Carranza had been endorsed as President of Mexico in the election of March 11th, 1917 and he now proceeded to bring about the elimination of Villa and Zapata. Pablo Gonzalez laid waste the State of Morelos, the stronghold of Zapata, provoking a bitter and bloody two-year intensification of the civil war which ended with the treacherous murder of Zapata, in April 1919. Villa had meanwhile built up his forces and resumed operations in the north, raiding Ojinaga and Chihuahua during 1917 and 1918. By the spring of 1919 Villa's forces had again grown to about 1,200 men and on April 25th he sacked the town of Parral. An attack on the frontier town of Ciudad Juarez, on June 15th, provoked further intervention by the United States, elements of two U.S. Cavalry Regiments crossing the border into Mexico and finally destroying the Villistas as an organized force. THE END OF THE BEGINNING Carranza, whose administration had set new records in corruption, was deposed on may 1920 and Adolfo de la Huerta installed as interim President on June 1st. De la Huerta's brief presidency witnessed the final pacification of the Zapatistas and of Villa who agreed to disband his remaining forces and retire on July 28th. This he duly did although he was to be murdered by an old enemy of his bandit days three years later. On October 26th, 1920, Alvaro Obregon was elected President and the military phase of the Mexican Revolution effectively came to an end. Obregon was succeeded in 1924, by the rabidly anti-clerical former schoolmaster Plutarco Elias Calles who engaged in a ruthless persecution of the Catholic Church, provoking a three year revolt by the fanatically Catholic "Cristeros" which manifested itself in attacks on public buildings and isolated army garrisons. Obregon once more succeeded to the Presidency in 1928 but was assassinated by a religious fanatic before his inauguration. The Mexican Government and the Church finally reached an accord in 1929 and although the original revolutionary fervour had by now lapsed and been largely replaced by the traditional institutionalized corruption, the succession of Presidents during the late 1920's and 30's consolidated the basis of the Revolution, supporting the Spanish Republicans in the civil war of 1936 to 1939 and President Lazaro Cardenas expropriating foreign oil holdings in 1938, thus becoming the first Latin American country to challenge the rights of multinational corportations to exploit its natural resources. Sources Aitken, Ronald. "Revolution Mexico 1910-2/2", Macmillan, London, 1969. Hughes, James B., Jnr., "Mexican Military Arms, The Cartridge Period 1866-1967", Deep River Armory Inc., Houston, Texas 1968. Janvier, Thomas A., "The Mexican Army", Harper's New Monthly, Magazine, New York, November, 1889. Mexico, Embajada de en Francia, Archivo. "Ejercito Regular de Mexico en 1910", Paris, 1911. Mexico, Secretaria de Marina, "Gestas Historicas de la Armada de Mexico", Mexico, D.F., 1985. Womack, John Jnr., "Zapata and the Mexican Revolution", Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1972. More Mexican Revolution Introduction Fall of Diaz, Madero as President Murder of Madero, Huerta Hijacks the Presidency US Intervention and Carranza Becomes President Decline of Villa, Rise of Obregon, and Pershing Expedition Carranza Triumphant: Murder of Zapata and Eclipse of Villa Appendix 1: Mexican Army of Revolutionary Period Appendix 2: Mexican Navy of Revolutionary Period Appendix 3: Mexican Air Force of Revolutionary Period Back to Table of Contents -- El Dorado Vol V No. 3 Back to El Dorado List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1993 by The South and Central American Military Historians Society This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history and related articles are available at http://www.magweb.com