Mexican History Essay Research Paper After the

Mexican History Essay, Research Paper

After the conquest the Spaniards, recognized the existence of indian communal lands.

Encomiendas (large land grants) were given to the conquistadores by the Spanish Crown.

During the early encomienda period (1540 – 1650), encomenderos had complete control over

everything within their land grant including the indians. The Crown was theoretically quite

enlightened toward their indian citizens in New Spain. They attempted to establish laws which

would limit indian exploitation by fixing the hours slaves could work in the mines, the wages which

encomienda and free indians were to be paid, and allow indian villages to retain their system of

communal lands which the Spanish called ejidos. The 17th and 18th centuries saw many of these

communal lands illegaly expropiated by unscrupulous tax collectors and landowners.

Consequently, while indians were protected by spanish laws, in practice they had little defense

against corrupt officials; a problem worsened by ignorance of Spanish law.

The 19th century saw a major emphasis on private property with the Ley Lerdo (1857), which

sought to place all land into the hands of private land owners. The backers of Ley Lerdo probably

sincerely believed that the privatization of all lands would lead to a more equitable distribution of

the land in Mexico. They also sought to break up the large holdings of the Catholic Church. For

indian communities, this had a most devasting effect: The potential sale of ejido lands. For most

Mexican Meztizos desirous of land, the purchase of expensive Church properties was not an

option. They, consequently, turned to ejido lands as a source of inexpensive new land. The sale of

indian land led to a number of inidan rebellions. The Crown responded by dividing indian

communal lands only among indian community members. This didin.t, however, stop the avarice

of the mestizo landowners who purchased the land inexpensively and directly from the indian

owners.

The lone figure in the 19th Century who successfully defended indian ejidos from external

encroachment was Benito Juarez (1857 – 1872).

The Mexican political climate changed significantly, however, with the regime of Porfirio Diaz

(1876 – 1910) or the Porfiriato. During this period, Diaz twice (1888 and 1902) demanded the

enforcement of the Ley Lerdo. The result was similar to the previous enforcement of this law.

Indian land was easily stolen or purchased by non-indians. The demand for indian ejido lands was

further enhanced by the fact that there were no limits on the amount of land an individual could

privately own. There was considerable indian opposition to this, but ultimately the indians lost their

land. The impact of this is most clearly seen in the Yucatan where in 1901, 50 landowners owned

50 million acres and controlled the labor of 100,000 mayan laborers who were virtual slaves in

Henequen plantations which produced rope and other products sold primarily to the US.

Most people associate the ejido with the second Mexican Revolution (1910 – 1917), and see the

Revolution as a type of peasant revolt. However, there was a clear lack of peasant consciousness

about revolutionary objetives. This is reflected in an almost complete lack of political songs,

poems, and texts in the rural folklore of the time (Alba 1967:109).

Briefly, we can divide the Revolution into three distinct “revolutions”, the Political, led by Madero

and Carranza (1910-1913), the Agrarian, led by Zapata and Villa (1913-1917), and the Nationalist

which embodied elements of the latter two.

The Political Revolution centered around a reaction to Diaz.s dictatorial hold on Mexican politics,

and his allowing tremendous quantities of foreign capital to enter into Mexico.

The Agrarian Revolution focused on the redistribuition of lands. Emiliano Zapata, one of the more

intellectual of the agrarian reformist, developed the Ayala Plan (November 25, 1911) which

clearly stated the demands of this group. The plan demanded that land that had been taken by the

big haciendas from peasants be returned, and, in addition, another 1/3 be distributed among them.

Zapata.s army conquered the states of Morelos, Puebla, and Guerrero, burning haciendas and

killing their managers as they went. He was systematically eliminating the enemies of the indian.

The Zapatistas sought neither power nor money, rather land. Zapata emerged as the only

coherent and logical voice of social reform in the revolution.

As this was happening, Luis Cabrera (not the first revolutionary president Madero) was entering

social legislation into the Mexican Congress in December of 1912 to establish all haciendas as

ejido land. The forces of social /agrarian reform had a formidable barrier in the form of Carranza

whose government was officially installed in 1916, but who held authority for two years previous.

In January of 1915 under pressure from Villista and Zapatista forces, Carranza pro

Внимание, отключите Adblock

Вы посетили наш сайт со включенным блокировщиком рекламы!
Ссылка для скачивания станет доступной сразу после отключения Adblock!

Скачать