Run For The Border Comparison Of The

Run For The Border: Comparison Of The Mexican And French Revolutions Essay, Research Paper

Run for the Border

“”It is easier to run a revolution than a government”

(Ferdinand E. Marcos (1917-81), Filipino politician, president. Time (New York, 6 June 1977). )

Webster.s dictionary defines the word revolution as .an overthrowing of government [and/or] radical change. (Webster.s). The usual goal of a revolution is to change something that the populace does not like. The Mexican Revolution of 1910 was just that. The changes made in the Mexican government during the first half of the twentieth century bear many resemblances to changes made during the French Revolution. According to Brinton, there are four stages to every revolution. The preliminary stage was when both Mexico and France set up the problems to come in the future due to the leadership at that time. The preliminary stage then led up to the first stage where frequent uprisings occurred against the government and sometimes even the people. The third and perhaps most turbulent of the four stages was the crisis stage, where some streets ran red with blood, and order ran amuck. The final stage is the recovery stage, where the governments agreed upon a plan that would benefit the people who worked so hard for the changes to see the fruits of their labor.

The preliminary stage of the Mexican Revolution was much like that of the French Revolution. President Porifirio Diaz was a prosperous President of Mexico for thirty-one years and ran the country much like Louis XVI of France. Diaz gave most of the power to a select few, while the majority of the country did not have the right to vote for the officials they wanted or to express their own opinions, limitations that are similar to the third estate of the Ancien Regime. With such conditions, .wealth was likewise concentrated in the hands of the few, and injustice was everywhere, in the cities and the countryside alike. (MexConnect). With these similarities however, there came many differences. While the monarchs of France of the Ancien Regime were generally absolutist monarchs ruling as the centralized power, Porifirio Diaz was a president in name, but acted like a despot or a dictator. President Diaz .had the best intentions for Mexico’s future, and established a stable government that rid the nation of crime. (Summary). He improved the method of training military and police forces, making them a much more dominating force. This of course, led to a nation that had a great deal less crime than in the past. Although Diaz did improve the quality of life, he only improved the quality of life and living conditions for the upper class. This group of elitists was much like the aristocracy or second class of France and held most of the power. However, the middle and lower classes of Mexico were subject to some wretched living conditions. For example, they had land stolen by foreign investors, which Diaz had brought in to help boost the economy, no food, and lack of money due to high inflation. The problems of the middle and lower classes were just like the ones of the French Revolution because of the bread shortage and price increase in France. The price increases was marked by the ascension in, .the price of bread, which had been rising gradually since 1785, [which then] began to soar. (Buckler 703). The French Revolution was marked by the problems that the different classes had with each other. For example, the upper class was upset because they had lost much of their power during the reign of Louis XIV and the middle class was angry because some of their people were gaining great wealth, but they were not allowed to behold any titles of nobility. The urban workers had always thought that they were mistreated, and felt like this until the revolution. Because of Louis XVI.s inept ruling, France went into war against England to help the Americas. This depleted France.s resources and so Louis could not stop or control the revolution. The events marked by the first stage had the same results, just the degree of the pre-rebellion was different.

Though the first stages of the Mexican Revolution and French Revolution had their similarities, they also had some differences. In the Mexican Revolution, many important events occurred. The first of the events was when Francisco Madero challenged President Porifirio Diaz to an election. Diaz did not want to have the election so he rigged it so he would win. Diaz then had Francisco Madero arrested and so he won the election because it was rigged in his favor. Before Madero was arrested in Monterrey and taken to the San Luis Potosi, he organized the ”Anti-reeleccionista” party, which roughly translates to Anti . Re-election meaning that he felt President Diaz should step down. When Madero found out that Diaz had been re-elected he .issued the ‘Plan of San Luis,’ a manifesto which declared that the elections had been a fraud and that he would not recognize Porifirio Diaz as the legitimate President of the Republic. (MexConnect). Madero then went to claim to the peasants that their land would be returned to them and a set of universal laws would be set for all. During the same time, he inspired a farmer by the name of Pancho Villa and a middle class man called Pascual Orozco to lead a revolutionary motion in northern Mexico. These two had no military experience but did quite well against the .abusive ranchers