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Morelos Commune
The Morelos Commune (Spanish: Comuna de Morelos) was the political and economic system established in the Mexican state of Morelos between 1913 and 1917. Led by Emiliano Zapata, the people of Morelos implemented a series of wide-reaching social reforms based on the proposals laid out in the Plan of Ayala.
During the Mexican Revolution, the economy of Morelos was completely reorganised, seeing the nationalisation of its sugar industry and the widespread redistribution of land from haciendas to the peasantry. This process was overseen by local institutions of self-governance, under the defense of Zapata's Liberation Army of the South (ELS).
Established in rebellion against the government of Victoriano Huerta, the Commune was officially dissolved by the Constitution of Mexico in 1917 and Zapata himself was killed by the Constitutional Army in 1919. After Álvaro Obregón's rise to power, many of Zapata's proposals were implemented in Morelos by the new government of Mexico and the ELS was integrated into the Mexican Army.
The term "Morelos Commune" was coined by the Mexican historian Adolfo Gilly, in an invocation of the Paris Commune of 1871. Other historians have compared the period with the Soviets of the Russian Revolution and the Makhnovshchina of Eastern Ukraine. It has also been a point of inspiration for the Zapatista uprising of 1994, which took place in the Mexican state of Chiapas.
The native institutions of Morelos traced their ancestry back to the time of the Aztec Empire, before the Spanish conquest of the Americas; the local Nahua people held the land in the region under common ownership, which guaranteed them autonomy and self-sufficiency. During the 19th century, the sugar industry in Morelos grew increasingly profitable, as foreign demand for the product expanded and new technologies eased production and distribution. In order to grow the Mexican economy, the regime of Porfirio Díaz oversaw a mass concentration of land ownership into private property, reducing the amount of common land in the country to only 2% of arable land. The state of Morelos, where much of the country's sugar industry was concentrated, was among the hardest hit by this policy. Only 23.7% of land in Morelos managed to remain outside the private ownership of a hacienda.
Lands previously held under common ownership were taken over by haciendas, which extracted increasingly high profits from the sugar crop, with many of the state's peasants becoming landless. The people of Morelos attempted to resist the seizure of common land through judicial means, but the privatization of land only accelerated. Sugar production increased dramatically with the privatization of land, forcing peasants onto the large estates as agricultural labourers. Morelos' peasants were forced to work for the haciendas year-round and were only provided with earthen floor huts for accommodation, keeping them in poverty. Still the people of Morelos managed to maintain some of their traditional self-governance, holding enough property under common ownership as to provide an alternative to the industrial estates.
The Mexican Revolution broke out in 1910, as several different rebel groups under the leadership of Francisco Madero rose up against the established order of the Porfiriato. When the Porifirian sugar estates collapsed, leaving no alternative means of subsistence for their workers, Madero's promises of agrarian reform won over the peasant leader Emiliano Zapata, who organised the sugar workers of Morelos to attack the haciendas and seize the land for their communities. This series of expropriations of privately owned land by armed peasants led to the establishment of the Liberation Army of the South (ELS), which spearheaded the revolutionary uprising in Morelos. On 20 May 1911, the ELS captured Cuautla, and on 21 May, they captured the state capital of Cuernavaca.
By the time that Porfirio Díaz was ousted and Madero became President of Mexico, the revolutionary forces had completely taken over the state of Morelos. President Madero soon went back on his promises of agrarian reform and ordered the Zapatistas to disarm. On 25 November 1911, Zapata responded by issuing the Plan of Ayala, in which he called for the autonomy of Morelos and the immediate redistribution of land from the haciendas to the peasantry.
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Morelos Commune
The Morelos Commune (Spanish: Comuna de Morelos) was the political and economic system established in the Mexican state of Morelos between 1913 and 1917. Led by Emiliano Zapata, the people of Morelos implemented a series of wide-reaching social reforms based on the proposals laid out in the Plan of Ayala.
During the Mexican Revolution, the economy of Morelos was completely reorganised, seeing the nationalisation of its sugar industry and the widespread redistribution of land from haciendas to the peasantry. This process was overseen by local institutions of self-governance, under the defense of Zapata's Liberation Army of the South (ELS).
Established in rebellion against the government of Victoriano Huerta, the Commune was officially dissolved by the Constitution of Mexico in 1917 and Zapata himself was killed by the Constitutional Army in 1919. After Álvaro Obregón's rise to power, many of Zapata's proposals were implemented in Morelos by the new government of Mexico and the ELS was integrated into the Mexican Army.
The term "Morelos Commune" was coined by the Mexican historian Adolfo Gilly, in an invocation of the Paris Commune of 1871. Other historians have compared the period with the Soviets of the Russian Revolution and the Makhnovshchina of Eastern Ukraine. It has also been a point of inspiration for the Zapatista uprising of 1994, which took place in the Mexican state of Chiapas.
The native institutions of Morelos traced their ancestry back to the time of the Aztec Empire, before the Spanish conquest of the Americas; the local Nahua people held the land in the region under common ownership, which guaranteed them autonomy and self-sufficiency. During the 19th century, the sugar industry in Morelos grew increasingly profitable, as foreign demand for the product expanded and new technologies eased production and distribution. In order to grow the Mexican economy, the regime of Porfirio Díaz oversaw a mass concentration of land ownership into private property, reducing the amount of common land in the country to only 2% of arable land. The state of Morelos, where much of the country's sugar industry was concentrated, was among the hardest hit by this policy. Only 23.7% of land in Morelos managed to remain outside the private ownership of a hacienda.
Lands previously held under common ownership were taken over by haciendas, which extracted increasingly high profits from the sugar crop, with many of the state's peasants becoming landless. The people of Morelos attempted to resist the seizure of common land through judicial means, but the privatization of land only accelerated. Sugar production increased dramatically with the privatization of land, forcing peasants onto the large estates as agricultural labourers. Morelos' peasants were forced to work for the haciendas year-round and were only provided with earthen floor huts for accommodation, keeping them in poverty. Still the people of Morelos managed to maintain some of their traditional self-governance, holding enough property under common ownership as to provide an alternative to the industrial estates.
The Mexican Revolution broke out in 1910, as several different rebel groups under the leadership of Francisco Madero rose up against the established order of the Porfiriato. When the Porifirian sugar estates collapsed, leaving no alternative means of subsistence for their workers, Madero's promises of agrarian reform won over the peasant leader Emiliano Zapata, who organised the sugar workers of Morelos to attack the haciendas and seize the land for their communities. This series of expropriations of privately owned land by armed peasants led to the establishment of the Liberation Army of the South (ELS), which spearheaded the revolutionary uprising in Morelos. On 20 May 1911, the ELS captured Cuautla, and on 21 May, they captured the state capital of Cuernavaca.
By the time that Porfirio Díaz was ousted and Madero became President of Mexico, the revolutionary forces had completely taken over the state of Morelos. President Madero soon went back on his promises of agrarian reform and ordered the Zapatistas to disarm. On 25 November 1911, Zapata responded by issuing the Plan of Ayala, in which he called for the autonomy of Morelos and the immediate redistribution of land from the haciendas to the peasantry.