1910 Mexican general election in the context of "Mexican Revolution"

⭐ In the context of the Mexican Revolution, the 1910 Mexican general election is considered a pivotal event primarily because it…

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⭐ Core Definition: 1910 Mexican general election

General elections were held in Mexico on 26 June and 10 July 1910.

The contested election instigated the beginning of the Mexican Revolution and preceded the end of the 35-year period of Mexican history known as the Porfiriato.

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👉 1910 Mexican general election in the context of Mexican Revolution

The Mexican Revolution (Spanish: Revolución mexicana) was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from 20 November 1910 to 1 December 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It saw the destruction of the Federal Army, its replacement by a revolutionary army, and the transformation of Mexican culture and government. The northern Constitutionalist faction prevailed on the battlefield and drafted the present-day Constitution of Mexico, which aimed to create a strong central government. Revolutionary generals held power from 1920 to 1940. The revolutionary conflict was primarily a civil war, but foreign powers, having important economic and strategic interests in Mexico, figured in the outcome of Mexico's power struggles; the U.S. involvement was particularly high. The conflict led to the deaths of around one million people, mostly non-combatants.

Although the decades-long regime of President Porfirio Díaz (1876–1911) was increasingly unpopular, there was no foreboding in 1910 that a revolution was about to break out. The aging Díaz failed to find a controlled solution to presidential succession, resulting in a power struggle among competing elites and the middle classes, which occurred during a period of intense labor unrest, exemplified by the Cananea and Río Blanco strikes. When wealthy northern landowner Francisco I. Madero challenged Díaz in the 1910 presidential election and Díaz jailed him, Madero called for an armed uprising against Díaz in the Plan of San Luis Potosí. Rebellions broke out first in Morelos (immediately south of the nation's capital city) and then to a much greater extent in northern Mexico. The Federal Army could not suppress the widespread uprisings, showing the military's weakness and encouraging the rebels. Díaz resigned in May 1911 and went into exile, an interim government was installed until elections could be held, the Federal Army was retained, and revolutionary forces demobilized. The first phase of the Revolution was relatively bloodless and short-lived.

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1910 Mexican general election in the context of Porfiriato

The Porfiriato or Porfirismo (/ˌpɔːrfɪəriˈæt/, Spanish: [poɾfiˈɾjato]), coined by Mexican historian Daniel Cosío Villegas, is a term given to the period when General Porfirio Díaz ruled Mexico under an authoritarian military dictatorship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Seizing power in a coup in 1876, Díaz pursued a policy of "order and progress" [es], inviting foreign investment in Mexico and maintaining social and political order, by force if necessary. There were significant economic, technological, social, and cultural changes during this period.

As Díaz approached his 80th birthday in 1910, having been continuously elected since 1884, he still had not put in place a plan for his succession. The fraudulent 1910 elections are usually seen as the end of the Porfiriato. Violence broke out, Díaz was forced to resign and go into exile, and Mexico experienced a decade of regional civil war, the Mexican Revolution.

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1910 Mexican general election in the context of Francisco I. Madero

Francisco Ignacio Madero González (Spanish pronunciation: [fɾanˈsisko jɣˈnasjo maˈðeɾo ɣonˈsales]; 30 October 1873 – 22 February 1913) was a Mexican businessman, revolutionary, writer, politician and statesman who served as the 37th president of Mexico from 1911 until he was deposed and assassinated in a coup d'état in February 1913. He came to prominence as an advocate for democracy and as an opponent of President and dictator Porfirio Díaz. After Díaz claimed to have won the fraudulent election of 1910 despite promising a return to democracy, Madero started the Mexican Revolution to oust Díaz. The Mexican revolution would continue until 1920, well after Madero and Díaz's deaths, with hundreds of thousands dead.

A member of one of Mexico's wealthiest families, Madero studied business at the École des Hautes Études Commerciales de Paris. An advocate for social justice and democracy, his 1908 book The Presidential Succession in 1910 called for Mexican voters to prevent the reelection of Porfirio Díaz, whose regime had become increasingly authoritarian. Bankrolling the opposition Anti-Reelectionist Party, Madero's candidacy garnered widespread support in the country. He challenged Díaz in the 1910 election, which resulted in his arrest. After Díaz declared himself winner for an eighth term in a rigged election, Madero escaped from jail, fled to the United States, and called for the overthrow of the Díaz regime in the Plan of San Luis Potosí, sparking the Mexican Revolution.

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1910 Mexican general election in the context of Plan of San Luis Potosí

The Plan of San Luis Potosí (Spanish: Plan de San Luis) is a key political document of the Mexican Revolution, written by presidential candidate Francisco I. Madero following his escape from jail. He had challenged President Porfirio Díaz in the 1910 presidential elections, when Díaz was 80 years old, and garnered a broadbased following. Díaz jailed him when it became clear Madero might win. Madero escaped and drafted the plan to explain why armed rebellion against Díaz was now the only way to remove him from office. It was published on 5 October 1910. It called for nullifying the fraudulent 1910 election of Porfirio Díaz, proclaimed Madero as provisional president, and called on the Mexican people to revolt on 20 November 1910.

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