The Reform

Juarez immediately began the reforms called for by the 1857 constitution These included separation of church and state, confiscation of the church's vast land holdings, exclusion of clergy from official positions, a bill of civil rights, and universal suffrage for men.

Before the death of Juarez in 1872 Porfirio Díaz, one of his followers, had started a new revolt. Díaz gained control of the government in 1876 and held it until 1911, serving as president during all but four years of this period. Díaz brought order to Mexico by arbitrary and autocratic rule. Foreign investment was encouraged and the country made economic progress. However, Díaz was a ruthless dictator and had no concern for civil rights or the welfare of the people. Great tracts of public land passed into the hands of speculators or estate owners. The upper classes, the church, and foreign businessmen became rich, while the condition of the lower classes became steadily worse.

Díaz was overthrown finally by a coalition of insurrectionist leaders that included Francisco Madero, Venustiano Carranza, Victoriano Huerta, Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, and Alvaro Obregón. During the next 10 years, Mexico was in a state of chaos as the rebel leaders turned against each other. In this period, the United States became involved in Mexican affairs several times, often in support of one leader over another.

Mexico was neutral in World War I. The constitution was revised in 1917, but Carranza, then president, had no desire for reform. He was driven from power in 1920 by Obregón and Plutarco Calles, who, as the next two presidents, accomplished many social reforms, including land redistribution to the peasants, support for organized labor, and expansion of education to rural areas. An anticlerical policy was also followed by the government, which caused several years of armed violence by militant Catholics called Cristeros ("Followers of Christ").

Calles, whose term ended in 1928, continued to control politics by organizing in 1929 the National Revolutionary party (later, the Institutional Revolutionary party, or P.R.I.), which became the dominant political party; and by naming, and ruling through, three successors. His power was finally broken in 1934 with the election of Lázaro Cárdenas.

Cárdenas redistributed land on a vast scale, and in 1938 expropriated the oil properties held by foreign countries. Land reform and the development of natural resources continued under succeeding presidents. A settlement for the expropriated oil properties was arranged. Mexico cooperated fully with the United States and the Latin American countries in defense planning in World War II, and in 1942 entered the war against the Axis powers. The war greatly stimulated Mexican industry, which produced materials needed by the United States. A large number of Mexican migrant workers called braceros were brought to the United States to relieve the farm labor shortage.

After the war, during the presidency of Miguel Alemán Valdés (1946–52), extensive public works projects were undertaken, including highway building, electrification, and irrigation. Agricultural production was greatly increased as plants were built for the manufacture of fertilizer, and hybrid varieties of corn and other staples were developed. However, by the mid-1950's it was apparent that government funds had been overpledged, and a treasury deficit forced a devaluation of the peso.

Women, given the franchise in 1953, first voted in a national election in 1955. Under President Lopez Mateos (1958–64), the electric power industry was completely nationalized and a vast amount of land was distributed to peasants. The government moved farm families from the central plateau to largely unoccupied lands. In the territory of Quintana Roo, in the far southeast, a vast area of tropical jungle was cleared away to make room for farms.

Mexico's friendship with the United States was strengthened in 1963 when a small part of El Paso, Texas, was restored to Mexico. In 1970 an agreement was reached with the United States on the settlement of future border disputes caused by shifting of the Rio Grande channel.

In 1974 Mexico's last two territories—Quintana Roo and Baja California Sur—became states. In the late 1970's, Mexico developed into an important oil producer and, because of huge oil-export earnings, its economy boomed. With the prospect of greatly increased oil income, Mexico went heavily into debt to finance expanded agricultural and industrialization programs. Falling oil prices in the early 1980's brought on a major economic crisis. The government took several measures, including repayment of some of the foreign debt, to help stabilize the economy.

In the mid-1990's, two rebel groups began uprisings in southern Mexico; the Zapatista National Liberation Army demanded social reforms to help Indians in the state of Chiapas, and the Popular Revolutionary Army sought to overthrow the government and replace it with a Marxist regime. Also in the mid-1990's, the government's devaluation of the peso created an economic crisis. In 1996, the government instituted major political and electoral reforms to lessen the dominance of the P.R.I, over other political parties. The National Action Party ended the P.R.I.'s rule in 2000, when their candidate, Vicente Fox, won the presidential elections. He became the first non-P.R.I. candidate to be elected as Mexico's president in 71 years.

In 2006, Mexicans voted in a presidential election. The margin of Felipe Calderon's victory was small; in fact, he won only 1 per cent more of the votes than Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Following the announcement of the election results, protests by Obrador's supporters ensued in Mexico City. About 10 per cent of the votes were recounted, and an election court rejected nearly all of Obrador's fraud claims. Soon after, Calderón was declared the official winner.