By Daniel Nardini

The Mexican forces defeated the French invasion at the First Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862 (hence the official Mexican celebration of Cinco de Mayo, or the Fifth of May). While Mexico was in the end successful in fighting off foreign invasion, it was far from being a stable country. The man who led the resistance against the French invasion, Mexican President Benito Juarez, did not live long to govern an independent Mexico. Five years after liberating Mexico, Juarez had died in 1872. Porfirio Diaz, a protege and also rival of Juarez, took control of Mexico in a coup where he would rule Mexico until 1911. He greatly improved the country’s infrastructure, and had helped build up Mexico’s cities that had been ravaged by almost 40 years of war and political instability.

But during this time there were no free and fair elections, and Diaz simply put in his cronies in all parts of government. The Mexican peasant was little better off in 1910 than when Mexico successfully fought off the French in 1867. The average Mexican had no legal rights, and for the most part did not hold title to the land they had lived on for centuries. Certainly the average Mexican had no voice in their own government, and Diaz made sure that he remained in power for over a generation. Although he was now nearing his eighties, he had no intention of giving up power. Diaz held complete and total power. During the presidential election of 1910, Diaz had rigged the election to make sure that he remained in power.

The Mexican people, however, no longer could tolerate Diaz’s dictatorship, and despite his attempt in staying in power a reformer named Francisco Madero led a widespread revolt that forced Diaz to resign in 1911. Diaz fled the country, and all of the pent up forces that had been simmering for decades now exploded in what would become the Mexican Revolution (1910 to 1920). This revolution would lead into a downward spiral of civil war, warlord armies vying for power, and numerous peasant revolts. Yet out of all this chaos came a very important document that would forever change the history of Mexico. In 1917, the Constituent Congress worked on a document in Santiago de Queretaro in Queretaro state to give the Mexican people a form of stable government.

This new document proposed that a candidate for the presidency could only hold a single six year term as president. Afterwards, that person could never hold another term as president. The constitution proposed a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies, and that any and all political parties could nominate a candidate to be in either house or for election to the presidency. But this constitution went further. It called for what defined a Mexican citizen, land reform where the average Mexican had rights to their land, and basic legal rights that were inviolable. The whole point of this constitution was to set up a government where the government protected the rights of Mexican citizens, and limited the power of the government in what it could do. This constitution was meant to prevent another dictatorship from arising, and give the people a voice in their own government. The 1917 Constitution was important in that it helped Mexico eventually become a more stable country and by 1920 bring an end to the chaos of the revolution.

Since then, Mexico has become one of the most stable countries in the Americas. Since the 1917 Constitution was put into place, Mexico has never experienced military coups, civil war, or a complete political breakdown as happened in the Mexican Revolution. About the only other successfully stable country in Latin America is Costa Rica, which abolished its military in 1948. Because of the 1917 Constitution, Mexico has played a significant role in the stability of the Americas.