Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 17.djvu/514

 MEXICO 4gg MEXICO

brigandage. He changed none of the laws a^inst tionalists felt that in order to make Mexico a true the church; neither did he enforce them. Religious democracy it was necessary that the influence of the orders were quietly permitted to resume their mis- Church should be Utterly and finally suppressed. The sionary activities. Supposed to be a constitutional end was to be attained by the prohibition of aU re- president, Diaz headed a government more auto- ligious education, whether public or private, the con- cratic than Russia. Herein lay the seed of the fiscation of Church property, and strict Government disaster that overwhelmed Mexico after his departure, supervision of the clergy. The action of the Consti- for he had trained no one for the task he might lay tutionalist leaders went far beyond this official pro- down. He maintained close relations with the state gramme and the victory of the revolution was fol- govemors and through them controlled the jefes lowed by a campaign of extermination against t^e potiticos who administered the districts. No outside Church, the higher clergy being driven out of the interference was possible as the elections were entirely country, the churches in several States being dosed, in the hands of the administrative hierarchy. This and many members of the clergy and religious orders together with the ever present perplexing land ques- being executed or imprisoned. During the confused tion was the cause of the discontent that led to Diaz's peri^ of civil war aft^r 1914 several religious upris- overthrow. UnderthelawofDisamortiza tion (1856), mgs broke out in districts where the anti-clerical the common lands were enclosed at the same time measures were most severe, especially in Michoacan that the Chiurch lands were sold. The failure of the The rising in Oaxaca was also partlv of religious Indians to maintain their holdings led to the con- origin. The fall of Huerta was hastened, by the action centration of large areas in the hands of a few. of the United States in raising th^ embargo on the According to the Mexican census of 1910, seven export of arms in favor of the Constitutionalists only thousand families of Spanish Creole descent owned and bv the occupation of Vera Cruz by an American nearly all the fertile soil of Mexico, each feudal estate armed force on 21 April ^ 1914. At this juncture avera^g over 100 square miles. The Terrazas estate Argentine^ Brazil, and Chile, known as the A. B. C. in Chihuahua contained 13,000,000 acres, an area as powers, offered to serve as mediators and sent their large as Holland and Belgium combined. Insurgency diplomatic representatives to Niagara Falls, but failed soon spread all over Mexico. To save the coimtry to obtain any results. In the meantime Obregon en- from further bloodshed, Diaz resigned and a pro- tered Guadalajara, Vflla, the noted bandit leader, visional government was formed under Sefior de la took Zacatecas with great slaughter, while Monterev Barra. On 2 October, 1911, Francesco I. Madero and SaltUlo fell into the hands of the Constitutional- was unanimously elected president, with Suarez as ists. The capture of Tampico on 13 Mav deprived vice-president. The new Government failed utterly Huerta of his oaae in the north and his chief remaining to put an end to the disorder which had broken out source of revenue. A new war, however, broke out eversrwhere on the fall of Diaz. Zapata and his among the revolutionists. Maytorena, supported by Indians revolted in Morelos. General Bernardo the Yaqui Indians, rose against Carranza, and Villa Reyes attempted an unsuccessful insurrection. Gen- allied himself with Mayorena. A convention at era! Pascual Orozco rebelled and captured Juarez. Aguascalientes demanded the resignation of Car- General Felix Diaz took Vera Cruz, but was captured ranza and declared Eulalio Gutierrez provisional pres- and imprisoned. General Mondragon. backed b^ his ident. Villa and Zapata occupied Mexico City in his own troops and students of the Militarv Training name. Gutierrez was, however, disowned by the School at Tlapam, rose against the Cfovemment convention, which ruled the city until its occupation 9 February^ 1913, liberate General Reyes and by Obregon, the Carranza commander. He, in turn. General Felix Diaz, and the three marched to the was forced to retreat by the incoming Zapatist force capital, where Reyes was killed in an attack on the on 10 Mareh, and Gonzalez was now recognized as National Palace. In a meeting arranged by the medi- President. The north was in the hands of the Con- ation of H. Lane Wilson, United States Minister, stitutionalists. The siege of the Carranist forces in Madero was forced to resign and Huerta became pro- Sonora c^led forth the vigorous protests of the visional president of Mexico until the formal election United States and the concentration of the United of Diaz. On 23 February President Madero, his States troops along the frontiere. The climax came brother Gustavo, and Vice-president Suarez were when an armed band of Villistas attacked Columbus, murdered. Felix Diaz escaped to Europe. The new New Mexico, killixig eight soldiers and nine civilians, dictator, Huerta, was recognized by Congress and by The United States Government acted at once, sending the States, except along the frontier. Here the Con- 12.000 soldiers under General Pershing to "take stitutionalists, Gonzalez, Ma3rtorena, and Carranza Villa dead or alive." Further trouble was caused refused to compromise or to recognize the new Gov- when President Wilson of the United States de- emment. It is doubtful whether their hesitation manded the release of seventeen United States pris- would have had any important result, had not Huerta oners taken in a collision between the Carranzist driven them to desperation by the murder of Gonzalez troops and a body of negro cavalry. The new Gov- who had withdrawn his opposition. Maytorena, ernment of Mexico, however, was gradually recog- thereupon. fled to the United States 'and Carranza nized by the different powers (the South American launched nis revolutk>n in 1913. Villa, a former Republics in October, 1915, Austria-Hungary, 21 bandit, who had a genius for military leadership, October; Germany, 10 November; France, Great joined the revolution, the progress of which was Britain, Italy, and Russia, 4 December). In No- largely due to the favorable attitude of the United vember, 1916, a national convention met at Queretaro States which refused to recognize Huerta on account to consider an amendment to the Constitution and of the murder of the Maderos and threw its strength on 31 January, 1917, it was signed. In Mareh, 1917, into the rebellion. A division among the revolu- Carranza was elected president. The new Govem- tionists, however, prevented them from getting fuU ment was doomed like the rest, for in another revo- control of the country, for Villa turned against Car- lution (1920), centering at Sonora, Carranza was ranza. foreed to flee the capital, and de la Huerta became The programme of the Constitutionalists was of an provisional president. Carranza was murdered later extreme revolutionary nature. It included the owner- oy his own troops. In September, 1920, Alveio ship and control of land and natural resources, the Obregon was elected.

solution of the land question by the division of large The new Constitution, while declaring ''that Con- estates, and by the return to the villages of all common gress shall not enact any law establishing or forbidding lands confiscated or sold. Moreover, the Constitu- any religion whatsoever," not only eliminates freedom