Revolution Day, Mexico

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The Anniversary of the Revolution (Revolution Day or Día de la Revolución) is celebrated in Mexico every year on the third Monday in November. This holiday used to be observed every year on 20th November, until changes were implemented in 2006.

The celebration marks the anniversary of the 1910 social revolution launched by Francisco I Madero against the 34-year-old dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz that eventually led to the creation of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the creation of a constitutional democracy.

Día de la Revolución commemorates the uprising which started on or about 20th November 1910, depending on which part of Mexico you lived at the time. The conflict lasted until 1921, and it is estimated that some 900,000 of the population of around 15 million were killed in the war.

The initial period of fighting culminated in the overthrow of dictator Porfirio Díaz Mori and Madero's rise to the presidency. Madero was himself deposed in 1913 and the country was engulfed in civil war, as several political and armed groups fought each other for control of the country.

A significant step towards the end of armed conflict involved the adoption of the present constitution of Mexico in 1917, the official end of the Revolution, but conflict and political unrest, such as the Cristero War, persisted up to the late 1920s.

In 1936 the former President, Plutarco Elias Calles, whose continued political power and influence had created problems for three succeeding presidents, was arrested and deported by Lazaro Cardenas. This act marked the beginning of post-revolutionary Mexico, characterised by the rule of the Partido Nacional Revolucionario founded by Elías Calles in 1929, later known as the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI).

The Mexican Revolution should not be confused with the Mexican Civil War (known as "la guerra civil" or War of Reform) of Benito Juarez in the 1850s, or the Mexican War of Independence of 1810-1821. While the Revolution was technically a civil war, in local Spanish language documents the conflict is almost invariably referred to as "la revolución mexicana", in order to distinguish it from the earlier War of Reform.