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| 1917 Constitution | |
|---|---|
| Name | 1917 Constitution |
| Country | Mexico |
| Date created | 1917 |
| Location | Querétaro |
| Writer | Venustiano Carranza, Luis Cabrera Lobato, Eufemio Zapata?, Álvaro Obregón?, Francisco Villa? |
| Date ratified | 5 February 1917 |
| System | Federal presidential republic |
1917 Constitution
The 1917 Constitution emerged from the Mexican Revolution and was promulgated at the Constituent Congress of Mexico in Querétaro. It responded to contests involving Porfirio Díaz, Francisco I. Madero, Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa, and revolutionary generals such as Álvaro Obregón and Venustiano Carranza. The document influenced later charters including the Weimar Constitution, the Soviet Constitution of 1918, and debates at the Versailles Conference.
Drafting followed armed conflict among factions tied to leaders like Venustiano Carranza, Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa, and Pascual Orozco and negotiations shaped by advisers such as Luis Cabrera Lobato, Basilio Vadillo, and Jesús Silva Herzog. The Constituent Congress convened in Querétaro with delegates from states including Jalisco, Chiapas, Veracruz, and Nuevo León and with political currents linked to Liberalism in Mexico, Conservatism in Mexico, and agrarian movements connected to La Reforma and the legacy of Benito Juárez. International context included the First World War, the Zimmermann Telegram, and U.S. interactions involving Woodrow Wilson and the Carranza administration.
Key debates mirrored disputes from the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution over land redistribution endorsed by proponents citing Emiliano Zapata's Plan of Ayala and labor protections advocated by urban organizers influenced by strikes in Cananea and Río Blanco. The drafting process also encountered jurists like Justo Sierra and clerical opposition associated with the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico and figures such as José Vasconcelos.
The constitution established articles addressing rights and state powers, creating institutional frameworks analogous to reforms elsewhere such as the Progressive Era policies in the United States and social charters like the Soviet Constitution of 1924. It organized federal structures linking the Federal District (Mexico City), states like Oaxaca and Puebla, and municipalities, and defined presidential powers held by leaders including Plutarco Elías Calles in subsequent years.
Notable articles covered property regimes influenced by disputes over haciendas in Yucatán and mining concessions in Guanajuato, set electoral principles resonant with reforms in Argentina and Brazil, and established labor rights parallel to measures in Chile and Costa Rica. The text produced institutions such as the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, and mechanisms affecting relations with foreign investors linked to companies like United Fruit Company and the British Petroleum predecessors.
Provisions enacted land redistribution referencing ejido systems in regions like Morelos and Chiapas and addressing latifundia concentrated in Sonora and Sinaloa. Labor articles granted protections including eight-hour workday demands similar to those advocated in Chicago and industrial reforms observed in Spain and Italy. Education reforms reflected secularizing aims resonant with Joaquín González-era policies and later cultural programs under figures like José Vasconcelos and Víctoriano Huerta? by promoting public schooling and curtailing ecclesiastical privileges associated with Miguel Pro and clerical organizations.
Natural resource provisions asserted state ownership over subsoil resources, impacting foreign firms such as Royal Dutch Shell affiliates and paralleling debates in Venezuela and Peru over petroleum nationalism later exemplified under Lázaro Cárdenas. Social security concepts anticipated reforms in Argentina under Juan Perón and welfare legislation in France and Germany.
Implementation unfolded amid power struggles involving military leaders like Álvaro Obregón and political operators such as Plutarco Elías Calles and parties including the National Revolutionary Party and later the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Enforcement intersected with conflicts such as the Cristero War where the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico opposed anticlerical provisions, and with uprisings linked to regional caudillos from Zacatecas, Durango, and Sinaloa.
Internationally, the constitution affected relations with the United States during administrations of Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Harding and shaped foreign investment patterns involving companies headquartered in New York City, London, and Amsterdam. Domestic politics saw the rise of corporatist arrangements echoed in Spain under Miguel Primo de Rivera and labor-party alliances comparable to Brazilian Labour Party (historical) dynamics.
Subsequent amendments processed through congresses dominated by leaders such as Lázaro Cárdenas, Miguel Alemán Valdés, and Gustavo Díaz Ordaz revised articles on land, labor, and the role of the state. Judicial review by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation adjudicated disputes involving constitutional norms and commercial treaties like the Treaty of Bucareli and negotiations with foreign claimants associated with Standard Oil and Anaconda Copper.
Legal challenges arose in provincial courts in Jalisco and Chihuahua and in political crises linked to events such as the Mexican Revolution aftermath and the 1938 oil expropriation. Constitutional reform processes later paralleled amendment debates in the United States Constitution and constitutional jurisprudence in Argentina and Chile.
The text left lasting institutions including land tenure patterns in Morelos and Chiapas, labor law traditions influencing unions like the Confederation of Mexican Workers, and secular education programs shaped by cultural figures such as José Vasconcelos. It influenced 20th-century constitutions across Latin America and inspired nationalizations exemplified by Lázaro Cárdenas's policies and resource sovereignty movements in Venezuela and Bolivia.
Scholars compare its social provisions to the New Deal in the United States and to welfare reforms in Europe after the First World War. Memory of the document persists in monuments in Querétaro, annual commemorations on 5 February, and debates among historians referencing works by Daniel Cosío Villegas, Enrique Krauze, and Octavio Paz. Category:Mexican Constitution