Madero Calls for Change: Mexican Revolution Starts

Francisco Madero, a wealthy landowner with democratic convictions and a slight build that belied enormous political courage, issued the Plan de San Luis Potosi from exile in San Antonio, Texas, calling for armed revolution against Porfirio Diaz, the dictator who had ruled Mexico for 34 years. The plan named November 20, 1910, as the date for the uprising to begin, launching a decade-long revolution that would kill between one and two million people and fundamentally reshape Mexican society. Diaz had come to power in 1876 promising democratic reform, then created one of Latin America's most durable authoritarian regimes. His "Porfiriato" modernized Mexico's infrastructure, attracted foreign investment, and built railroads, but the benefits flowed almost entirely to a small elite. Vast haciendas controlled the countryside while peasant communities lost their communal lands. Workers in mines and factories labored under conditions that amounted to debt slavery. When Diaz told an American journalist in 1908 that Mexico was ready for democracy, Madero took him at his word and ran for president. Madero's campaign attracted massive popular support, alarming Diaz enough to have his challenger arrested and jailed during the 1910 election. Released on bail, Madero fled to Texas and drafted his revolutionary plan. The document declared the recent election void, named Madero provisional president, and called on Mexicans to take up arms on November 20. The initial uprising was ragged. Madero's planned insurrection in Puebla was discovered before it could begin. Only scattered fighting broke out on November 20 itself. But the call to revolt ignited far more than Madero had anticipated. In the northern state of Chihuahua, Pancho Villa assembled a guerrilla army. In the southern state of Morelos, Emiliano Zapata rallied peasants demanding land reform under the cry "Tierra y Libertad."