The country of Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821 and over the coming decades would see serious political strife while leaders fought for control of the country. In 1876 General Porfirio Diaz seized control of the country and held power for the next thirty-four years. Diaz was a no nonsense sort of leader, who did not allow any opposition to his policies. Diaz promoted investment into Mexico’s natural resources from foreign companies and improved the wages of many of his supporters, while at the same time ignoring the lower classes who saw their wages shrink and their livelihood suffer.
Economic strife during the 1907 to 1909 years allowed for opposition parties to rise up to challenge Diaz. One such leader was Francisco Madero, who campaigned across Mexico for democratic elections in a bid to oust Diaz. Diaz responded to Madero’s Presidential bid by having him and five thousand of his supporters arrested. Madero escaped across the border in 1910 and called on the citizens of Mexico to rise up and overthrow Diaz. Other leaders like Emiliano Zapata and Francisco (Pancho) Villa and Venustiano Carranza martialed their forces were able to force Diaz to
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He encouraged his supporters to engage in massive but peaceful protests, that spread through the country in 1978. The Shah and his forces responded by attacking the protesters, killing hundreds. This caused the protests to grow until it callumated in Black Friday on September 8th 1978. The Shah declared martial law and his forces killed thousands of protesters. Losing international support from the United States, the Shah fled to Egypt and the Ayatollah returned back to Iran. Protest continued with many blaming the United States for the Shahs actions and taking hostage workers at the US Embassy in Tehran. They would be held as captives until January of
Mexico was building up to its revolution long before activists like Francisco Madero and Emiliano Zapata. From 1840 to 1910; Mexico went from a war-torn and newly freed nation to a nation on the brink of civil war. How did it get there? Through a series of wars, leaders, and policies, which proved causation politically, socially, and economically to the Mexican Revolution.
Porfirio Diaz was the president of Mexico when the Revolution broke out. He was elected in 1877, and although he swore to step down in 1880, he continued to be reelected until 1910. He claimed that he was justified in this because he brought stability to Mexico. However, this was hardly the case. Diaz's regime aimed to industrialize Mexico, and foreign investors such as the United States and Britain
The Mexican Revolution began November 20, 1910, and ended on May 21, 1920. The revolution was against the regime of Porfirio Diaz who reigned for 35 years, after Mexico gained its independence from Spain. and was not a good president in the sense that he failed to support the middle and lower classes of Mexico. It was run by the middle (some in the middle (A very a little amount) and all in the lower classes, and they were all influenced by Francisco I. Madero. Although the lower classes didn’t originally full on oppose Diaz they felt neglected as a people. Madero saw this and sought out to influence the people of the country to revolt, so that they could then shift their views completely. Madero writes the Plan de San Luis Potosi, which was a political document written by Madero to describe how he was wrongly imprisoned by Diaz in order for him to lose the election. Madero also wrote the document to spread new ideas on what democracy was, and how to eradicate corruption in Mexico’s government. With the publication of this document support for Diaz and his presidency easily disappeared eventually causing him to resign. Madero then ran for president and won the election properly. But he only reigned for two years before being assassinated, by none other than the military governors, military, and lower classes because Madera failed to make any change in the social classes. A key factor that lead to his assignation was that the
Post the Mexican – American War in 1846, there would be a plethora of political change that would be inevitable for the Mexicans, and the Americans. These changes would bring about a divide between the two countries that would keep them in a rivalry spanning over numerous decades. However, before this rivalry could occur, something would be needed to induce it. The Mexicans and the Americans would fight against each other for over a year until a victor would succeed. Ultimately, all the fighting would have an outcome of epic proportions due to the political losses and gains each country would encounter. Though the end of the war brought Mexico further independence, it also contributed to
1857 and the Laws of the Reform. With Benito Juarez’s victory over Emperor Maximiliano and
José de la Cruz Porfirio Diaz Mori, the 29th president of Mexico, opened Mexico to foreign investors and companies who exploited Mexico’s resources such as land, copper, gold, silver, water, and cheap labor for corporate gain. This caused economic instability in the way that Mexico placed power in the hands of large corporations and Mexican politicians.
The French had landed in Mexico along with Spanish and English troops five months earlier to collect unpaid debts. In 1855Benito Juarez (minister of justice) issued reforms called
The Mexican Revolution began as a protest against the dictatorship and policies of Porfirio Díaz. He ran a 34 year dictatorship and his policies favored the wealthy families that monopolized economic and political power in Mexico. There were very few wealthy Mexicans and they were typically the politicians of cities, landowners, and foreign investors. Diaz suppressed the press and all the worker strikes that asked for better wages and better treatment. In the state of Veracruz, textile workers rioted in January 1907 at the huge Río Blanco factory which was at the time the largest in the world, protesting against their unfair
The current way Mexico was governed was not what Diaz wanted. He filled all the other government positions with men who agreed with his ideas. In order for Diaz to stay in power for the extended amount of time, he would need to take Mexico into a dictatorship. “Diaz is often remembered as being one of the country’s most notorious dictators. The bitter irony to his record lies in his accomplishments, of which were many,” (The Porfiriato: The Stability and Growth Mexico Needed). After fighting in the War of the Reform, Mexico was 4 million dollars ($89,273,288.18 in today’s money) when, and Diaz brought the country out of debt. “The Hospicio de Pobres in Mexico City was transformed into an institution for sheltering homeless children and for the vocational training of young women.” (The Porfiriato; The Stability and Growth Mexico Needed). The poor communities within Mexico needed modernization badly“In Mexico City, Diaz engaged in an ambitious building campaign in which he moved neglected colonial era structures to modern, better-equipped facilities.”(Porfirio Diaz). The economy in Mexico before Diaz was terrible but during his reign, it skyrocketed. “The financial management of the Diaz regime brought a great deal of wealth to Mexico and proved instrumental in beginning a massive infrastructure modernization effort in the late 19th century.” (The Porfiriato: The Stability and Growth Mexico
The people of Iran became angry that the United States would allow the Shah to seek medical treatment in the US, and overtook the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Many of them feared that the United States planned to return to Iran and reinstate Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi as their leader, because of the close diplomatic ties that had been established with him. The United States had helped him to overthrow Iran’s Prime Minister during a power struggle in 1953 and modernize Iran (“The Hostage Crisis in Iran”). The Iranian protesters- many of whom were college students- took hostages, 66 of the hostages holding American citizenship, and refused to release them until the Unites States stopped helping the Shah and turned him over to them. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini decided to support the actions of the student protesters, and dissolved treaties that had been made with the Soviet Union and the United States, preventing international intervention towards the violent protests in Iran. Premier Mehdi Bazargan and most of the
Diaz used this philosophy to make reasons for his policies. Diaz kept his old slogan "liberty, order, progress", but, the word liberty was removed from the slogan. Another slogan "few politics, much administration” also became common and popular. Foreign firms began to invest in Mexico because it became more structurally and economically stable. These investments gave Diaz the money he needed to construct highways, railroads, telegraph lines, and new industries. The city of Veracruz used the money to create oil fields, and elsewhere the mining industry was brought back. Mexico, fifty years before was seen as a third-world nation, became the standard for developing countries because of its high tech industry and technology. Although these were all big steps for Mexico's economy, in the end it was responsible for the bringing down of Diaz. (Encarta 98, www.eh.net.htm)
An interview given by Diaz in 1908 was read by Francisco I. Madero and he was inspired to gather supporters to defeat Diaz in the 1910 election. In the interview Diaz said that he thought Mexico could handle free elections by 1910 (Summary 4). Madero was a strong believer in democracy and realized that Diaz had a monopoly with the government. Madero thought that Diaz should step down from office (Consul General 1-2). By the time 1910 came around Madero had inspired many citizens and had quite a group of followers. His chances for election were very good and Diaz got scared. Right before the elections in 1910, Diaz falsely accused Madero and had him thrown in jail. Diaz is once again elected as president. Madero was soon released and, learning of Diaz’s reelection, he fled to Texas (Summary 4). While there he stated that the elections were illegitimate and that he was the President Pro-Temp until new elections could be held (Consul General 2). He also wrote a document, which called for a revolt on November 20, 1910 which marks the start of the Mexican Revolution (Summary 5).
The Mexican Revolution was one of the great revolutionary upheavals of the twentieth century and had a profound impact on the development of Mexico well into the modern day. The revolutionary period itself can be split into three distinct stages: First, several factions united behind Francisco Madero in order to overthrow the dictatorial government of Porfirio Diaz. When Madero’s government appeared to maintain the status quo set forth during the Porfiriato period, however, the same forces that brought Madero to power rose up once again to remove him. Finally, the remaining factions, no longer possessing a common goal to unite them, turned on one another in a fight to establish dominance. At the end of this bloody period emerged a new triumvirate:
Over the next 30 years, Mexico City really began to thrive. Under Porfirio Diaz, more roads and telegraph lines were constructed. Rail lines into the U.S. and other provinces of Mexico were built, and foreign investment greatly increased, as well. In 1910, Mexico City had grown to a population of 471,000. The following 10 years saw all of Mexico in a state of disarray as a revolution was taking place.
In 1979, protests erupted across the nation against the government of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. This was triggered by the domination of foreign policy, the exploitation of Iran’s resources and wealth by foreign firms, corruption and oppressive regime. The Shah’s government’s close ties with the United States and Israel, his oppressive methods and his program of Westernization were unpopular with the Iranian people. They therefore turned to the ‘ulama as an alternative. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in exile in Paris, distributed cassette tapes of his speeches to many of the partakers in the protests. The protests were eventually included under the umbrella of Shiite Islam. The Shah was eventually overthrown and sent to exile. Ayatollah