Putting the State Together
The key reasons the Constitutionalists won over the Conventionists was because of their leaders. Carranza was the head of state at the time he was leading his army and he was able to charge taxes and take up loans to be able to fund his army (Gonzales, 2002). This made him more successful against Villa who had to raid and steal his supplies. The constant struggle that Villa was experiencing made him and all his men tired, so tired they were unable to fight anymore. Fighting against Carranza was becoming harder and harder and Villa was losing more men as the days went by from exhaustion and execution. By 1919 Villas remaining army was turning in their guns in exchange for land to be able to farm. Once this happened Villa went into hiding and was never seen again (Gonzales, 2002).
Constitutionalists and Conventionists had issues during the negotiations because they were on the opposite sides from each other. They had a hard time seeing eye to eye on how they state should be ran since they were on opposite sides. Carranza wanted to write to write a whole new constitution and wanted to hold elections (Gonzales, 2002). Merging the two sides also meant that they needed to get rid of old political rivals (Gonzales, 2002). When Carranza decided to rewrite the constitution, he appointed many people to convene but most Mexicans were not worried about the constitution, they were worried about food (Gonzales, 2002). During the rewriting process no articles that were about farming and labor reform. The people organizing the constitutional convention were all appointed by Carranza and fiercely loyal to him (Gonzales, 2002).
Alvaro Obergón joined the revolution in support of Madero and became one of Mexico’s “most successful warrior (Gonzales, p. 182 2002).” He was able to defeat not only Villa in 1915 but he also defeated Carranza in the presidency and became president in 1920. His upbringing shaped his political beliefs, he believed in economic liberalism and modernism (Gonzales, 2002). He tried to increase taxes and wanted to control the petroleum industry but the US and British governments wanted him to compromise these two by giving the rights of the subsoil to the states and for him to pay their foreign debt (Gonzales, 2002). In the mist of a revolution Mexico dug themselves and undermined their own constitution giving more power to revolutionist (Gonzales, 2002). For Obergón to reach his goals in uniting Mexico he needed to be successful solving many issues.
Most Mexicans had many guns, caudillos controlled whole provinces, and the peasants were still demanding their land (Gonzales, 2002). He handled these issues very well, he gave uncooperative generals money, he offered important government positions to powerful political bosses, he offered land to the radicals, and offered political influence to the labor leaders (Gonzales, 2002). He had built a good relationship with the labor workers from his time working with them during the revolution and he was successful at mobilizing them before. This worked in his benefit and strikes were at an all time low but they still were not happy with their pay. I do not think the revolution was over with Alvaro Obregon in office. He made things calmer and was able to restore some more order within the labor force. The men he gave power too at the start of his presidency also were not too different from the rest of the men before (Gonzales, 2002). He helped chill out the revolution but he did not stop it.
Gonzales, M. J. (2002). The Mexican Revolution, 1910–1940. University of New Mexico Press.
