History IA

[heronumbazero]

Hello! My IA topic is: The mexican revolution had four main stages: the liberal revolution of Madero, the counter revolution by Huerta, the constitutionalists' struggle for power, and the rule of Carranza. Within each of these stages, to what extent did reform take place? The Mexican Revolution brought about minimal reform for the people of Mexico.
So, the question is pretty much set - we get our IA topics assigned.
I just need to know where to start? I know the basics, but reform is really vague. Do I just pick an aspect of reform or what?

[filmjolk]

Yeah this sounds very broad. To cover just one of the steps would be more than enough.

[robertomx]

Hey!
Hahah actually about a month ago we were assigned an activity where we had to write an essay about whether we agreed or disagreed with some quote along the lines of "plus fa change, plus c'est la même chose" about the Mexican Revolution; i.e. we had to say if the revolution brought any actual change. I'd say your topic is very broad in the sense of you analyzing each of the phases, so you should probably choose one or two aspects (i'd go probably with politics and economy). Madero's ''period'' is an interesting example of things that ''changed'' but in fact remained the same: different president, but same people in the same positions they had since Porfiriato. That's practically what you are expected to do I guess: point out the things that didn't actually change. You could talk about foreign influence on Mexican economy (actually that's a very important point: the way in which the US and european nations - great britain, france, germany are the main ones - struggled for the major influence on Mexico). I think i still have some of the links with data I used for the task I mentioned before somewhere (mainly on the foreign influence on Mexican economy), if they're of any use. I'll try to get them for you later if you want (although the sites are probably in spanish).

[flsweetheart422]

So the thesis that I obtain from the post above me is something like "To what extend did Mexico change from point A to point B".

I don't know much about the Mexican Revolution, so I can't help too much, but its a start. I have found that "To What Extent..." is usually a good way to focus your thoughts and narrow your focus on a paper like that, so take it for what you will.

Good luck!

[Aether]

Wow, this is weird... I had never seen someone outside my country studying the mexican revolution haha. Well, I kind of had the same trouble with my internal assessment, and actually the topic was not very far from yours. To define the limits of my question I suffered a looooong process. However, in your case I will choose either the first or the last aspect. Why? Because Madero, even though his rule was not long, represents the initial ideals of the revolution, you can say that he has the "purest" ones, the ones that were really fought for at a beginning (I am not saying that this fight worked). In the case of Carranza, he is the result of all the experiences with Victoriano Huerta, Madero's death, and shalalalala... he was supposed to learn from the mistakes, and even so, the change was not notorious for most mexicans. However, even when you choose an aspect you will probably need do limit it even more.. luck with that.

[heronumbazero]

Wowza you guys have given me some awesome advice!
I was just wondering if I could focus on agrarian reform? Would that be appropriate?