Constitutionalists in the Mexican Revolution

Following the defeat of General Huerta, the Constitutionalists outmaneuvered their former revolutionary allies Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa becoming the victorious faction of the Mexican Revolution.

This faction was known as the Constitutionalists, and consisted of predominantly of liberal intellectuals and middle-class citizens – in other words, Mexicans who were not of purely indigenous backgrounds but also not of the elite class, and who therefore did not benefit all that much from the foreign investment boom of the Díaz reign.

They did call for ejidos (or common lands) to be returned to villages and for large estates to be divided up, although not to the extent that Zapata wanted, as this was his primary goal in the Revolution.

Because of harassment by Díaz, he joined the Flores Magón brothers and other Mexican liberals in El Paso, Texas, where he continued to fuel the fires of revolution from afar.

Because of the writings of Madero, the Flores Magón brothers and other Constitutionalists (although they were still just labeled liberals), people from every social class and from every ethnic background rose up to answer the revolution's call.

During this time not only did leaders such as Zapata and Villa arise, but many Constitutionalists, most of them lawyers, journalists or leading intellectuals, also gained in power and popularity.

Zapata held most of the southern regions where the people of indigenous descent were located, and Pancho Villa led the northern areas dominated mostly by ranchers and miners.

Madero's presidency proved to be short-lived, as he alienated almost all of his supporters by refusing to enact land reforms and developing weak and unsatisfactory programs for social change.

His authoritarian and brutal methods of ruling, however, soon united the Constitutionalists, who were now being led by Venustiano Carranza, with Zapata and Villa in overthrowing Huerta.

The Convention was quickly reduced to arguments, as Carranza could not agree with Zapata and Villa, who thought he was too power-hungry and not a true leader of the revolution.