Leaders during the Mexican Civil War: 1917-1925
The Mexican Civil War was fought from the late 1910s to mid 1920s between the socialist Popular Revolutionaries and the monarchist Royalists who backed Maximilian III.
Royalist Faction
The royalist faction fought to keep the emperor of Mexico on his throne during the Civil War. Support, while strained at times, was strongest in the southern parts of the Empire. They were heartily backed by Confederate political organization the Freedom Party, and outfitted with CS weapons and technology, allowing for southern experimentation in warfare.
Félix Díaz Prieto
Graduating as an engineer in 1888, Prieto enlisted during the Great War, serving as an officer during the US invasion of Baja. When the Civil War erupted in 1917, he found his division battling fellow Mexicans. His focus was mostly in the Baja region.
Bernardo Reyes
Reyes, prior to his service in the great war, he served as both the Secretary of the navy and governor of Nuevo Leon. When the Civil War broke out, Reyes quickly found himself leading the royalist armies against the revolutionaries. He was supreme commanderof the Mexican army in the field until his death from old age in 1920.
Álvaro Obregón
Obregón is an odd duck during this period of Mexican history. While personally left leaning, he found the popular revolutionaries wanting, and sided with the emperor. While held in suspicion by most of the Imperial Mexican government, the emperor himself gave his personal support due to him being the best commander in the field. After the death of Reyes, he became promoted to the supreme commander of the Mexican army in the field until it's end.
Popular Revolutionaries
The Popular Revolutionaries were a United States backed group of various left leaning groups combined into a single, if divided, organization. While funding was always low, it's cash flow dropped dramatically after the inauguration of Upton Sinclair in 1921.
Emiliano Zapata Salazar
Best known as Emiliano Zapata, the revolutionary hero found himself part of the loosely organized Popular Revolutionaries less out of shared ideals, but out of a common enemy. Zapata was an anarchist and died early on in the war in 1919.
Venustiano Carranza
One of the most conservative members of the PR, Carranza was seen as a preferable leader of Mexico by the Democratic Administration under Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt than most of the revolutionaries. With the end of the war in 1925, he fled the country and settled in New Mexico.
Ricardo Flores Magón
Another anarchist, Magón worked closely with Zapata in the Baja region, primarily fighting against General Prieto of the Royalists. He was killed in battle in 1922.
Pascual Orozco Vázquez
Vázquez was another revolutionary in the Civil War, and the earliest recorded casualty of the Popular Revolutionaries leadership, dying in early 1918.