After a dictatorship under Porfirio Díaz, that lasted for approximately thirty-five years, the Mexican people finally revolted upon his refusal to give up power. As a response to Diaz’s refusal to give up office in 1910, Francisco Madero, a favored presidential candidate at the time, initiated an anti re-election campaign and talked about land reform (a topic which was of interest to the indigenous communities, who had lost communal land during Díaz’s years of “Progress”). Additionally, several rebellions broke out in different parts of Mexico, each under different leaders, that were eventually successful in forcing Díaz out of office in 1911. No longer united under a common goal, however, the different rebel groups began fighting each other in an on-off “civil war” that lasted the better part of a decade. …show more content…
Approximately one million deaths, the emergence of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) as the leading political party, the radical Constitution of 1917 (which brought with it: land reform, secularization, and labor laws), a strong sense of nationalism, and a foundation from which a transformed Mexico would emerge. A revolution as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is: 1. “the usually violent attempt by many people to end the rule of one government and start a new one;” 2. “a sudden, extreme, or complete change in the way people live, work, etc.” The Mexican Revolution, it can be argued, loosely follows the definition of a revolution because although one government was overthrown, a new government was not formed until much later, and although change did occur as a result of the revolution, it was slow and