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Home , Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa, Pascual Orozco, Venustiano Carranza, Victoriano Huerta

MEXICO: FROM EMPIRE TO REVOLUTION CHRONOLOGY By Charles Merewether, Collections Curator, Getty Research Institute

1821 gains its independence from Spain after eleven years of war. During the war for independence the aversion to all things Spanish intensifies, leading to the removal of a monument to King Charles IV, a highly visible bronze equestrian statue that resides in the center of the Plaza de la Constitución in from 1803 until 1822.

1846-48 The and Mexico go to war over the U.S. annexation of and other grievances. The U.S. invades Mexico, and in 1847 General Winfield Scott leads the army into Mexico City through its northwest edge, the region of San Cosme. With the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe , California and the American Southwest are ceded to the U.S. for $15 million.

1847 The Caste War begins when Mayan peasants rise up against local authorities in the Yucatán Peninsula. It spreads to other parts of the country and becomes the largest and most successful rural rebellion in nineteenth-century Mexico.

1855 A liberal revolution ends the dictatorship of President Antonio López de Santa Anna, who is forced into exile. On the occasion of his ousting, statesman Benito Juárez returns to Mexico from his Santa Anna imposed exile in Louisiana and becomes Minister of Justice.

1857 A new constitution is approved which reduces the power of the army and the Catholic Church. The French photographer Claude-Joseph-Désiré Charnay arrives in Mexico to document its ancient ruins.

1858-61 Under General Miguel Miramón, the conservative rebels against the liberal government. The army temporarily gains control over most of the country, but is eventually routed by the liberal resistance led by Benito Juárez in the War of the Reform (1858-60). Juárez begins the nationalization of property owned by the Roman Catholic Church.

1861 Benito Juárez is elected president. European creditors demand repayment of debts incurred by the previous regime. The Spanish, English and French governments send a military force to coerce the Mexican government. With the Americans immersed in their own civil war, Napoléon III of sees the opportunity to advance his power in the region.

1864 The Hapsburg Archduke Maximilian, backed by the French army, is crowned Emperor of Mexico. His wife Carlota, daughter of Leopold I, accompanies him. The French photographer François Aubert arrives and proceeds to chronicle Maximilian's reign. A young Austrian soldier named Teobert Maler arrives in Mexico to support his countryman, Maximilian.

Mexico: Empire to Revolution, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/digital/mexico/, © 2002, J. Paul Getty Trust 1866 There are two governments: that of the French Empire and that of Benito Juárez, which is constantly on the move for reasons of safety. Under pressure from the United States, Napoléon III begins evacuating his French forces from Mexico. Carlota travels back to Europe to seek support for Maximilian. She never returns to Mexico.

1867 Maximilian retreats to Querétaro where he is besieged by forces under the command of Juárez. Maximilian is captured, tried, and executed along with generals Miguel Miramón and Tomás Mejía. Juárez resumes leadership of Mexico and the country resumes trade with the outside world.

1873 After the death of Benito Juárez on July 18, 1872, Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada succeeds as provisional president and oversees a series of state projects to stimulate growth. The American archaeologist Augustus Le Plongeon makes his first trip to the Yucatán. His wife Alice accompanies him, and writes of the impoverished living conditions of . Teobert Maler, who had been a foot-soldier in the French interventionist army, begins to photograph indigenous people and the ruins of pre-Hispanic cultures

1877 After leading a successful coup d'etat the year before, Porfirio Díaz assumes the presidency, beginning the period known as the '.' He promotes foreign investment and wide-ranging social, economic, and technological changes during his long stay in power, including a great expansion of the railroad system. The English scientist Alfred Percival Maudslay has arrived in the Yucatán the year before to study Mayan ruins and Mexican flora and fauna. His work in Mexico over the next fifteen years will transform the archaeological study of Mayan culture.

1883 Modernization and the introduction of the railway system through arable land becomes a threat to the livelihood of the rural communities. Díaz's successor General Manuel González ushers in new land reform that authorizes massive foreign investment and ownership of land. As a consequence, many Mexicans who have lived on the land for generations are unable to prove legal title and lose their land.

1884 Porfirio Díaz is re-elected.

1885 In 1885 Díaz establishes the office of the Inspector and Conservator of Archaeological Monuments. It will be part of a broader policy to support archaeological research, the building of museums, commissioning of monuments and promotion of tourism that celebrates Mexico as the land of the pre-Hispanic and colonial past.

1894 In 1894 the land reform laws are revised, resulting in the majority of rural Mexicans losing their (expropriated land that had been given to rural communities). By 1910 over half of the rural population will be living and working on the newly acquired .

Mexico: Empire to Revolution, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/digital/mexico/, © 2002, J. Paul Getty Trust 2 1898 Díaz uses los to quell the dissent that is beginning to appear throughout Mexico. Meanwhile, Spain, as a result of their loss in the Spanish-American War, cedes control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Philippines, and Guam to the U.S.

1910 Porfirio Díaz presides over the centennial celebrations. Despite charges of fraud by the opposition, led by Francisco Madero, Díaz wins reelection in June. Madero is imprisoned in San Luis Potosí on a charge of sedition but is released on bond and escapes to the north. Federal troops are sent in pursuit.

1911 Francisco Madero joins forces with , , and to begin the . Simultaneous uprisings around the country force Díaz to relinquish the presidency. Madero is elected president. Agustín Víctor Casasola becomes the principle chronicler of the Revolution.

1913 In February ten days of bloody fighting (the "Decena Tragica") erupts in Mexico City between conservative rebel forces and federal troops under the command of federal General . The fighting ends when Huerta conspires with his former adversaries to betray Francisco Madero. Huerta names himself president. Madero is arrested, and assassinated a few days later.

1913-14 A regional governor named leads a revolt against Victoriano Huerta in the name of returning Mexico to constitutionalist rule and soon controls one-third of the country. Young boys are recruited to fight in the Revolution.

1914 United States President refuses to recognize Victoriano Huerta’s authority and supplies Venustiano Carranza with a flow of arms. Huerta’s troops detain the crew of the U.S.S. Dolphin, anchored in the port of . The U.S. armed forces capture and hold for six months. This year marks the outbreak of in Europe.

1914-18 Emiliano Zapata, ardent champion of Indian and peasant rights, adopts "Tierra y Libertad" ("Land and Liberty") as his slogan. His Ayala Plan calls for the repossession of all land usurped by the large landowners. In the revolutionary factions split, and war breaks out between the moderates (Venustiano Carranza and General Álvaro Obregón) and the more radical Pancho Villa and Zapata, who unite in Mexico City in December, only to be driven out by Obregón. World War I is fought in Europe.

1915 The United States officially recognizes Venustiano Carranza's Constitutionalist government of Mexico. General Álvaro Obregón leads Carranza's forces in a victorious campaign against Pancho Villa. Intense fighting between Villa's troops and the U.S. troops along the Mexican-U.S. border begins and continues for the next five years.

1917-18 A constitution is passed. Elections are held in which Venustiano Carranza wins easily.

Mexico: Empire to Revolution, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/digital/mexico/, © 2002, J. Paul Getty Trust 3 1919 Emiliano Zapata, who championed the rights of Indians, is murdered during an ambush. Looting and indiscriminate violence continues throughout the countryside.

1920 Venustiano Carranza's government is overthrown and Álvaro Obregón is elected president. He initiates a series of beneficial reforms, including giving official sanction to organizations of laborers and peasants.

1923 Pancho Villa is assassinated.

Mexico: Empire to Revolution, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/digital/mexico/, © 2002, J. Paul Getty Trust 4