Revolution

The Mexican Revolution broke out in 1910, as several different rebel groups under the leadership of Francisco Madero rose up against the established order of the Porfiriato.^[8] When the Porifirian sugar estates collapsed, leaving no alternative means of subsistence for their workers, Madero's promises of agrarian reform won over the peasant leader Emiliano Zapata,^[9] who organised the sugar workers of Morelos to attack the haciendas and seize the land for their communities.^[10] This series of expropriations of privately-owned land by armed peasants led to the establishment of the Liberation Army of the South (ELS), which spearheaded the revolutionary uprising in Morelos.^[11] On 20 May 1911, the ELS captured Cuautla, and on 21 May, they captured the state capital of Cuernavaca.^[12]

By the time that Porfirio Díaz was ousted and Madero became President of Mexico, the revolutionary forces had completely taken over the state of Morelos.^[13] President Madero soon went back on his promises of agrarian reform and ordered the Zapatistas to disarm. On 25 November 1911, Zapata responded by issuing the Plan of Ayala, in which he called for the autonomy of Morelos and the immediate redistribution of land from the haciendas to the peasantry.^[14]

Madero attempted to use the Mexican Army to suppress the Zapatistas, but was soon ousted in a coup by the army's commander-in-chief Victoriano Huerta.^[15] Zapata rebelled against Huerta, whom he considered to be a reactionary, and formed an alliance with the Northern rebel Pancho Villa. Huerta subsequently ordered the intensification of the war against the peasantry of Morelos, killing thousands and causing many more to flee, but he was ultimately unable to eliminate the Zapatistas.^[16] Huerta was eventually ousted by a broad revolutionary coalition, consisting of radicals (led by Villa and Zapata) and constitutionalists (led by Venustiano Carranza). But when Zapata demanded that the constitutionalists incorporate his Plan of Ayala into their programme, Carranza refused, rejecting its egalitarian policies of land redistribution.^[17] In September 1914, Zapata and Villa united at the Convention of Aguascalientes, going on to drive the constitutionalists out of the capital.^[18]

La Comuna

By December 1914, a power vacuum had opened up in Mexico, which was left without any centralized government. At that time, Mexico City was occupied by Villa and the Zapata, the latter of whom desired to "burn the [presidential] chair to end ambitions".^[19]

On 9 December 1914, Zapata's Liberation Army of the South left the capital for their home state of Morelos, where they established a self-governing and egalitarian society,^[20] historiographically known as the "Morelos Commune".^[21]

Radical agrarian reforms were carried out by Manuel Palafox, who was appointed by Zapata as the state's Secretary of Agriculture.^[20] Municipal councils of local elders were convened in order to determine how to break up the haciendas and redistribute their land holdings, with decisions being passed from the bottom-up to the Zapatista command for enforcement. Workers' cooperatives were also established to manage agricultural output, while credit unions were set up in order to support the reorganisation of land ownership.^[18]

In October 1915, the Zapatistas passed a series of laws that brought industry under state ownership and redistributed land to the peasantry. These reforms were implemented in Morelos, but did not extend elsewhere in Mexico, due to the provincialism of the Zapatistas.^[22] The agrarian reforms and the nationalisation of the sugar industry in Morelos encouraged the state's agricultural and industrial workers to unite around the Zapatistas' Ayala Plan, which gave the movement a tendency towards anti-capitalism.^[23]

Dissolution

As Morelos itself was completely untouched by American corporate interests, Zapata distinguished himself as one of the only Latin American social revolutionaries that did not attack the United States.^[24] But the Zapatistas' threats against private property nevertheless alarmed the government of the United States, as over one-quarter of Mexican land was held by American corporations. They decided to intervene in the conflict on the side of the Constitutionalists, overseeing the ultimate defeat of the Conventionists.^[25]

Outside of Morelos, the Mexican bourgeoisie consolidated control over the government,^[22] culminating with the promulgation of the Constitution of Mexico in February 1917.^[19] As the constitution included no promise of agrarian reform, Zapata continued his rebellion against the constitutional government of Venustiano Carranza.^[26] In April 1919, Zapata was assassinated by government forces in Chinameca, and the Revolution in Morelos was brought to an end.^[27]

The Zapatistas thereafter shifted their alleigance to Álvaro Obregón, who gained their support by promising to implement their proposed agrarian reforms. Zapata's Liberation Army of the South was incorporated into the Constitutional Army and the war in Morelos was brought to an end, with the Zapatista land reform being reintroduced in the southern state.^[26]