Maximatus

We explain what the Maximato was in Mexico, its antecedents and its consequences. Also, who was Plutarco Elías Calles.

What was the Maximato?

The Maximato was the historical and political period of Mexico between 1928 and 1934. It began with the interim government of Emilio Portes Gil, continued with the governments of Pascual Ortiz Rubio and Abelardo L. Rodríguez, and ended when Lázaro Cárdenas assumed the presidency. Its name is due to the political influence that Plutarco Elías Calles exerted at this stage (1877-1945), a politician and military man who was nicknamed the “maximum leader of the Revolution.”

Plutarco Elías Calles was a central figure in post-revolutionary Mexican political history (that is, after the Mexican Revolution). He was president between 1924 and 1928 and had an enormous influence on the governments after the death of Álvaro Obregón in 1928, who had been elected president that year but did not begin his term.

During this political period, a party was created that unified the sectors that identified with the principles of the Mexican Revolution and which functioned in fact as a single party: the National Revolutionary Party or PNR (historical antecedent of the Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI). In this way, Calles managed to discipline the various political groups and caudillos (charismatic leaders who had their own followers) by integrating them into a party led by himself.

Thus, the Maximato is remembered as the behind-the-scenes government of “a strong man” who, in turn, put an end to the era of the caudillos in Mexico. Furthermore, it was a period in which the revolutionary momentum for social change began to wane, in part due to the global economic crisis of 1929 (known as the Great Depression).

However, Institutional consolidation had modernizing effects and favored financial stability which had important consequences for the subsequent history of Mexico.

Background of the Maximato

After the revolution (1910-1920), Mexico was torn between various political trends, each led by a “strong man” of local politics. The most important of them was Álvaro Obregón, a soldier who had participated in the civil war of the revolutionary years and who was elected president for the period from 1920 to 1924.

Since re-election was not possible, he chose his Secretary of the Interior as his successor, Plutarco Elías Calles, who won the presidential elections and governed between 1924 and 1928. Under his government, modern national initiatives proliferated: the Bank of Mexico was created, the road network was expanded, dams and irrigation systems were built, and numerous rural schools were built.

On the other hand, the government's decision to reduce the number of priests and establish regulations on religious matters fueled tensions between the State and the Church, which gave rise to the Cristero War between 1926 and 1929.

Former President Obregón still had influence in politics and promoted a modification of the national Constitution to allow re-election. So, Obregón was re-elected in 1928 but was unable to take office because he was assassinated in July of that year. For this reason, Emilio Portes Gil assumed the interim government (1928-1930) elected by Congress and strongly influenced by the political decisions of Calles, who came to choose the members of his cabinet.

This was the beginning of the Maximato, during which Pascual Ortiz Rubio (1930-1932) also governed who was elected in extraordinary elections and resigned from office, and Abelardo L. Rodríguez (1932-1934), substitute president due to the resignation of the previous one. The three Maximato governments were subject to the will of Calles.

Consequences of the Maximato

The Maximato had important consequences:

• Although it was a period of political and economic crises, it gave a boost to the industrialization and modernization of the country.
• He openly confronted the privileges of the Catholic Church.
• Approved university autonomy.
• He promulgated the first federal labor law.
• He proceeded to distribute land through agrarian reform, although the hacienda system persisted.
• It favored the interconnection of the different corners of Mexico through the road network.
• It caused criticism from labor leaders on some points of labor legislation.

Despite his tendency to centralize power in the person of Calles, Maximato inaugurated a unified party organization through the founding of the National Revolutionary Party and He bequeathed to the republic an institutional framework that put an end to traditional caudillismo. Furthermore, he left behind a more urban society and a more secular political organization.

End of the Maximate

The Maximate It ended in 1934 with the election of Lázaro Cárdenas for the position of president. The new government was less manipulable by Calles, who expressed dissatisfaction with the president's workerist program.

This conflict came to an end in 1935, when Cárdenas requested the resignation of the entire Callista-affiliated cabinet, in a climate of worker confrontations and division in Congress. Finally, Cárdenas expelled Calles from the country in 1936 who began an exile in the United States that lasted until 1941, and took away all political influence in Mexico.

References

• Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2023). Plutarco Elías Calles. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/
• Delgado de Cantú, GM (2015). History of Mexico. Historical legacy and recent past. Third edition. Pearson.
• Hamnet, B. (2014). History of Mexico. Second edition. Akal.
• von Wobeser, G. (ed.) (2014). History of Mexico. Economic Culture Fund.
• Wikipedia (sf). Maximatus. Wikipedia. https://es.wikipedia.org/