Red Battalions

Last updated

The Red Battalions were urban workers who were recruited by the Constitutionalist forces of the Mexican Revolution to fight against the Zapatistas and Pancho Villa's army. The Mexican Revolution was a civil war that saw various alliances between different forces who fought various political reasons. The Red Battalions belonged largely to the Casa del Obrero Mundial ("house of the world worker"), an anarcho-syndicalist workers' organization. The battalions were deployed by Carranza in exchange for various rights for workers, to defeat the "peasant counterrevolutionaries" of Zapata and Villa. They were called the Red Battalions because of their left-wing membership.

Contents

The battalions were ultimately disbanded after Carranza no longer required their forces to subdue the insurgents of the north and the peasant guerrillas of the south. On 13 January 1916, amidst strikes incited by the Casa Obrera Mundial, Carranza ordered the last of the Red Battalions to dissolve. Thereafter all labor unrest was suppressed, often violently, and the Casa went into decline. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emiliano Zapata</span> Mexican revolutionary (1879–1919)

Emiliano Zapata Salazar was a Mexican revolutionary. He was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution of 1910–1920, the main leader of the people's revolution in the Mexican state of Morelos, and the inspiration of the agrarian movement called Zapatismo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pancho Villa</span> Mexican revolutionary general and politician (1878–1923)

Francisco "Pancho" Villa was a general in the Mexican Revolution. He was a key figure in the revolutionary movement that forced out President Porfirio Díaz and brought Francisco I. Madero to power in 1911. When Madero was ousted by a coup led by General Victoriano Huerta in February 1913, he joined the anti-Huerta forces in the Constitutionalist Army led by Venustiano Carranza. After the defeat and exile of Huerta in July 1914, Villa broke with Carranza. Villa dominated the meeting of revolutionary generals that excluded Carranza and helped create a coalition government. Emiliano Zapata and Villa became formal allies in this period. Like Zapata, Villa was strongly in favor of land reform, but didn't implement it when he had power. At the height of his power and popularity in late 1914 and early 1915, the U.S. considered recognizing Villa as Mexico's legitimate authority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mexican Revolution</span> Nationwide armed struggle in Mexico (1910–1920)

The Mexican Revolution was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from approximately 1910 to 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It resulted in the destruction of the Federal Army and 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 United States involvement was particularly high. The conflict led to the deaths of around two million people, mostly combatants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lázaro Cárdenas</span> President of Mexico from 1934 to 1940

Lázaro Cárdenas del Río was a Mexican army officer and politician who served as president of Mexico from 1934 to 1940. Previously, he served as a general in the Constitutional Army during the Mexican Revolution and as Governor of Michoacán and President of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. He later served as the Secretary of National Defence. His during his presidency, which is considered the end of the Maximato, he implemented massive land reform programs, led the expropriation of the country's oil industry, and implemented many left-leaning reforms. He was the first Mexican president to serve as a sexenio, and is considered one of the most popular presidents in the history of Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoriano Huerta</span> President of Mexico from 1913 to 1914

José Victoriano Huerta Márquez was a general in the Mexican Federal Army and 39th President of Mexico, who came to power by coup against the democratically elected government of Francisco I. Madero with the aid of other Mexican generals and the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. His violent seizure of power set off a new wave of armed conflict in the Mexican Revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Venustiano Carranza</span> President of Mexico from 1917 to 1920

José Venustiano Carranza de la Garza was a wealthy land owner and politician who served as head of state and later also President of Mexico from 1914 until his assassination in 1920, during the Mexican Revolution. He was the First Chief of the Constitutional Army from 1914 to 1917 and in that capacity served as head of the country. He previously served as a senator and governor for Coahuila. He supported Francisco I. Madero's revolt against Porfirio Díaz, and worked with generals Álvaro Obregón, Emiliano Zapata, and Pancho Villa to oust Madero's usurper Victoriano Huerta, but broke with Villa and Zapata soon after, entering a new stage of civil war. As First Chief, he drove the creation of the Mexican Constitution of 1917 and won the election that year. As President, he was recognized as Mexico's official leader by the United States, maintained Mexican neutrality in World War I, and had Zapata assassinated. He was assassinated himself in 1920 when Obregón switched sides, thus ending the Mexican Revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Álvaro Obregón</span> President of Mexico from 1920 to 1924

Álvaro Obregón Salido was a Sonoran-born general in the Mexican Revolution. A pragmatic centrist, natural soldier, and able politician, he became the 46th President of Mexico from 1920 to 1924 and was assassinated in 1928 as President-elect. In the popular image of the Revolution, "Alvaro Obregón stood out as the organizer, the peacemaker, the unifier."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dr. Atl</span> Mexican artist (1875–1964)

Gerardo Murillo Coronado, also known by his signature "Dr. Atl", was a Mexican painter and writer. He was actively involved in the Mexican Revolution in the Constitutionalist faction led by Venustiano Carranza. He had ties to the anarchosyndicalist labor organization, the Casa del Obrero Mundial "House of the World Worker."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constitution of Mexico</span> Principles, institutions and law of political governance in Mexico

The Constitution of Mexico, formally the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States, is the current constitution of Mexico. It was drafted in Santiago de Querétaro, in the State of Querétaro, by a constituent convention, during the Mexican Revolution. It was approved by the Constituent Congress on 5 February 1917. It is the successor to the Constitution of 1857, and earlier Mexican constitutions. "The Constitution of 1917 is the legal triumph of the Mexican Revolution. To some it is the revolution."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liberation Army of the South</span> Armed group during the Mexican Revolution

The Liberation Army of the South was a guerrilla force led for most of its existence by Emiliano Zapata that took part in the Mexican Revolution from 1911 to 1920. During that time, the Zapatistas fought against the national governments of Porfirio Díaz, Francisco Madero, Victoriano Huerta, and Venustiano Carranza. Their goal was rural land reform, specifically reclaiming communal lands stolen by hacendados in the period before the revolution. Although rarely active outside their base in Morelos, they allied with Pancho Villa to support the Conventionists against the Carrancistas. After Villa's defeat, the Zapatistas remained in open rebellion. It was only after Zapata's 1919 assassination and the overthrow of the Carranza government that Zapata's successor, Gildardo Magaña, negotiated peace with President Álvaro Obregón.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plan of Guadalupe</span> 1913 manifesto by Mexican revolutionary Venustiano Carranza

In the history of Mexico, the Plan of Guadalupe was a political manifesto which was proclaimed on March 26, 1913, by the Governor of Coahuila Venustiano Carranza in response to the reactionary coup d'etat and execution of President Francisco I. Madero, which had occurred during the Ten Tragic Days of February 1913. The manifesto was released from the Hacienda De Guadalupe, which is where the Plan derives its name, nearly a month after the assassination of Madero. The initial plan was limited in scope, denouncing Victoriano Huerta's usurpation of power and advocating the restoration of a constitutional government. In 1914, Carranza issued "Additions to the Plan of Guadalupe", which broadened its scope and "endowed la Revolución with its social and economic content." In 1916, he further revised the Plan now that the Constitutionalist Army was victorious and revolutionaries sought changes to the 1857 Constitution of Mexico. Carranza sought to set the terms of the constitutional convention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luis N. Morones</span> Mexican politician

Luis Morones Negrete, also known as Luis Napoleón Morones, was a Mexican major union leader, politician, and government official. He was a pragmatic politician who experienced a rapid rise to prominence from modest roots and made strategic alliances. He served as Secretary General of the Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers and as secretary of economy under President Plutarco Elías Calles, 1924-1928. He is considered the "most important union leader of the 1920s...and undoubtedly decisive in Mexico's post-Revolutionary reconstruction." He was criticized for tying the labor movement closely to the national government and his displays of wealth were unseemly. He fell from power following the successful 1928 presidential run by Alvaro Obregón, who was assassinated before being inaugurated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anarchism in Mexico</span> Anarchism

Anarchism in Mexico, the anarchist movement in Mexico, extends from Plotino Rhodakanaty's organization of peasant workers in the 1890s, to Ricardo Flores Magón's activism prior to the Mexican Revolution, to the punk subcultures of the 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Land reform in Mexico</span>

Before the 1910 Mexican Revolution, most land in post-independence Mexico was owned by wealthy Mexicans and foreigners, with small holders and indigenous communities possessing little productive land. During the colonial era, the Spanish crown protected holdings of indigenous communities that were mostly engaged in subsistence agriculture to countervail the encomienda and repartimiento systems. In the 19th century, Mexican elites consolidated large landed estates (haciendas) in many parts of the country while small holders, many of whom were mixed-race mestizos, engaged with the commercial economy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States involvement in the Mexican Revolution</span>

The United States involvement in the Mexican Revolution was varied and seemingly contradictory, first supporting and then repudiating Mexican regimes during the period 1910–1920. For both economic and political reasons, the U.S. government generally supported those who occupied the seats of power, but could withhold official recognition. The U.S. supported the regime of Porfirio Díaz after initially withholding recognition since he came to power by coup. In 1909, Díaz and U.S. President Taft met in Ciudad Juárez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. Prior to Woodrow Wilson's inauguration on March 4, 1913, the U.S. Government focused on just warning the Mexican military that decisive action from the U.S. military would take place if lives and property of U.S. nationals living in the country were endangered. President William Howard Taft sent more troops to the US-Mexico border but did not allow them to intervene directly in the conflict, a move which Congress opposed. Twice during the Revolution, the U.S. sent troops into Mexico, to occupy Veracruz in 1914 and to northern Mexico in 1916 in a failed attempt to capture Pancho Villa. U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America was to assume the region was the sphere of influence of the U.S., articulated in the Monroe Doctrine. However the U.S. role in the Mexican Revolution has been exaggerated. It did not directly intervene in the Mexican Revolution in a sustained manner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isidro Fabela</span> Mexican politician

José Isidro Fabela Alfaro was a Mexican judge, politician, professor, writer, publisher, governor of the State of Mexico, diplomat, and delegate to the now defunct League of Nations. Fabela was born in Atlacomulco, Mexico State. He was a member of the group of intellectuals opposed to the Porfirio Díaz regime, the Ateneo de Juventud, a group that also included José Vasconcelos and Diego Rivera. He served prominently revolutionary leader Venustiano Carranza and went on to hold many important posts in the Mexican government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antonio Díaz Soto y Gama</span> Mexican revolutionary (1880–1967)

Antonio Diaz Soto y Gama was a Mexican politician and revolutionary during the Mexican Revolution.

The Casa del Obrero Mundial or COM was a libertarian socialist and anarcho-syndicalist worker's organization located in the popular Tepito Barrio of Mexico City, founded on September 22, 1912. One of its founders was Antonio Díaz Soto y Gama, one of the founders of the Liberal Party of Mexico (PLM) and later a secretary in Emiliano Zapata's army. COM served as a cultural institution promoting worker's education and social transformation through a rationalist, socialist orientation, and as the headquarters for a number of syndicates and unions on a mutual aid basis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salvador Alvarado</span> Mexican politician (1880–1924)

Salvador Alvarado Rubio was a general and politician during the Mexican Revolution. He was serving in the Constitutionalist Army under President Carranza. Alvarado was the Governor of Yucatán from February 1915 to November, 1918, and Secretary of the Treasury under President de la Huerta. There is a Salvador Alvarado Municipality in the State of Sinaloa, where he was born, named in his honor.

References

  1. John M. Hart. "Revolutionary Syndicalism in Mexico" . Retrieved January 10, 2014.

Further reading