Cuernavaca. 1911.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University Revolutionaries fight from the blasted remains of City Hall.Juarez. Circa 1910-1917.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University A soldier lies wounded.Juarez. Circa 1910-1915.
Library of Congress Two lynched bodies hang from a tree.Circa 1910-1917.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University A man accused of stealing weapons from military is gunned down in a public execution.Juarez. 1916.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University A man kneels down next to his friend to discover that he has died.Circa 1910-1917.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University Pancho Villa poses with his men.Circa 1910-1917.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University The dead lie on the streets of Mexico City.1913.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University Pancho Villa leads his men on horseback into the Battle of Ojinga.Chihuahua. 1914.
Library of Congress The Federals prepare for battle.Torreon. 1914.
Library of Congress American mining magnate William Green tries to talk to the striking miners. The scene would soon erupt into a riot that would help spark the revolution.Cananea. 1906.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University Nuevo Laredo enveloped in flames.1914.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University Federals return fire in a gunfight with revolutionaries.Veracruz. 1914.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University Refugees flee the city as it turns into a war zone.Mexico City. 1913.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University The dead litter the streets of Mexico City.Circa 1910-1915.
Library of Congress Refugees flee war-torn Mexico, headed for the Texas border.Marfa, Texas. 1914.
Library of Congress Mexican Federal soldiers march off to battle.1914.
Library of Congress A woman and her child make their way across the bridge to El Paso, Texas, fleeing the chaos of the Mexican Revolution.Juarez. 1914.
Library of Congress A family of refugees arrives in America.Texas. Circa 1910-1917.
Library of Congress American soldiers prepare to enter the war.Camp Cotton, Texas. Circa 1910-1915.
Library of Congress American soldier in Texas pack boxes.Texas City. Circa 1910-1914.
Library of Congress American soldiers send shells to Guatanamo, preparing to respond to the Mexican Revolution.Philadelphia. 1913.
Library of Congress A group of revolutionary fighters on patrol.Circa 1910-1917.
Library of Congress A man stops to give his horse a drink of water from his hat.Circa 1910-1917.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University Pascual Orozco and his revolutionaries enter Chihuahua.1912.
Library of Congress Fighters standing on top of the arsenal.Mexico City. 1913.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University Revolutionaries open fire on the streets of Mexico City.Mexico City. 1913.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University President Madero on horseback.1911.
Library of Congress Members of the Federal Army pose for a photograph.Guaymas. 1914.
Library of Congress The ruined streets of a city after a battle.Nuevo Laredo. 1914.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University A 16-year-old child soldier.Circa 1910-1915.
Library of Congress Emiliano Zapata (seated, center) poses with his men.Circa 1910-1915.
Library of Congress A train taken off the rails by Zapata and his men.Circa 1910-1915.
Library of Congress People carry on with their lives, walking through streets torn to shreds by shrapnel.Juarez. Circa 1910-1915.
Library of Congress Alfredo Campos leads a guerrilla army.Culiacan. 1912.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University Mexican government troops on horseback.Circa 1915-1920.
Library of Congress Mexican revolutionaries in front of a wall riddled with bullets.Circa 1910-1917.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University The bodies of dead revolutionaries, executed, lie in the dirt.Agua Prieta. 1916.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University A mass of bodies being incinerated.Mexico City. 1913.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University The incinerated remains of a revolutionary who died fighting.Agua Prieta. 1916.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University Revolutionary fighters sneak along an irrigation ditch during the Battle of Juarez.Juarez. Circa 1910-1915.
Library of Congress The Federals make a stand.1914.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University Wounded soldiers are loaded onto a train.Circa 1910-1917.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University Dead bodies litter the streets outside the palace, shortly after President Madrero was overthrown.1913.
Library of Congress Dead bodies outside the National Palace.Mexico City. 1913.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University Revolutionaries march into Juarez.Juarez. 1911.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University Supporters of Madero around a makeshift monument to the place where his government fell.Mexico City. 1913.
DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University
42 Unforgettable Images Of The Mexican Revolution View GalleryIn 1910, the people of Mexico stood up for liberty, equality, and freedom — and they paid for it with their lives. This was the Mexican Revolution, a brutal war that raged over the better of a decade and snuffed out the lives of more than a million people. It was a fight for principles, a war of brother against brother that tore a country apart and changed it forever.
The first sparks of war started to burn when Mexican miners in Cananea went on strike in 1906. They were getting paid one peso for every ten earned by their American colleagues for the same job, and they wouldn’t stand for it anymore. They staged a strike for equal pay that boiled over into a full-on riot that ended the lives of 23 people.
President Porfirio Díaz, who'd essentially ruled as a dictator without a successor for 30 years, called in American Rangers for support against the strikers, but calling on the United States for help only made his people angrier. A bitter battle for power began between Díaz's Federal loyalists and opponents, climaxing with the revolutionary leader Francisco I. Madero's election as the President of Mexico in 1911. The war, though, was far from over.
The brothers-in-arms who had helped Madero seize power soon turned against him, seeing him as weak. The Mexican Revolution quickly turned into a brutal, full-on civil war that left no part of the country untouched, drawing in poor farmers in a fight against wealthy landowners.
The United States and Germany intervened, throwing their heft behind leaders that they thought would support their interests in Mexico, and the war only grew worse. Life in Mexico became so brutal that 200,000 refugees fled the country, most making their way over the border and into Texas. It was the start of a flow of immigrants escaping into the United States that would never fully subside.
When the dust settled and the country adopted a new constitution that gave significant new rights to the people and established a federal system that would prevent another reign like that of Díaz, more than a million were dead.
The fighters of the Mexican Revolution gave their lives, and the face of Mexico was forever changed. They gave up everything for their fight, living by the words of the revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata: “I would rather die standing than live on my knees.”
Next, see photos of life on the U.S.-Mexico border as well as the most outlandish cartel instagram photos.
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