Veracruz, depriving Huerta of arms sup-
plies. Huerta fled into exile in 1914, and
Carranza became president (1914–1920).
Carranza, like Madero, was a political
reformer but not a social revolutionary,
and he was soon opposed by his more
radical allies, Villa and Zapata. Civil war
again wracked the nation. In 1915 the
tide began to turn when one of Carranza’s
generals, Álvaro Obregón, defeated Villa
at the bloody battle of Celaya. By 1916
both Villa and Zapata were contained,
respectively, in the north and south.
President Wilson officially recog-
nized Carranza’s victorious government,
which may have spurred Villa’s decision
to turn against the United States. In
January 1916 Villa’s men stopped a train
in Chihuahua and murdered 15 American
mining engineers. Two months later his
forces raided Columbus, New Mexico,
killing a number of citizens and destroy-
ing part of the town. The attacks prompt-
ed Wilson to send a punitive expedition
of about 6,000 troops under General
John Pershing to Mexico to capture Villa.
Pershing searched for Villa for several
months, clashing with Mexican troopsand ignoring protests by Carranza, but
Villa successfully eluded them.
With Villa and Zapata still in arms
but contained, Carranza oversaw the
framing of the Constitution of 1917. This
document became the enduring basis of
Mexican government. It contained many
progressive social provisions that
Carranza found objectionable and refused
to implement, but that his successors
would implement to some degree. The
Constitution of 1917 called for separation
of church and state, with church property
to become government property without
compensation. It also provided for nation-
alization of mineral resources, alarming
foreign corporations who claimed owner-
ship. It discouraged the alienation of the
Native American ejidos by authorizing
land redistribution. Finally, the constitu-
tion abolished debt peonage, mandated a
minimum wage and unemployment insur-
ance, and granted workers’ rights, includ-
ing the right to strike.
Carranza resolutely ignored many of
the Constitution’s provisions and contin-
ued to wage war against Zapata, who had
established an independent government
in the south and was implementing his
own program of land redistribution. On
April 10, 1919, Carranza’s forces lured
Zapata into an ambush and assassinated
him. Carranza was felled himself a year
later, the victim of widespread outrage
when he attempted to control the presi-
dential election so a puppet would suc-
ceed him. In 1920 his minister of war,
Álvaro Obregón (president 1920–1924),
overthrew him, and Carranza was assassi-
nated while trying to flee the country.
With Obregón’s rise to power, the
Mexican Revolution’s most violent phase
at last came to an end. The leading revolu-
tionaries would soon be gone: Zapata was
already dead; Villa would be assassinated in- The country was left devastated by a
decade of civil war: crops and cities
burned, railroads torn up, starvation ram-
pant across the country, the economy in
tatters. Obregón oversaw a period of
reconstruction in which reforms were
gradually begun and power transferred
peacefully to his elected successor,
Plutarco Elías Calles (president 1924–
1928). Lázaro Cárdenas (president
1934–1940), who redistributed 44 million
acres of land and nationalized the proper-
ty of foreign oil companies, was the last
leader to commit himself fully to carrying
136 ATLAS OF HISPANIC-AMERICAN HISTORY
Women played an important role during the Mexican Revolution, not only caring for
rebel soldiers, but often taking up arms themselves. (MPI Archives)The U.S. government sent General
John J. Pershing (front, center) in
1916 to capture Pancho Villa follow-
ing the Mexican revolutionary’s raids
on Columbus, New Mexico. (Library
of Congress)