42 Unforgettable Images Of The Mexican Revolution

Published June 23, 2017
Updated September 29, 2017
Zapatista And Mexican National
Rebels In Action
Wounded At Juarez
Execution In Mexico
42 Unforgettable Images Of The Mexican Revolution
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In 1910, the people of Mexico stood up for liberty, equality, and freedom — and they paid for it with their lives. This was the Mexican Revolution, a brutal war that raged over the better of a decade and snuffed out the lives of more than a million people. It was a fight for principles, a war of brother against brother that tore a country apart and changed it forever.

The first sparks of war started to burn when Mexican miners in Cananea went on strike in 1906. They were getting paid one peso for every ten earned by their American colleagues for the same job, and they wouldn’t stand for it anymore. They staged a strike for equal pay that boiled over into a full-on riot that ended the lives of 23 people.

President Porfirio Díaz, who'd essentially ruled as a dictator without a successor for 30 years, called in American Rangers for support against the strikers, but calling on the United States for help only made his people angrier. A bitter battle for power began between Díaz's Federal loyalists and opponents, climaxing with the revolutionary leader Francisco I. Madero's election as the President of Mexico in 1911. The war, though, was far from over.

The brothers-in-arms who had helped Madero seize power soon turned against him, seeing him as weak. The Mexican Revolution quickly turned into a brutal, full-on civil war that left no part of the country untouched, drawing in poor farmers in a fight against wealthy landowners.

The United States and Germany intervened, throwing their heft behind leaders that they thought would support their interests in Mexico, and the war only grew worse. Life in Mexico became so brutal that 200,000 refugees fled the country, most making their way over the border and into Texas. It was the start of a flow of immigrants escaping into the United States that would never fully subside.

When the dust settled and the country adopted a new constitution that gave significant new rights to the people and established a federal system that would prevent another reign like that of Díaz, more than a million were dead.

The fighters of the Mexican Revolution gave their lives, and the face of Mexico was forever changed. They gave up everything for their fight, living by the words of the revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata: “I would rather die standing than live on my knees.”


Next, see photos of life on the U.S.-Mexico border as well as the most outlandish cartel instagram photos.

author
Mark Oliver
author
Mark Oliver is a writer and teacher, and father whose work has appeared on The Onion's StarWipe, Yahoo, and Cracked.
editor
John Kuroski
editor
John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime.