Mexican Revolution and its impact on modern Mexico

Here is a quick answer to that. I am sure that Mixcoatl and Jalisco Lancer can fill in a lot more of the information.

Was there an intellectual and ideological movement behind the revolution? The truest answer, for the Revolution as a whole is 'no.'

Now for the complex answer. The Mexican Revolution occurred over a series of stages, each sparked by different events. Different factions had different ideological support for their causes, and some of these mutated as the Revolution evolved.

During the actual conflicts, the main argument used to defend the Revolutionary causes were mainly the defense of the 1857 constitution and the respect of the no-reelection principle. Some leaders championed some popular causes, but they were not important outside of the area of influence of the leader.

After the Revolution, though, an ideology about the Mexican Revolution did emerge. This is/was (I don't know if they have changed the textbooks in Mexico since I left). This one said that the Revolution was a popular uprising fought against the dictator and its foreign supporters who controlled key Mexican industries. That the war was fought for agrarian reform and to improve the lives of regular people. This was going to be the main ideology of Mexico until the late 1980s.

Maybe others can tackle the other questions

Originally posted by calvo Unlike the French, American, and Russian revolutions or the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution wasn't an organized revolt against an existing regime, but a series of violent political and social confrontations that overthrew the order established by the regime of Diaz.

what american revolution?

The anti-clerical positions was part of the package deal that being a supporter of being a liberal / Constitutionalist. As far as I know, this wasn't really a position that figured prominently during the first 10 years of the revolution.

Although there have been liberal elements in the Church in Mexico, enough to call it a tradition, the vast majority of the priests were and are pretty conservative. Once Obregon got into power, one of the goals of his administration, and that of Calles, was to enforce the full of the constitution. The 1917 constitution had a few anticlerical laws in it, including the exclusion of priest from participating or influencing politics, taking the property of the church, and forbidding it from running schools, and liberty of conscience, and forbidding public religious ceremonies. I believe that there was also a law that stated that all priests in Mexico had to be approved by the Mexican government.

Of all of these, the ones that the Church resented the most were the loss of property and the sudden thrust of the government into the affairs of the church.

i see. why's that called a revolution though?