Putting Down a Rebellion
One thing that is debatable about the Mexican Revolution is it is difficult to say it had a happy ending. I am certain that it did not have a neat and organized ending to it either. Many different factions and many different individuals can tell the story from many different sides. Who were the true rebels? Who had the right ideas? Who's side would you have been on. The Constitutionalists or the Connectionists? It seems every leader in the revolution met a violent and untimely end. All assassinated for their beliefs or their backing. Madero assassinated in 1910 started the 10 subsequent years of bloodshed. Ultimately the civil was would be decided by the U.S. backed Constitutionalists. Quite simply they were better armed and better organized. They were basically installed to keep the business interest of foreign investors profitable and to keep Germany from being able to gain a foothold on the southern border of the United States.
The ten years of bloodshed and civil war had torn Mexico to it’s fibers. The well to do landowners were calling for the Mexican government to take responsibility and make them whole for the losses they suffered at the hands of Zapata and Villa. The United States had occupied the port of Vera Cruz and sent troops into Mexico to hunt down Villa. This was all a foreign relations issue that had to be dealt with. It had to be explained on the world stage to a world at war but also to the American and Mexican people who shared a border. Mexico was faced with a labor shortage as well as an unstable government. The physical infrastructure of plants and haciendas had been destroyed and would need to be rebuilt. Foreign investors who had once owned bug parts of the landscape were now leery about dipping their toe into the economic waters again. This task was placed at the feet of Alvaro Obregon “Mexico’s most succesful warrior”.(Gonzales pg.128) During his presidency he also dealt with the assassination of his foe in the battle of Leon, Pancho Villa in 1923. Although Villa had vowed to retire, many still felt him to be a military and political threat. If Obregon was going to have a chance at putting the small rebellions down and keeping Mexico from erupting again, he would have to appease not only the working class but also the business leaders and foreign investors. He was able to forge alliances with newly organized labor and was also able to make pacts with those who would be influential on the world stage and economic investors. The other issue facing Mexico was the influence of the Catholic church which had a hand in almost every aspect of life of the Mexican people. Due to this fact new yet smaller revolutions would spring up and need to be put down from time to time. Obregon's opposition to the church would lead to his eventual re-election but also assassination. He was succesful in putting down many rebellions but lost out to perhaps the biggest influence on the country of all.
