking that he would be another puppet. of Lázaro Cárdenas Page 6 of 43 Event Date Significance Cárdenas and “Agrarian reform more than anything else dominated the administration’s concern during the first Agrarian Reform few years. Cárdenas early made up his to fulfill twenty years of promises. [B]y the time his term expired, he had distributed 49 million acres, about twice as much as all his predecessors combined. By 1940 approximately one third of the Mexican population had received land under the agrarian reform program. In fact, most of Mexico’s arable land had been redistributed. Only the large cattle haciendas on arid or semiarid land remained untouched. “The vast majority of the land distributed did not go to individuals or even heads of households but rather to the communal ejidos.” (598-9) The largest ejido was Laguna, with 8,000,000 acres. The complex grew cotton, maize, wheat and alfalfa, provided schools and had a hospital. Cárdenas created the Banco de Crédito Ejidal to provide loans for the small farmers. Its performance is weakened by a population which grew faster than its assets, and by favoritism in its loans. Still, this is a very positive step–agrarian reform must go beyond merely redistributing the land. Economically, the ejidos were not as efficient, and agricultural production declined. However, “Cárdenas’ dedication to agrarian reform spelled the demise of the traditional hacienda complex in Mexico. Millions of peasants were given a new faith in the revolutionary concept. the type of servitude that had bound hacendado and peón for centuries was broken by 1940. If the ejido system was an economic failure, it was a political and social success.” (600) Page 7 of 43 Event Date Significance Cárdenas and the Cárdenas is clearly anti-clerical. He instituted a socialist curriculum into the schools, which Church angered the Church. When he added sex education, the Church became still more incensed. In response, he backed off the sex education, and softened the socialist education by emphasizing positive attitudes and avoiding anti-religious propaganda. Another Cristero revolt is avoided. Cárdenas and Twice as much money is appropriated for rural education than any previous president. Education Rapid population growth and high inflation however meant that the literacy rate actually seems to have fallen. The government could not keep up. Cárdenas and Cárdenas supported the creation of a new labor organization, the Confederación de Labor Trabajadores de México, (CTM) under the leadership of Vicente Lombardo Toledano CTM set to improve the wage structure in Mexico Page 8 of 43 Event Date Significance Cárdenas and the 1936 In 1936, Mexican workers at US owned fields went on strike. The companies refused to Nationalization negotiate with the strikers. The strike began to damage the economy, so Cárdenas ordered of the US Oil arbitration. The arbitration board ruled in favor of the strikers, ordering a 33% increase in pay Companies and improvements in the pension and welfare system. The companies appealed to the Mexican Supreme Court.