MEXICO AND CANADA
31. Priests Lead the Rabble: Hidalgo and Morelos C
32. Iturbide—Revolution to Keep Things the Same B
33. Santa Anna, Jack-in-the-box President B
34. Good Guys on Both Sides--Maximilian and Juarez B
35. Porfirio Diaz—Modernizer or Monster? B
36. The Real Mexican Revolution--Madero and Carranza B
37. Bandido Patriots: Zapata and Pancho Villa C
38. Cardenas: The Promise Fulfilled A
39. Canada, the Quiet Neighbor
a. The Acadians B
b. Maski-pitoon A
c. Sir John A. Macdonald B
d. The Riel Rebellions B
e. Sir Wilfred Laurier B
f. The Doukhobors A
g. Grey Owl A
h. W. L. Mackenzie King B
i. Pierre Elliot Trudeau D
Key:
A Additional information very hard to find
B A moderate amount of additional information should be available
C Plenty of stuff available--an easy job
D Too much information available--this will require a lot of sorting
31.
PRIESTS LEAD THE RABBLE: HIDALGO AND MORELOS
In Mexico, as in Peru, Indians led the first struggles for
independence
from Spain. In the
early 1700s, a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old girl
known as Maria de la Candelaria (Maria of the candlelight ceremony)
inspired the
Mayas to throw out the Catholic priests and take over their official
duties.
They turned the hated Spanish racial laws upside-down;
captured Spanish
women became the wives or servants of Indian men.
Spain quickly crushed the rebellion.
Maria, her father, and her young husband escaped to the
hills, where they
live on in legend. Fifty
years
later, a small brawl between drunken soldiers and drunken Indians
happened.
The Mayas then crowned an educated baker as King Jacinto
Canek.
Soldiers soon captured, tortured, and executed him.
Then another fifty years passed.
In North America and in South America, rich young white
men led the
independence movements. But
in
Mexico, the wealthy whites muddled in confusion.
Some enjoyed their positions of privilege.
The others could not agree on what they did want.
No one seemed to have any leadership ability.
So the leadership passed on to the Indians, those of mixed
race, black
people, the poor. The
independence
movement became much more than a struggle between Spain and Mexico; it
became a
war between rich and poor.
Father Miguel Hidalgo (me-GEL ee-THAL-go) served as the
elderly priest of
the dusty little Indian village of Dolores.
In 1810, the government decided to arrest him and others
who were
plotting for revolution, The mayor's wife, Josefa Dominguez, sent him a
warning.
He rang the church bells to gather his congregation, and
gave the cry for
revolution. He did
not talk to
these poor farmers about kings and European politics but about poverty
and the
injustices they suffered every day.
A
mob formed and swarmed through the countryside, with Father Hidalgo
waving his
pistols in the lead. More
and more
poor people joined--a hundred thousand of them.
They killed rich landowners, smashed up their property,
and stole their
wealth. Some of the
revolutionary
leaders felt horrified at this violence, but Father Hidalgo believed it
was
necessary. The rich
reacted
violently. Both
sides tried to
outdo each other in the cruel ways they tortured and killed their
prisoners.
The mob captured one city after another.
Father Hidalgo could barely control the group any more.
He did get them to pause before attacking Mexico City.
This was a mistake, for it gave the government time to
organize.
The small government army scattered Hidalgo's poorly-armed
rabble.
The rebel leaders fled into hiding, and began betraying
each other.
Father Hidalgo was captured.
The
Catholic church stripped him of his position as priest, so that the
government
could shoot him. His
head was
displayed in an iron cage with those of three other revolutionary
leaders.
Mexicans today consider him the father of their country.
Father Jose Maria Morelos (mo-RAY-loce) had once studied
under Father
Hidalgo. He was a
mixture of white, red, and black races.
But he suffered poor health, and always wore a bandana
because of
headaches. He took
over the
revolutionary leadership after Father Hidalgo died.
Morelos was a much better organizer.
He developed a small but disciplined army.
And he set a committee at work drafting a constitution
which would give
the land back to the poor, and set up a democratic government.
He controlled much of Mexico and brought order to those
war-torn areas,
General Morelos believed in democracy.
He insisted that he only served the wishes of the
revolutionary congress. So
when the war hit hard times and the congress asked him to
resign, he did. The
squabbling
congressmen could not lead, and their army soon lost.
They shamefacedly asked Father Morelos to lead them to
safety. He did so,
and then led the
Spanish army off in another direction.
They
caught him, the Catholic church removed him from the priesthood, and he
was
shot.
The revolution lived on.
Father
Hidalgo had made it a powerful idea; Father Morelos made it a powerful
possibility.
32.
ITURBIDE--REVOLUTION TO KEEP THINGS THE SAME
Throughout North and South America, the independence
movements were led
by men who wanted changes. But
in
Mexico the opposite happened, For ten years, poor people had fought for
change.
But the army of the rich, led by General Agustin de
Iturbide (ah-loos-TEEN
day ee-toor-BE-thay) had just about put down the revolution.
Red-haired Iturbide mixed with the rich white people, and
tried to hide
the fact that he was part Indian.
But
he lost his army position for running a protection racket on the silver
mines
entrusted to his guard. Young
Iturbide retired to a monastery to plot and wait for his next chance.
The Mexican establishment felt secure; their world was not
going to
change after all. Then
trouble
happened in Spain: liberals forced the king to guarantee the rights of
poor
people, and cut back on the power of the church and the rich.
These changes were supposed to apply to the Spanish
colonies as well.
The church and the rich in Mexico decided to revolt rather
than make the
changes. Priests
persuaded the
Spanish governor to let Iturbide take charge of the army again.
He was sent to put down the last of the poor people's
rebellion.
But when he could not beat the peasants, he invited them
to join him in a
big rebellion.
Iturbide promised something for everyone: for the rich, he
promised a
king of Mexico; for the Catholic church, he promised that there would
be no
freedom for other religions; and for the poor, he promised equality
before the
law. All groups
joined him.
He won the army over by promising promotions for the
officers.
Since everyone joined the revolution, there was no one to
fight.
The Spanish governor left peacefully, and Mexico became
independent.
The new Mexican congress invited the Spanish king to flee
from changing
Spain and come rule old-fashioned Mexico.
But
the king had gotten control in Spain once more, and warned the Mexicans
to get
beck into the Spanish empire. As
usual, the rich white members of congress did not know what to do.
Iturbide solved the problem by staging an army
demonstration which
demanded that Iturbide be made emperor.
He
pretended that he did not want the position unless it came from
congress.
He hurried congress into session, and they fearfully voted
while the army
howled outside. The
results are
interesting: 67 were bullied into voting for him, 15 dared to vote
against him,
and 74 refused to vote. Iturbide
was crowned Emperor Agustin I. He
persuaded all the nations of Central America, Texas. and California to
join
him--so he really did rule an empire.
Iturbide was good at plotting revolution, but poor at
planning a
government. Relations
with congress
broke down, so he sent them home and ran the country by himself.
His biggest problems were financial.
He paid the army all the money he had, and then printed
worthless paper
money to give them. When
even these
payments got too far behind, General Santa Anna revolted.
With problems too big for him, Iturbide resigned after
just eight months
as emperor. Besides,
he pointed
out, the government had gotten way behind on paying his salary.
He sailed to Italy, and wrote a book.
The Mexican government paid him a high pension to stay out
of their
country forever, but the next year he landed in Mexico
with more paper money and promotions for army officers.
He did not know he had been outlawed.
Some local law enforcement agents grabbed him and shot him
as soon as he
landed. It was an
unspectacular end
for the man who gave Mexico its independence.
33.
SANTA ANNA: JACK-IN-THE-BOX PRESIDENT
One man stole the spotlight during the first forty years
of the Mexican
nation--Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.
He
was a soldier with no particular ability, but shifty enough to usually
end up on
the winning side. He
was brazenly
dishonest, power-hungry, a parading fool.
But
the Mexican people loved him for his cat-like ability to always land on
his feet
during a crisis.
Santa Anna fought against the first Mexican
revolutionaries.
He later joined Iturbide who promised him promotions.
But he felt that his promotions did not come fast enough,
so he led the
revolution which drove Iturbide out of power.
Mexico became a republic.
Five
years later, a conservative won the election for president--even though
hardly
anyone had voted for him. Santa
Anna led a revolution which overturned the election and put the
rightful liberal
candidate in office. Then
the
conservatives revolted two years later and seemed to be winning.
Santa Anna joined them against the liberal he had placed
in office.
Two years after that, he led a liberal revolt against the
conservative
president he had helped put into office.
As a popular hero, he then ran for the presidency and won.
In his amazing career, Santa Anna took office as president
nine times.
This is partly because he would resign when an unpopular
decision had to
be made. Then when
his puppet
blundered, he would lead a small revolt, claiming he was still the
rightful
president. Actually,
his terms in
office fall into four groups: 1832-36, 1839-44, 1847, 1853-55.
During his first stretch as president, Texas declared its
independence.
Santa Anna led his army to victory at the Alamo, against
Davy Crockett,
Jim Bowie, and other adventurers.
But
in another battle, Santa Anna, himself, was captured.
He persuaded the Texans to free him by promising to
undermine
the Mexican government in favor of Texan independence.
When they finally freed him, he ignored his promise
because
his term of office had run out.
After losing Texas, Santa Anna lived in disgrace.
But just two years later, France invaded Mexico to collect
a lot of
unpaid government debts. (Mexicans called it the Pastry War because the
most
ridiculous debt on the list was for damages to some French pastries in
a shop
during one of the revolutions.) Without
asking permission from anyone, Santa Anna took over control of the army
and led
an unauthorized charge. A
cannonball shot his leg off. But
he
had become a public hero once more.
He
pretty much controlled the government during the next few years.
Mexico lost the Pastry War, and the Mexican people lost
faith in their
government. So
Santa Anna led a
revolt, and had congress make him dictator for a second stretch.
He buried his leg in a magnificent marble shrine.
He put on parades and extravaganzas to keep the people
happy. To pay for
all of this, he taxed everything he could think
of--including windows. When
he ran
out of money to pay the army, they revolted.
The mob threw his leg in the sewer, and he was banished to
Cuba for ten
years.
But just a year later, the land-hungry United States
declared war on
Mexico. The Mexican
government and army had such poor leaders that
even old General Zachary Taylor could beat them.
The conservatives decided that the only way to restore
order was to
invite a European prince to become king of Mexico.
To stop that plan, the liberals in 1847 offered the
leadership to Santa Anna. He
persuaded the United States to let him pass into Mexico by promising to
undermine the Mexican government.
He
brought Taylor's army to a standstill, and became a popular hero again.
Then came another American army led by General Scott,
which wiped out
Santa Annals army. He
borrowed
money from the American invaders (telling them he needed it to
undermine the
government) and raised a new army.
Scott
beat this army too, and marched into Mexico city.
Santa Anna resigned so he would not have to sign the
embarrassing surrender of half of Mexico’s land.
For the first time, no one wanted to be president.
Someone remembered that according to the long-ignored
constitution, the
supreme court justice was supposed to take over if the president
resigned.
The judge warned that Santa Anna would be brought to trial
for losing the
war, so the slippery ex-president persuaded the United States officials
to let
him escape to Jamaica.
For the next six years, the liberals tried to rule, but
only had
disasters. The
conservatives seized
control and invited Santa Anna back to rule for one year only, while
they hunted
for a European prince to become king.
Santa
Anna made himself dictator for a fourth stretch.
When it came time for him to give way for a king, he
changed his title to
Most Serene Highness, and stayed on.
He
sold more land--the Gadsden Purchase--to the United States so he could
pay the
army. When he ran
out of money the
liberals and army revolted. He
fled
to Venezuela, planning to return soon,
But Mexico went through terrific changes after that. In the new Mexico, people
had no patience for a colorful
clown like Santa Anna. He
tried to
come back many times, but was always stopped at the border. Twenty years later, the
government allowed him to come
home--blind and poor-to die in Mexico City.
34.
GOOD GUYS ON BOTH SIDES--MAXIMILIAN AND JUAREZ
In one of Mexico's many revolutions, the president saved
his skin by
joining the revolutionaries. He
turned over the government to the revolutionary leader.
Then the unexpected happened: the chief justice of the
supreme court, an
Indian named Benito Juarez (bay-NEE-toe WAH-race), claimed that he was
now
president according to the constitution.
People
laughed, because everyone knew that the president was whoever had the
biggest
army behind him. Juarez
had nothing
but the constitution, which no one had paid any attention to in years.
But he was a stickler for the law.
He
was also a grim little man who never gave up.
He gathered an army and fought a three-year civil war to
become
president. Afterward,
he won
election to a second term.
Juarez represented a new generation of tough-minded
lawyers.
Through study and hard work, he had pushed his way up in
the white man's
world. He felt
suspicious of those
above him who blocked his progress, and he had little respect for the
Indians
still back on the farms who had not climbed upward.
But a mixed-race middle class was growing in Mexico, and
Juarez
represented their rising ambitions.
Juarez believed that Mexico's worst enemy was the corrupt
and powerful
church. So he took
the church's
lands and sold them. He
did the same to the Indians' lands.
To organize Mexico’s awful finances, he
announced that he
would postpone paying the huge national debt owed to foreign countries.
France, Spain, and England sent soldiers to Mexico to
collect the money
owed to them. Juarez
hid in the
hills.
But France had secret ambitions to make Mexico part of the
French empire.
Napoleon III thought this was the ideal time to do it,
because the United
States was busy with its own civil war.
The
Mexican conservatives still wanted a king to rule them.
So Napoleon suggested the young blue-eyed blond-boarded
crown prince of
Austria, Maximilian. Mexican
leaders staged a fake election, and presented
Maximilian with six-and-a-half million signatures asking him to come be
their
emperor. Only after
he had ruled in
Mexico for a while, did Maximilian realize there wore not
six-and-a-half million
people in all the land who could write their names.
Maximilian soon disappointed those who had brought him.
He fell in love with Mexico, and wanted what seemed best
for its real
people--the Indians. He
agreed with
Juarez that the church was corrupt, and would not give it back its
power.
He did not trust the French army, and promoted Indians to
the head of the
Mexican army. He
built parks; he
brought beauty and culture to grubby Mexico City.
Maximilian was a Romantic idealist who wanted to be a
gracious ruler, rather than getting down to the gritty business of
fighting a
war against Juarez. He
respected
Juarez' honesty, and hoped the two of them could work together.
When the United States finished its civil war, France
decided it was time
to get out--leaving Maximilian with no help and more debts.
The emperor's wife cracked under the strain, and went
insane while in
Europe trying to raise help for Mexico.
When
Maximilian learned that most Mexicans had never wanted him to come, he
thought
about resigning and going home. But
that seemed cowardly; he decided to stay and die like a king if
necessary.
Meanwhile, Juarez' term as president had expired, but he
refused to give
up the title. It
was an interesting
situation: a liberal led the conservatives, and a conservative led the
liberals.
Maximilian was the wrong man for all the right reasons;
Juarez was the
right man for many of the wrong reasons.
The
Mexican people chose Juarez--for he was one of them,
Juarez captured Maximilian.
People
all over the world asked that he be spared.
Juarez refused. Maximilian
died with dignity and grace before a firing squad, shouting "Long live
Mexico." Juarez won
election
to a third term. He
started
building public schools to replace the church schools, so that others
could rise
through education as he had done.
No
one really won the next election, so Juarez stayed on for a fourth term. He died a year later of a
heart attack.
A little chapel now stands on the hill where Maximilian
died, But sayings
of Juarez cover the walls, and a huge black statue of Juarez stands
above it.
Mexican schoolchildren learn that Maximilian was the bad
guy and Juarez
was the good guy. History
was never
that simple.
35.
PORFIRIO DIAZ--MODERNIZER OR MONSTER?
Porfirio Diaz (por-FEER-yo DEE-as) ruled Mexico for
thirty-four years
from 1876 to 1910. Some
people say he was the greatest leader Mexico ever had.
Others say he was the worst dictator Mexico ever had.
He may have been both.
As a young man, Diaz had studied law under Juarez.
Both times when Juarez fought civil wars to become
president, Diaz fought
for him. But Diaz
did not fight
under Juarez. He
would go off to
another part of Mexico and win more battles than Juarez did.
But after Juarez finally became president, Diaz challenged
his
leadership. He
twice ran against
Juarez for the presidency, and lost.
After
Juarez died and Diaz lost a third election, he led a revolt and became
president
anyway. Four years
later, he let
his puppet become president. But
in
the next election, Diaz won; he did not let go of his power again.
Diaz was always careful to obey the constitution.
He went through the motions of an election every few
years, but he made
sure his people counted the ballots.
He
put his people in every important office.
He
solved the crime problem by having all small criminals shot as soon as
caught;
he gave bigger criminals the choice of becoming policemen.
He got rid of any dangerous generals in the army by making
them
ambassadors. He
would not allow
newspapers to criticize. Diaz
made
sure that no clever young politician rose high enough to challenge him.
The result was many years of peace after the long history
of chaos.
With stable government, the economy began to straighten
out. Diaz
invited foreign
industries in to develop Mexico’s mineral and oil deposits.
Progress boomed--railroads, telegraph, electricity, sewers.
The rest of the world quit laughing at Mexico and treated
it with
respect. Under
Diaz, Mexico grew
into a scientific and modern nation.
Unfortunately, all of this development brought prosperity
to the cities,
while the people in the countryside became poorer than ever.
Diaz took the last of the Indian lands, and treated the
Indians
miserably--even though he was part Indian himself.
He felt that these people blocked industrial progress.
Farms became the huge property of a few people.
A farm might grow so big that it included several cities
and villages
inside it. Most
people owned no land at all. Eighty-five
percent of all farmland belonged to foreign
investors. Another
eleven percent
belonged to a handful of wealthy Mexicans.
The other four percent was all that the common people
owned.
Diaz ruled on. He
had
started as a liberal, but grew more and more conservative.
When he was nearly eighty, he announced that Mexico was
ready for real
democracy, and that he would not run for president again.
The white-haired old man presided in glory over
Mexico’s centennial.
But when election time came, he decided to run after all.
He announced the results--only 196 votes against him in
all of Mexico.
This was such an obvious lie that people grew outraged,
They gathered
around the palace calling for his resignation.
After having many of them shot, he gave in.
He left Mexico, convinced that he had saved his country
from disaster.
36.
THE REAL MEXICAN REVOLUTION--MADERO AND CARRANZA
When a Mexican speaks of the Mexican Revolution, he refers
not to the
revolution of 1810, but to the much larger revolution of 1910.
It had been exactly one hundred years since Father Hidalgo
had started
the first revolution with the cry of equal rights for the poor people.
During the next century colorful and exciting Mexican
leaders rode across
the pages of history, but the poor people became even poorer.
Nothing had really changed.
By
1910, people felt ready for a real revolution.
Yet the revolution surprised everyone--especially the man
who found
himself leading it. He
was a
squeaky-voiced little politician named Francisco I. Madero (ma-THAY-ro).
He simply ran for election against the long-time dictator,
Diaz.
Politicians expected that Diaz would win as usual.
But this time people listened.
Diaz
became worried and locked Madero in jail until the election was over. Diaz probably won the
election, but he lied so badly about
the number of votes, that people all over Mexico decided they had had
enough.
Several revolts broke out.
To
their surprise, the revolutionaries won.
Madero
suddenly became president.
Madero was a rich young do-gooder who did not understand
the needs of the
poor people who had put him into office.
He
had no real plan. But
the little
president had courage. He
spoke out
boldly against foreign businessmen who had been exploiting Mexico.
So the United States ambassador helped General Huerta
(WARE-ta) organize
a quick rebellion. The
drunken
general had Madero whisked away and shot.
Once
he was dead, the Mexican people decided that Madero had been a genuine
hero.
The next president lasted 46 minutes.
Now the second stage of the revolution began--a bloody
civil war against
General Huerta and the army. One
of
the governors, Venustiano Carranza (kah-RAHN-sah), led the demand for
constitutional government. He
was a
white-bearded man who wore blue-tinted spectacles.
Actually, there were three revolutionary armies: Pancho
Villa's in the
north, Zapata’s in the South, and Carranza's in central
Mexico.
After a long and violent fight, they won.
Then the three leaders began fighting against each other. Carranza won that struggle.
Now began the third and most important stage of the
Mexican revolution.
Carranza called a constitutional convention.
The delegates drafted
reforms far beyond what Carranza had
expected. They not
only reformed
politics, they also made arrangements to give the land back to the
common
people. And they
drafted labor laws
which moved far ahead of any others in the world in 1917.
The political revolution had become a revolution of the
whole society.
The drafters of the constitution realized that many of
these changes
would have to come gradually, but they put them in writing as a promise
to the
future.
Both Germany and the United States tried to drag Mexico
into World War I,
but Carranza steered clear. Politics
inside the country remained confused.
After
five years, some army officers revolted.
Carranza
grabbed all of the money he could carry, and tried to flee. Soldiers ambushed him.
Both Madero and Carranza had fought for democracy, The
tremendous social
reform went beyond anything they had imagined.
They each led the way as far as they could.
Then the revolution passed them by.
Mexicans today honor these two heroes for the necessary
parts they played
in the greater struggle.
37.
BANDIDO PATRIOTS: ZAPATA AND PANCHO VILLA
At first, the Mexican Revolution of 1910 looked like all
the other
Mexican revolutions: a power struggle between politicians.
But it quickly grew into a struggle of the poor people for
their rights.
Two bands of outlaws caused that change.
Their leaders were Emiliano Zapata (sa-PA-ta) and a man
who
called himself Pancho Villa (VEE-ya).
The Indian farmers of the southern mountains started the
whole movement,
with Zapata as their leader. When
they could stand their ill-treatment no longer, they began capturing
plantations
and dividing the land among the poor.
Zapata
trusted no politician--for politicians had been giving empty promises
for a
hundred years. He
fought against
the dictator Diaz, and against every one of the men who tried to
replace him.
The army could not find his band, for they quietly farmed
by day, and
slipped away on raids at night. Of all the leaders in the Mexican
Revolution,
people feared Zapata the most. He
stood for real change, and was a different type of leader than they
were used
to--quiet, shy, incorruptible. Of
all the leaders in the revolution, he was really the only one who did
not sell
out on part of his ideals.
Up near the Texas border, Pancho Villa led a gang of
rustlers long before
he decided politics was a better racket.
After
the revolution had gone on quite a while, he announced that he favored
President
Carranza. Anyway,
it made a good
excuse to steal and rape and burn and kill.
Villa's flambouyant methods attracted worldwide attention. He took over the
railroads, and used them to whisk his
raiders all over northern Mexico.
He
held press conferences for newspapermen from the United States. He represented both the
last of the cowboys and the first of
modern warriors.
Three armies closed in on the
government--Zapata’s, Villa’s, and
Carranza’s. Zapata
and Villa both
reached Mexico City at about the same time.
The city folks feared what these lower-class outlaws from
the country
might do. Zapata’s
Indians,
dressed in their white farm clothes and huge sombreros, went from door
to door
quietly asking for food. Villa's
cowboys stole what they needed, shot up the liquor stores, and amused
themselves
in drunken parties.
But Zapata and Villa remained only local heroes--not
nationwide leaders.
Only President Carranza could pull the whole country
behind him, so they
had to step aside. When
Carranza
called a constitutional convention, the delegates from
Zapata’s group had the
largest impact on what that document should include.
For they were the only group with a real plan other than
grabbing power.
They wrote sweeping land reforms, and changed the
structure of the whole
society. No longer
could Mexico be
the land of the few rich white people and the many poor Indians. From now on, it would be
the land of la Raza, the
strong mixture of free and proud people.
Two years later, an army leader decided to make a name for
himself by
leading Zapata Into an ambush of six hundred rifles, which killed him
instantly.
Meanwhile, Villa raided an American town because he felt
angry that the
United States had recognized Carranza as president rather than himself.
The American army wanted to invade Mexico, but Carranza
limited their
activities. The
Mexican government
bought Villa off with a large ranch and a house full of servants.
He died three years later, when someone riddled his car
with bullets.
38.
CARDENAS: THE PROMISE FULFILLED
The Mexican constitution of 1917 promised land and better
living
conditions for the peasants. Through
the 1920s, military dictators granted those rights ever so slowly.
But one thing the revolution had accomplished: no dictator
dared to
remain in office beyond the six years of his term as president.
So when the dictator in 1934 had to retire, he saw to it
that the next
president was a man he thought he could manage--Lazaro Cardenas
(KAR-thay-nas).
Cardenas campaigned among the Indians, the farmers, the
workers.
And with their support, he made the former dictator and
his cronies leave
the country. Then
he started
putting the long-delayed promises into effect.
Cardenas dreamed of making Mexico a nation of small
independent farmers.
He distributed millions of acres to the poor.
But the change came much too late.
The
population had swelled so much that there was no longer enough land to
go
around. And other
nations were
discovering that the days of the small farmer had ended.
Modern farming required giant machines, scientific
control, and vast
fields. Cardenas
tried to adapt to
the modern market by setting the peasants up on large collective farms.
The experiment failed.
Production
fell. And this
happened in the
middle of the World Depression when food and money were scarce.
Mexico would have sunk into trouble, except that Cardenas
was also busy
turning it into an industrial nation.
When
unions struck for higher wages, he gave them legal support.
He made the railroads a government enterprise.
When the unions complained that they could run the
railroads better, he
let them try. They
soon gave up,
and the nation took control once more.
The most dramatic decision came on oil.
Companies from the United States and England had long been
exploiting
their Mexican workers. Cardenas
backed the workers’ demand for fair wages.
So did the supreme court.
The
foreign industrialists refused to obey the Mexican law, and insulted
Cardenas by
doubting his word. The
people of
Mexico united in anger as they never had united before.
With great popular support, Cardenas nationalized the oil
companies--that
is, he bought them out and made them Mexican.
Over the next several years, small countries all over the
world followed
this example--but Mexico led the way.
To
pay off the original owners, the Mexican people took up a collection.
The rich gave money and jewels; the poor contributed in
chickens and
pigs; even the church gave up some of its gold ornaments.
Most of the money, though, came from profits--after losing
money during
the first awkward years of learning.
The
foreign oil executives accused Cardenas of being a Communist, but he
was not.
Mexico today is a united and prospering nation--moreso
than any other in
Latin America. Leaders
since
Cardenas have followed his example.
The
political revolutions have ended.
Mexico
has begun to enjoy the harvest of the social revolution whose seeds
were planted
by so many Mexican heroes so long ago.
39.
CANADA, THE QUIET NEIGHBOR
Compared to Mexico, the history of Canada has been
orderly--sometimes
almost dull. But
colorful incidents and colorful personalities have popped
up. Here are some
examples:
THE
ACADIANS
Canada belonged to France.
By
1755, France and England were preparing for war to decide which
European nation
would control all North America. England
had already captured Acadia (today known as Newfoundland, the peninsula
which
outs south into the Atlantic next to Maine).
The English commander feared that in the coming war, the
Acadian people
would remain loyal to France. So
he
destroyed the colony, rounded up all of the settlers he could find, and
shipped
them off to be scattered through the English colonies to the south.
Families, friends, and lovers became separated.
Some eventually found their way back to Canada.
Others drifted south to the French colony at New Orleans,
where they are
still known by the shortened name of Cajuns.
The American poet, Longfellow, wrote Evangeline,
a long poem about
separated Acadian lovers. For
generations, most American schoolchildren studied it.
MASKI-PITOON
In the 1860s, just before Canada became a nation, an
Indian chief far to
the west set an example of peaceful accomplishment.
The Crees had chosen Maski-pitoon for their chief, because
of his bravery
in battle. But
listening to the
advice of his old father, the young chief decided to end the centuries
of war
with their neighbors. Unarmed
and
alone, he walked out to face a war party.
And
many times he walked into enemy camps to discuss ways of finding peace. He even forgave the man
who murdered his father.
When missionaries arrived, he used the teachings of the
Bible to further
support his appeal for peace. Maski-pitoon's
bravery became so respected that a young man decided to make a name for
himself
by assassinating the famous chief at a peace conference.
SIR
JOHN A. MACDONALD
There were two Canadas.
Upper
Canada (upriver to the south) became English-speaking and Protestant.
Lower Canada (downriver to the north) remained
French-speaking and
Catholic. Other
colonies grew to
the east and west. An
Irish
newspaperman named Thomas D'Arcy McGee moved to Canada and persuaded
most of
these colonies to join into one strong nation in 1867.
Irishmen from the United States assassinated McGee,
because they had
hoped the United States would rule all North America.
Sir John A. Macdonald was a hard-drinking politician from
Scotland.
He formed the first Canadian government, and welded the
nation together,
He stretched the Canadian nation all the way across to the Pacific
Ocean, and
had a railroad built to tie all of the regions together.
He governed Canada almost all of the time from its
beginning in 1867 to
his death in the 1890s.
THE
RIEL REBELLIONS
People of mixed French and Indian ancestry settled the
Canadian midwest.
They elected Louis Riel (LOO-ee ree-EL) as their leader.
When Canada decided to expand westward, the local people
were not asked
whether they wanted to join the new nation, So when the new governor
arrived in
1869, Riel and the local people chased him into the United States.
Canada sent an army, and the people gave up without firing
a shot.
Riel fled to the United States, where he spent much of his
time in an
insane asylum.
Then the railroad came, and began seizing the Indian and
French-Indian
lands. Once again
the people rose
in rebellion, and sent for Riel to lead them.
In 1885, serious war broke out.
In
the end, the Indians and French-Indians lost, and Riel was hanged.
SIR
WILFRED LAURIER
For over two centuries, Canada has had a French minority
problem.
But one French Catholic rose above all prejudices of race
and religion to
become prime minister. Sir
Wilfred
Laurier (LOR-ee-ay) guided Canada for fifteen years from 1896 to 1911.
His quiet and polite manners won the hearts of all people,
and set the
tone of orderly Canadian government which has followed ever since.
His administration brought Canada its great boom of
industrial growth.
THE
DOUKHOBORS
The Doukhobors had been peace-loving farmers in Russia.
When the Czar's government tried to draft them into the
army, they burned
their weapons and moved to western Canada in 1899.
Three groups soon developed: those who prospered on huge
communal farms,
those who prospered on their own private farms, and the Sons of Freedom
who
feared that prosperity was leading people away from a simple spiritual
life.
Within four years, the Sons of Freedom began burning their
houses,
burning their clothes, and marching nude--men, women and children--to
demonstrate their spiritual ideals.
These demonstrations continued over the next sixty years.
Canadian authorities insisted that the Doukhobors could
not educate their
own children. Fires
and bombings of government schools turned violent, as a
few Doukhobors forgot their peaceful tradition.
But all united to demonstrate against having any part in
World War II.
Today, the Doukhobors are merging into Canadian society.
GREY
OWL
Canada has produced several outstanding conservationists.
Perhaps the most famous was Grey Owl who, in the 1930s.
toured England in
his Indian clothes, and even lectured the king.
Grey Owl and his fourth wife lived with beavers.
The beavers trusted him so much they even built a lodge
inside his cabin.
Grey Owl wrote popular books about the personalities and
antics of each
of his beaver friends. He
invited
cameramen to come make films of his trusting beavers at work.
The day after Grey Owl died, the truth suddenly became
known: he was not
an Indian at all. He
had been an
English schoolboy who always dreamed of going off to America to live
with the
Indians. But Grey
Owl was one of
those rare individuals who carried out his dreams.
He lived with the Indians and learned their love for
nature; they adopted
him into their tribe and gave him his name.
Was he a fraud? Or
was he one of the most genuine human beings of the twentieth century?
W.L.
MACKENZIE KING
William Lyon Mackenzie King governed Canada through most
of the 1920s,
30s and 40s. (He
should not be
confused with his grandfather, William Lyon Mackenzie, a rebel leader a
hundred
years before.) King
concentrated on
business and economics. He
steered Canada through the Great Depression and World War
II. And he
negotiated Canada into
gradual independence from England.
The
last nearby British colonies then joined the nation.
His opponents knew him as a scrappy little man.
PIERRE
ELLIOTT TRUDEAU
In 1980, the citizens of Quebec voted not to separate from
Canada and
form their own French-speaking nation.
Canada
had come that close to splitting in two.
The
man who saved the union was Pierre Elliott Trudeau (true-DOE), who
governed
Canada most of the time from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s.
As soon as he came into office, he had made Canada
bilingual.
That
forced most government officials to learn to speak both English and