Chapter 12

The Mexican Revolution-and After

The following material is designed to help you sort out the major themes and important information in our textbook Benjamin Keen, A History of Latin America, 5^th ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996). You will be quizzed over this material in class. Also use this information as a study guide to prepare for the exam.

Learning Objectives

After you have read and studied Chapter 12, you should be able to:

1. Outline the major stages of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) and describe the programs of the rival leaders and forces.
2. Explain the politics and policies of the Reconstruction era (1920-1933) and assess their success or failure.
3. Discuss Cárdenas's reform program (1934-1940) and assess its achievements and shortcomings.
4. Describe the major trends in Mexican politics and economics since 1940 and discuss their consequences.

Chapter Summary

The chapter opens by describing the atmosphere of political and social ferment on the eve of the revolution and the program of its first leader, Francisco Madero. Discussion then turns to Madero's inadequacy and overthrow, the significance of the Huerta dictatorship, the rise of the Constitutionalist movement, and the fall of Huerta. The growing cleavage between peasant and bourgeois revolutionaries, culminating in Carranza's ultimate triumph. is described. In the analysis of the program of the Obregón-Calles leadership that succeeded Carranza, the gap between rhetoric and practice is stressed. A similar analysis of the Cárdenas years--of what they achieved or failed to achieve--follows. Concluding the chapter is a description of Mexico's rightward turn in 1940, its deepening in the post-1940 period, the transient oil boom of the 1970s, and the growing crisis of Mexico's dependent capitalism since 1982, culminating in the Chiapas revolt and financial collapse of 1994-1995.

Identification Terms

Be sure that you are able to identify and explain the historical significance of each of each of these terms from this chapter.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. This material is presented as a study guide exclusively for the use of students in Latin American History at Illinois State University. Please direct any questions to Marc Becker at mbecker@ilstu.edu.