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| 1916, March 9 |
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| Villa's forces raided across the border into Columbus, New Mexico. A U.S. punitive expedition pursued him into Mexico (March 15). Carranza protested the violation of Mexican territory and authorized resistance. Clash of Americans and Mexicans at Carrizal (June 21). Ultimately conferences were arranged to arrive at some settlement. American troops departed on Feb. 5, 1917. | 1 |
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| 1917, Jan. 31 |
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| The NEW CONSTITUTION was adopted by the Mexican congress (promulgated Feb. 5). This instrument had been worked out by a constitutional convention, in session since Nov. 21. Representing advanced nationalist and radical social views, the Constitution of 1917 at once became the charter of the new Mexico. It provided for universal male suffrage (delegates to the constitutional convention at Querétaro were hostile to female political participation). The most significant sections included Article 3, which (reflecting strong anticlerical sentiment) restricted the power and property of the Church and monastic orders and called for free, secular, and obligatory primary education for all Mexican children. Article 27 called for the return of peasant lands seized illegally during the Porfiriato (providing the complainant possessed written title), made private ownership of land a privilege and not a right, and curbed foreign ownership of land and subsoil rights. Article 123, the labor code, called for an eight-hour day, a minimum wage, labor arbitration, and the right to strike. Though radical for the time, the articles calling for redistribution of land and labor reform were not initially implemented because of conservative opposition. | 2 |
| Under the new constitution Obregón also created a government Office of Anthropology, under Manuel Gamio. As part of a new effort to assert the valuable contributions of Indian culture to Mexico, the office promoted cultural and social studies of indigenous Mexico. | 3 |
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| March 11 |
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| Carranza was elected president for a four-year term, being barred from running for reelection. During the next three years he consolidated Constitutionalist rule and swung the revolution far to the right. While he remained strongly nationalist regarding foreign interests, he redistributed very little land, suppressed workers' movements, and ignored calls for free education. During this period his armies also continued to repress any remaining resistance in the countryside. | 4 |
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