Page:Mexico under Carranza.djvu/153

Rh period was that the lands were monopolized by the Latin element, which had originally acquired them in large holdings after the conquest by Cortes. This condition it was asserted, and with much truth, had been continued by the successors of the original Latin conquerors, thus denying the native or peon population an opportunity to acquire an interest in the lands.

It is true that since Mexico became independent there has been considerable change in the ownership of lands. Every revolutionary movement has been characterized by the looting of personal property and, in the vast majority of cases where revolutions have been successful, they have been followed by the confiscation of real property, owned by the supporters of the losing faction, for the benefit of the successful revolutionists. But, inasmuch as the confiscated lands were distributed to the leaders of the successful party and they were almost universally representative of the ruling Latin race, the relation of the peon masses to land-holding was little affected by these changes in ownership.

It is true that Juarez, after he returned to power at the end of the Maximilian epoch, did confiscate numbers of large real-estate holdings of the Church with some that had been owned by supporters of Maximilian, and provided for their division among the working class. He did this because, being of