WASHMUN IX Mexican Revolution of 1910 Joint Crisis Committee: Rebels Chaired by: Peter Jacob and Gabriel Sessions
Hello Delegates, My name is Peter Jacob and I will be one of your co-chairs for the 2018 WASHMUN conference Mexican Rebel Crisis Committee. First, a little bit about myself; I am a senior here at Washington-Lee and I have been doing Model UN for two years now. I also play lacrosse here at Washington-Lee and I plan on attending Saint Louis University next fall to study aviation. Crisis has always been my favorite type of committee and I am very excited for this year s crisis on the Mexican Revolution. I can be contacted about any questions about the committee via my email down below. I look forward to meeting you all and I hope we can have a fun and exciting committee. Peter Jacob phjacob123456@gmail.com Dear Delegates, My name is Gabriel Sessions and I am pleased to be one of you co-chairs for the rebel committee of the Mexican Revolution joint crisis committee. I am currently a freshman attending Washington-Lee and this is my third year of doing Model UN and I plan to continue throughout my years in high school. In addition to being a part of the Model UN club, I enjoy extremely complex board games such as Twilight Struggle. In the past, I have attended many crisis committees and hope to provide an enjoyable experience for you all. I m looking forward to intriguing debate as the Mexican Revolution completely changed Mexican politics. If you have any questions about the committee, feel free to contact me at my email posted below. I look forward to hearing your discussions this May! Gabriel Sessions gsess7732@gmail.com
Committee Overview The Mexican Revolution committee is a joint crisis committee. There will be three committees that play a role in this simulation: the Díaz committee, the Rebels committee, and the United States committee. As this joint crisis committee is also a historical committee, the conference will pick up in October 1910 and go forth from there. There are three types of directives that may be submitted: committee, personal, and joint directives. Committee directives can be created by one or more delegates and should be presented to the entire committee. These directives must be passed by a simple majority of the committee. Personal directives are created by one delegate and joint directives are created by two or more delegates. Both personal and joint directives do not have to be presented to the committee. All directives are submitted to the crisis staff and must be approved by them in order to pass. Position papers are required for this committee. Your paper should include a very brief summary of the issue (do not include events after 1910), your position s view on the topic, and your suggested solutions. Positions papers do not have to exceed 1-2 pages and should be written in a readable font. By WASHMUN policy, any paper without a bibliography will be considered plagiarized. Background The Mexican Revolution of 1910 was Mexico s second revolution. It ushered in changes to politics, social structure, and culture. This revolution, which started on November 20th, 1910
(after this committee officially begins), was aimed at ousting the Díaz government from power 1 and replacing it with a democratic republic. Before the revolution actually started, President Porfirio Díaz ran a very effective political machine. He prosecuted anyone who was even remotely a threat to his power: mainly peasants, natives, and people in lower classes. He exiled or imprisoned his political opponents, and therefore had no competition for the presidency. In addition, he tightly controlled the media to censor articles that appealed to the opposition. Furthermore, his government was extremely corrupt, which allowed landowning elites (also known as hacendados ) to gain even more power under his political system. Many of these hacendados were rewarded for supporting Díaz, receiving land and political favors as gifts for their loyalty. This widened the gap between the wealthy and poor by making the prosperous hacendados richer and eliminating opportunities for poorer Mexicans. Government corruption and patronage meant that only 2% of the population 2 owned their own land and only 10% of the land was owned by natives. In addition, working conditions were terrible: there were long work days and low wages. Porfirio Díaz was a dictator and violated many portions of the Mexican Constitution. By violating the two-term limit and faking election results to continue running, Porfirio Diaz was able to run able to remain the dictator of Mexico from 1876 to 1911. This made him unpopular among the peasants and lower classes of Mexico. So, to reinstate a representative government, rebel Francisco Madero drafted the Plan de San Luis Potosí to encourage a rebellion. This committee begins just after this was published, in October 1910. A year later (after committee starts), the Plan de Ayala was written by Emiliano Zapata to spur revolts in the southern state of 1 National Endowment for the Humanities 2 Stearns, Peter N
3 Morelos. These two declarations were important to the initiation of a nationwide revolution 4 which would change the course of Mexican history. 5 At the time, foreign powers exercised a great deal of influence in Mexico, especially the United States. By the 20th century, 20% of all land in Mexico was owned by American businesses and wealthy Americans who used the land for their own financial gain and hardly paid any Mexican taxes. The poor economic conditions led to the development of new national opposition groups that planned to overthrow the government which included people who supported the three main opposition leaders: Madero, Huerta, and Zapata. Even though many of these groups formed, they were put down during the early 1900s before gaining enough support. But, in 1910, there started to be a growing opportunity to bring down the infamous autocracy as Díaz was growing older and the people questioned his ability to govern effectively. In a 1908 interview by US journalist James Creelman, Díaz stated that he was not planning on running again for president. The Anti-Reelectionist party selected Francisco Madero as their candidate, 3 Library of Congress 4 The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica 5 Lizard Point Map of the Provinces of Mexico
and he proved popular with the people. When Díaz went against his word by running again, he manipulated election results to secure the presidency over Francisco Madero. This spurred Madero to write the Plan de San Luis Potosi, which became a rally cry for all Mexicans to rise up against the corrupt government. 6 Topic 1: Replacing the Díaz Regime How do we plan on toppling/reforming the Government? All the rebels have gathered so that change can be made within Mexico in October 1910. In the past, elections have been corrupt and unfair, so legitimate government reforms have become impossible to make. There are many rebel groups with different objectives (democratic government, improved working conditions, land redistribution, political rights, etc.). The rebel groups are fragmented and are found in different parts of the country, so we must come up with a coherent strategy with clear end goals that we will seek to accomplish. In addition, Mexico City 6 Sue Bell Picture of rebels fighting in the revolution
will be difficult to occupy because Díaz s military control is strongest there. But if Mexico City is captured, there is a huge payoff as Díaz s government would most likely crumble after that. Topic 2: Rebuilding the Mexican Government How will we run the country if we gain control? A rebellion needs to begin because we need to reform the current Mexican Government. Once we gain control, we need to have a plan on how to set up the new government, keep corruption to a minimum, reduce infighting, and make attainable goals about economic and political policies to help us focus on the important issues. Will we have a democracy? Will we put a monarch of our own in power? Or will we have another form of government? Questions to Consider 1) What are the main goals of different revolutionary groups? How can we all unite despite our differences? 2) How will we coordinate our forces and arm them without financial support? What is the best military plan of action? 3) If we are able to take power, what is our plan to establish a stable democratic government? Who will lead us? What measures should be taken to prevent another dictatorship? 4) Should we write a constitution? What are the key ideals we are fighting for? What are some specific ways we can implement these ideals in government?
7 Position List Francisco Indalecio Madero Pancho Villa Emiliano Zapata Venustiano Carranza Álvaro Obregón Lázaro Cárdenas Madero was an extremely important figure in this revolution as he challenged the elderly Díaz in the elections of 1910. As a result, he was arrested and put in jail by Díaz, causing him to call for a revolution in November 1910. Pancho Villa was a bandit by the time the revolution started and became a revolutionary with his fellow outlaws. He was an extremely powerful figure but had no interest in politics and did not wish to be president. Zapata was a peasant before the revolution that took up arms after the revolution started. He imagined a Mexico where the poor had rights and owned their own land, and supported the idea of breaking up hacendados land to give to the poor. Based on his perspective, he was against the ideas of Díaz, Madero, Obregon, and Carranza. Carranza was a rich political star in revolutionary Mexico and saw this revolution as a power grab opportunity. Before the war, he was a member in the Coahuila Senate and started looking to the presidency as a means to gain additional power. Obregón was a businessman throughout the revolution and was a farmer before the war. Overall, he became a decorated war hero as he fought with Madero against Orozco. Towards the end of the war, after the fall of Huerta, he supported Carranza s bid to become president. Cárdenas was a general during the revolution and was later elected president in 1934. During his lifetime he supported policies that 7 Minster, Christopher
involved redistribution of land to peasants and reforms that give social and economic benefits to the Indian and Mexican working class. Ricardo Flores Magón Pascual Orozco Felipe Ángeles José Vasconcelos Gildardo Magaña Magón was a political activist before and during the war. In 1892, he was imprisoned because he protested against Díaz s re-election and and he created Regeneracíon, a liberal magazine. Throughout the revolution his ideas were suppressed by the government and he was sent to jail three times. Before fighting in the revolution, Orozco was a mule driver in the lower class. But in 1910, he became a leader as he organized a small army to fight in the revolution. He was opposed to Madero s ideas and eventually supported a military coup against him by Victoriano Huerta. Ángles was a main ally to Madero and when Madero came to power, he was appointed to the position of Brigadier General. Like Madero, he was arrested when Huerta took control next but was not executed. After coming back to Mexico illegally after his exile to France, he supported Carranza as he overthrew Huerta s government. José Vasconcelos was a an educator, politician, and philosopher who was a major campaigner for Madero. Since he was a political activist, he was exiled at certain points during his life. Some main points about his philosophy are that he promoted the idea of cosmic unity and was in favor of the expression of indigenous culture. Magaña was another political activist for Madero and a new government. He was put in jail along with Pancho Villa for political reasons as he was a supporter of the Plan of Tacubaya.
Luis Cabrera Lobato Otilio E. Montaño Genovevo de la O Amador Salazar Jiménez Lobato was a very educated intellectual that specialized in law. He served in government for about a decade where he was Carranza s treasury secretary. A few decades after the revolution, he declined the option run for president. Montaño s main contribution to the revolution was that he drafted the Plan de Ayala with Zapata. In addition, he contributed to the war militarily by joining the Liberation Army of the South and becoming a general. De la O was a important figure in the early stages of the Mexican Revolution as he supported Zapata s ideas and led a rebellion in Morelos. One of his specialties as a general was destroying enemy trains. Before becoming a figure in the Mexican revolution, Jiménez worked on an hacienda, so he understood the terrible working conditions. He fought during the revolution and was a signatory for the Plan of Ayala.
Works Cited Bell, Sue. Diaz and the Porfiriato 1876-1910. Mexicanhistory.org, Mexicanhistory.org, 10 Feb. 2016, mexicanhistory.org/diaz.htm. Gale. Cabrera Lobato, Luis (1876 1954). Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, Encyclopedia.com, 2018, www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cabrer a-lobato-luis-1876-1954. Kent, Emerson. Felipe Ángeles 1869-1919 (Felipe Angeles). History for the Relaxed Historian, 2016, www.emersonkent.com/history_notes/felipe_angeles.htm. Library of Congress. The Mexican Revolution and the United States in the Collections of the Library of CongressTimeline. Timeline - The Mexican Revolution and the United States Exhibitions - Library of Congress, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/exhibits/mexican-revolution-and-the-united-states/timeline.html. Minster, Christopher. 8 Important People of the Mexican Revolution. ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 18 June 2017, www.thoughtco.com/important-people-of-the-mexican-revolution-2136695. National Endowment for the Humanities. The Mexican Revolution: November 20th, 1910 EDSITEment. EDSITEment! The Best of the Humanities on the Web, National Endowment for the Humanities, edsitement.neh.gov/feature/mexican-revolution-november-20th-1910.
Quizzes, Lizard Point. Test Your Geography Knowledge: Mexico: Federal States Quiz. Lizard Point Quizzes, Lizard Point, lizardpoint.com/geography/mexico-quiz.php. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. Mexican Revolution. Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2 Jan. 2018, www.britannica.com/event/mexican-revolution. Stearns, Peter N. World Civilizations: the Global Experience. Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Prentice Hall, 2015. Other Helpful Sources to Start Your Research https://www.thoughtco.com/the-mexican-revolution-2136650 https://www.historytoday.com/alan-knight/mexican-revolution http://www.mexonline.com/revolution.htm