The Porfiriato and its violations of civil liberties did not go unchallenged by Mexican liberals. At San Luis Potosí they held congresses reaffirming the principles of the 1857 constitution, but persecution drove many of them to seek asylum in the United States. It was from there, in St Louis, in 1906, that the Flores Magón brothers and others issued a proclamation calling for the overthrow of Porfirio Díaz, and it was there that they resumed the publication of Regeneración, copies of which were smuggled across the border. Francisco Madero was nominated as their candidate for the 1910 elections, but he was jailed and Porfirio unscrupulously held on to power.

In that same year, on the centenary of Hidalgo's call for independence, Porfirio arranged for a large-scale self-congratulatory celebration at which, even though eighty years old, he declared his intention of seeking a further term in office. To mark the occasion, Mexico City was refurbished and purged of undesirables, buildings were inaugurated, monuments unveiled and lavish banquets attended by the cream of society and the diplomatic corps. All this drove the opposition into action. Madero, having been released and gone into exile in the US, drafted the Plan de San Luis Potosí, calling for restoration of the democratic priciples of 1857 and declaring himself provisional president of the country. Rebel groups were already becoming active against their regional governments. Eventually, with mobs in the streets screaming for his demise, Porfirio stepped down and slipped away to France. In 1911 Madero duly became president.

It was not surprising that Mexico turned to Revolution, given the inequalities, the political dissatisfactions and the sense of repression shared by so many people, but it should not be thought that its Revolution was very coherent or driven by a shared ideological vision; if there is a single word to describe it, perhaps that word is ‘chaotic’. Another period of short-lived and unsuccessful leadership ensued, with the country falling prey to warring regional caudillos. Principal among them were Venustiano Carranza, Alvaro Obregón, Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa. Carranza seized power, with the help of Obregón, but then the latter betrayed him, took over, and subsequently had him put to death. Villa was little more than a thug who raped, murdered and pillaged his way around Mexico, but he acquired a mythical reputation, largely because he launched a raid into New Mexico and managed to elude US troops.