Editing Emiliano Zapata (section)

==== 1914–1919: The conventionist government ====
On 21 April 1914, U.S. President [[Woodrow Wilson]] sent a contingent of troops to occupy the port city of [[Veracruz]]. This sudden threat caused Huerta to withdraw his troops from Morelos and Puebla, leaving only Jojutla and Cuernavaca under federal control. Zapatistas quickly assumed control of eastern Morelos, taking Cuautla and [[Jonacatepec]] with no resistance. In spite of being faced with a possible foreign invasion, Zapata refused to unite with Huerta in defense of the nation. He stated that if need be he would defend Mexico alone as chief of the Ayalan forces.{{sfn|Womack|1968|p=186}} In May the Zapatistas took Jojutla from the Federal Army, many of whom joined the rebels, and captured guns and ammunition. They also laid siege to Cuernavaca where a small contingent of federal troops were holed up.{{sfn|Womack|1968|p=187}} By the summer of 1915, Zapata's forces had taken the southern edge of the [[Mexican Federal District|Federal District]], occupying [[Milpa Alta]] and [[Xochimilco]], and were poised to move into the capital. In mid July, Huerta was forced to flee as a Constitutionalist force under Carranza, Obregón, and Villa took the Federal District.{{sfn|Womack|1968|p=188}} The Constitutionalists established a peace treaty, inserting Carranza as First Authority of the nation. Carranza, an aristocrat with politically relevant connections, then gained the backing of the US, which passed over Villa and Zapata due to their lower-status backgrounds and more progressive ideologies.{{Sfn|Meade|2016|p=168}} In spite of having contributed decisively to the fall of Huerta, the Zapatistas were left out of the peace treaties, probably because of Carranza's intense dislike for the Zapatistas, whom he saw as uncultured savages.{{sfn|Womack|1968|p=190}} Through 1915 there was a tentative peace in Morelos and the rest of the country.

[[File:Pancho Villa, el presidente provisional Eulalio Gutiérrez y Emiliano Zapata.jpg|left|thumb|[[Francisco Villa]] (left), [[Eulalio Gutiérrez]] (center), and Emiliano Zapata (right) at the Mexican National Palace (1914)<ref>Attributed to [[Agustín Casasola]], Mexico City, 6 December 1914. Gelatin dry-plate negative, 5x7 inches. Casasola Archive No. 5706.</ref>]]

As the Constitutionalist forces began to split, with  Villa creating a popular front against Carranza's Constitutionalists, Carranza worked diplomatically to get the Zapatistas to recognize his rule, sending [[Dr. Atl]] as an envoy to propose a compromise with Zapata. For Carranza, an agreement with Zapata would mean that he did not need to worry about his force's southern flank and could concentrate on defeating Villa. Zapata demanded veto power over Carranza's decisions, which Carranza rejected, and negotiations broke off.{{sfn|Katz|1981|p=259}} Zapata issued a statement, perhaps drafted by his advisor, [[Antonio Díaz Soto y Gama]].

<blockquote>The country wishes to destroy feudalism once and for all [while Carranza offers] administrative reform&nbsp;... complete honesty in the handling of public monies&nbsp;... freedom of the press for those who cannot read; free elections for those who do not know the candidates; proper legal proceedings for those who have never had anything to do with an attorney. All those beautiful democratic principles, all those great words that give such joy to our fathers and grandfathers have lost their magic&nbsp;... The people continue to suffer from poverty and endless disappointments.{{sfn|Katz|1981|p=260}}</blockquote>

Unable to reach an agreement, the Constitutionalists divided along ideological lines, with Zapata and Villa leading a progressive rebellion, and Carranza and Obregón leading the conservative faction of the remaining Constitutionalists.{{Sfn|Meade|2016|p=168}} Villa and the other anti-Carrancista leaders of the North established the [[Convention of Aguascalientes]] against Carranza. Zapata and his envoys got the convention to adopt some of the agrarian principles of the Plan de Ayala.{{sfn|Womack|1968|pp=214–219}} Zapata and Villa met in Xochimilco to negotiate an alliance and divide the responsibility for ridding Mexico of the remaining Carrancistas. The meeting was awkward but amiable, and was widely publicized. It was decided that Zapata should work on securing the area east of Morelos from Puebla towards Veracruz. Nonetheless, during the ensuing campaign in Puebla, Zapata was disappointed by Villa's lack of support. Villa did not initially provide the Zapatistas with the weaponry they had agreed on and, when he did, he did not provide adequate transportation. There were also a series of abuses by Villistas against Zapatista soldiers and chiefs. These experiences led Zapata to grow unsatisfied with the alliance, turning instead his efforts to reorganizing the state of Morelos that had been left in shambles by the onslaught of Huerta and Robles. Having taken Puebla, Zapata left a couple of garrisons there but did not support Villa further against Obregón and Carranza. The Carrancistas saw that the rebel alliance was divided and decided to concentrate on beating Villa, which left the Zapatistas to their own devices for a while.{{sfn|Womack|1968|pp=220–223}}

Through 1915, Zapata began reshaping Morelos after the Plan de Ayala, redistributing ''hacienda'' lands to the peasants, and largely letting village councils run their own local affairs. Most peasants did not turn to [[cash crop]]s, instead growing [[subsistence crops]] such as corn, beans, and vegetables. The result was that as the capital was starving, while the peasants had more to eat than they had had in 1910 and at lower prices. The only official event in Morelos during this entire year was a [[bullfight]] in which Zapata himself and his nephew Amador Salazar participated. 1915 was a short period of peace and prosperity for the farmers of Morelos, in between the massacres of the Huerta era and the civil war of the winners to come.{{sfn|Womack|1968|pp=240–241}}

Even when Villa was retreating, having lost the [[Battle of Celaya]] in 1915, and Obregón took the capital from the Conventionists, who retreated to [[Toluca]], Zapata did not open a second front.

When Carranza's forces were poised to move into Morelos, Zapata took action. He attacked Carrancista positions with large forces, trying to harry the Carrancistas in the rear as they were occupied with routing Villa throughout the Northwest. Though Zapata managed to take many important sites such as the [[Necaxa River|Necaxa]] power plant that supplied Mexico City, he was unable to hold them. The Convention was finally routed from Toluca, and Carranza was recognized by US President [[Woodrow Wilson]] as the head of state of Mexico in October.{{sfn|Womack|1968|pp=245–246}}

Through 1916, Zapata attacked federal forces from [[Hidalgo (state)|Hidalgo]] to Oaxaca, and [[Genovevo de la O]] fought the Carrancistas in [[Guerrero]]. The Zapatistas attempted to amass support for their cause by promulgating new manifestos against the ''hacendados'', but this had little effect since the ''hacendados'' had already lost power throughout the country.{{sfn|Womack|1968|pp=250–255}}

Having been put in charge of the efforts to root out Zapatismo in Morelos, [[Pablo González Garza]] was humiliated by Zapata's counterattacks and enforced increasingly draconian measures against the locals. He received no reinforcements, as Obregón, the Minister of War, needed all his forces against Villa in the north and against Felix Díaz in Oaxaca. Through low-scale attacks on Gonzalez's positions, Zapata drove Gonzalez out of Morelos by the end of 1916.{{sfn|Womack|1968|pp=269–271}}

Nonetheless, outside of Morelos, the revolutionary forces started disbanding. Some rebels (such as [[Domingo Arenas]]) joined the constitutionalists,while others lapsed into banditry. In Morelos, Zapata once more reorganized the Zapatista state, continuing with democratic reforms and legislation meant to keep the civil population safe from abuses by soldiers. Though his advisers urged him to mount a concerted campaign against the Carrancistas across southern Mexico, again he concentrated entirely on stabilizing Morelos and making life tolerable for the peasants.{{sfn|Womack|1968|pp=281–282}} Meanwhile, Carranza mounted national elections in all state capitals except [[Cuernavaca]], and promulgated the 1917 Constitution which incorporated elements of the Plan de Ayala.

Meanwhile, the disintegration of the revolution outside of Morelos put pressure on the Zapatistas. When Arenas went over to the constitutionalists, he secured peace for his region and remained in control there. This suggested to many revolutionaries that perhaps the time had come to seek a peaceful conclusion to the struggle. A faction within the Zapatista ranks, led by former General Vazquez and Zapata's erstwhile adviser and inspiration Otilio Montaño, moved against the Tlaltizapan headquarters, demanding surrender to the Carrancistas. Reluctantly, Zapata had Montaño tried for [[treason]] and executed.{{sfn|Womack|1968|pp=1983–1986}}

Zapata began looking for allies among the northern revolutionaries and the southern Felicistas, followers of the Liberalist Felix Díaz. He sent Gildardo Magaña as an envoy to communicate with the Americans and other possible sources of support. In the fall of 1917 a force led by Gonzalez and ex-Zapatista Sidronio Camacho, who had killed Zapata's brother Eufemio, moved into the eastern part of Morelos, taking Cuautla, Zacualpan, and Jonacatepec.

Zapata continued to try to unite the national anti-Carrancista movement through the next year, and the constitutionalists did not make further advances. In the winter of 1918,  severe cold weather and the onset of the [[Spanish flu]] caused the loss of a quarter of the total population of the state, almost as many as had been lost to Huerta in 1914.{{sfn|Womack|1968|p=311}} Furthermore, Zapata began to worry that with the end of [[World War I]], the US would turn its attention to Mexico, forcing the Zapatistas either to join the Carrancistas in a national defense or acquiesce to foreign domination of Mexico.

In December 1918, Carrancistas under Gonzalez undertook an offensive campaign, taking most of the state of Morelos, and pushing Zapata to retreat. The main Zapatista headquarters was moved to Tochimilco, Puebla, although Tlaltizapan also remained under Zapatista control. Through Castro, Carranza issued offers to the main Zapatista generals to join the nationalist cause, with pardon. But apart from Manuel Palafox, who having fallen in disgrace among the Zapatistas had joined the Arenistas, none of the major generals did.{{sfn|Womack|1968|pp=313–314}}

Zapata released statements accusing Carranza of being secretly sympathetic to [[German Empire|Germany]].{{sfn|Womack|1968|p=315}} In March, Zapata finally sent an open letter to Carranza, urging him for the good of the fatherland to resign his leadership to Vazquez Gómez, by now the rallying point of the anti-constitutionalist movement.{{sfn|Womack|1968|pp=319–320}} Having issued this formidable moral challenge to Carranza prior to the upcoming 1920 presidential elections, Zapata was urged by Zapatista generals at Tochimilco, Magaña, and Ayaquica not to take any risks and lie low. But Zapata declined, considering that the respect of his troops depended on his active presence at the front.{{sfn|Womack|1968|pp=320–322}}