Emiliano Zapata

Emiliano Zapata was born on August 8, 1879. He was one of the leaders in the Mexican Revolution. The Mexican Revolution was the fight against the dictator Porfirio Diaz.. In 1910 Porfirio Diaz was up against another candidate for presidency over Mexico, Fransisco I. Madero, who Zapata was forming alliances with. Eventually small guerilla armys were formed, and Zapata became the general of an army that was formed in the city of Morelos, the Zapatistas.

Diaz was eventually overthrown by Madero, mostly because of the widespread rebellions of Mexico's people. Under Madero, new land reforms were carried out. However, Zapata did not like Madero's view on land reform, and was unable to make Madero understand the importance of the issue. Zapata coulndn't get him to support Zapata's reform plan, the Plan de Ayala Finally, after Madero's lack of motion towards settling the land issue to Zapata's satisfaction, Zapata began a Liberation Army once again.

Madero was alarmed by Zapatas actions and demanded that he disarm and demoblize. Zapata refused and responded saying that if the people could not win their rights now, while they were armed, then they wouldn't have a chance once they were unarmed and helpless. Madero tried sending generals to stop Zapata, but these efforts had no success.

Madero was eventually overthrown by Victoriano Huerta who gave pardon to Diaz's political offenses. Heurta also almost completly stopped resitance to land reforms. The reaction by the peasants increased the size of Zapata's peasant reaction to this increased the size of Zapata's forces. It also began a new group in the north called the Villistas, who was led by Pancho Villa. The Villistas were mainly made up of Madero supporters. Zapata didn't want to meet with Villa at first after hearing that Villa rejected the Plan de Ayala when one of Zapata's followers told him about the idea in prison.

Opposition to Huerta formed under Venustiano Carranza. He led a Constitutionalist faction which both Villa and Zapata eventually allied with. These forces were too much for Huerta to match, so he was quickly defeated. After his defeat, the Constitutionalists set up a convention to decide a form of the government for Mexico. Zapata refused to attend the convention, saying that none of the people who attended had been elected. Instead the chiefs in Morelos sent a group to present the Plan de Ayala