<P> The origins of the conflict were broadly based in opposition to the Díaz regime, with the 1910 election becoming the catalyst for the outbreak of political rebellion . Begun by elements of the Mexican elite hostile to Díaz, led by Madero and Pancho Villa, the revolution expanded to the middle class, the peasantry in some regions, and organized labor . In October 1911, Madero was overwhelmingly elected in a free and fair election . Opposition to the Madero regime increased from both the conservatives, who saw him as too weak and too liberal, and from former revolutionary fighters and the dispossessed, who saw him as too conservative . </P> <P> In February 1913 Madero and his vice president Pino Suárez were forced to resign and were assassinated . The counter-revolutionary regime of General Victoriano Huerta came to power, backed by the United States, business interests, and other supporters of the old order . Huerta remained in power from February 1913 until July 1914, when he was forced out by a coalition of different regional revolutionary forces . When the revolutionaries' attempt to reach political agreement failed, Mexico plunged into a civil war (1914--1915). The Constitutionalist faction under wealthy landowner Venustiano Carranza emerged as the victor in 1915, defeating the revolutionary forces of former Constitutionalist Pancho Villa and forcing revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata back to guerrilla warfare . Zapata was assassinated in 1919 by agents of President Carranza . </P> <P> The armed conflict lasted for the better part of a decade, until around 1920, and had several distinct phases . Over time the Revolution changed from a revolt against the established order under Díaz to a multi-sided civil war in particular regions, with frequently shifting power struggles among factions in the Mexican Revolution . One major result of the revolution was the dissolution of the Federal Army in 1914, which Francisco Madero had kept intact when he was elected in 1911 and General Huerta used to oust Madero . Revolutionary forces unified against Huerta's reactionary regime defeated the Federal forces . Although the conflict was primarily a civil war, foreign powers that had important economic and strategic interests in Mexico figured in the outcome of Mexico's power struggles . The United States played an especially significant role . Out of Mexico's population of 15 million, the losses were high, but numerical estimates vary a great deal . Perhaps 1.5 million people died; nearly 200,000 refugees fled abroad, especially to the United States . </P> <P> Many scholars consider the promulgation of the Mexican Constitution of 1917 as the end point of the armed conflict . "Economic and social conditions improved in accordance with revolutionary policies, so that the new society took shape within a framework of official revolutionary institutions", with the constitution providing that framework . The period 1920--1940 is often considered to be a phase of the Revolution, as government power was consolidated, the Catholic clergy and institutions were attacked in the 1920s, and the revolutionary constitution of 1917 was implemented . </P>

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