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Business operations during the Revolution
Relationships among the major Revolutionary forces
They were trying to get rid of Huerta beginning in 1913 but bumped into each other.
Carranza, up in Coahuila, at the beginning of this period, declared against Huerta, issued the Plan de Guadalupe,(elections to be held, Huerta was not the president, and Carranza the head of the Constitutionalist armies). Support from other vacillated. Carranza remained a civilian and insisted on civilian control of the military. The military wanted control.
Carranza was an old-time liberal. The radicals thought that meant he was a conservative. He wasn't interested in social or agrarian reform. The military wasn't either.
Chief military forces at first headed by Pablo González in the northwest. Then Benjamin Hill, Plutarco Elías Calles, and Alvaro Obregón. Northern armies didn't do very well in the first part of 1913. So, Carranza moved his base of operations to Sonora in late 1913 because they were more easily protected. He organized the Sonora forces to fight for him and was, more or less, accepted.
There was a Díaz faction headed by the governor of the state. After five months, he moved to Chihuahua. He had trouble dealing with Villa, who was making it clear that he was going to establish an independent position for himself. Carranza and Villa distrusted each other.
Villa launched a military campaign against Torreón, taking it by April, 1914. Won other victories. These events led him to believe that he was the most important person in Mexico. Carranza retaliated by appointing a military chief for Chihuahua.
The Constitutionalist forces did well in 1914.
Villa and his generals went to Torreón to plan a campaign further south but didn't consult Carranza but Carranza went anyway. Wore him out. Villa gave in the Carranza's scheme for Villa to take his forces against Saltillo. Villa realized that it was a move to get Carranza's army to Mexico City before Villa. Carranza named other generals to fight in Zacatecas. Villa resigns and Carranza accepts but it doesn't work. General Felipe Angeles, the most useful of Villa's advisers from the point of view of giving him the kind of advice villa needed to survive in Mexico with this kind of competition, convinced Villa not to resign.
The Villistas went to Zacatecas and did well. After he won Zacatecas there wasn't much between him and Mexico City, but he had run out of ammunition and coal. Carranza controlled access to the in the North. So Villa tried to butter up Carranza but the latter cut him off.
Convention of Aguascalientes
The convention was necessary to work out cooperation between the Villistas and the Carrancistas. Would meet in Aguascalientes because it was on the railroad line and midway between the Villa and Carranza forces.
In July, 1914, Villa and González delegates met in Torreón but Carranza disavowed their actions. They set up a pacification commission which called for:
Carranza rejected this plan, saying that these matters should be decided by civilians.
Villa spent his time in July building his forces to fight Carranza. Carranza was urging Obregón to hurry to Mexico City.
Carranza argued against US intervention when the US invaded Mexico at Tampico and Veracruz even though the invasion was designed to dislodge Huerta from the presidency. Carranza took the nationalist stance.
By July, Huerta saw that the game was over and left. He left officials, some military forces, and police forces supported somewhat by the politically active population to prevent the Zapatistas from taking over. The capitalinos didn't understand the Zapatistas, who were ruralites, and, thus, were afraid of them. they had been isolated, fighting in Morelos and surrounding states, for most of the Revolution.
Obregón got to Mexico City in August before Villa. Carranza got there on the 18th of August and created the first national administration by Revolutionary forces. He named a cabinet but didn't call for elections or for the former Madero Congress. He didn't claim to be provisional president to avoid running afoul of the Torreón agreement and Mexican law. He suspended constitutional guarantees and closed the courts, partly to invoke the 1862 Juárez law on collaborationists. His doing so contributed the the charges of dictatorship against him.
The damage to the population of Mexico City has been exaggerated. The Huerta police were still there. The Revolutionary forces compelled Carranza to dismiss them but other police took their places.
Relations between Emiliano Zapata and Carranza.
Zapata claimed to be the head of the whole Revolution, leading the "Liberating Army of the South." To get cooperation from the Zapatistas, one had to accept this argument and the Plan de Ayala. Carranza wouldn't accept for the obvious reasons but also because Zapata had rebelled against Madero and had also cooperated with Pascual Orozco, who had rebelled against Madero. The Carrancistas and the Zapatistas were incompatible. Carranza was under tremendous pressure to treat with Zapata. So Carranza announced that he was calling for a convention to be held in Mexico City in October, a convention which would be Carrancista.
Up North
There was an argument between the governor of Sonora and the Constitutionalists. Villa supported the Sonora governor. Villa didn't get anywhere so he asked Obregón to come up. Also discussed how to solve the Villa-Carranza split. Obregón agreed that they had to get rid of Carranza. Agreed that Carranza had to choose between being provisional president or running for the regular term; couldn't do both. Carranza rejected this idea.
Villa and Obregón didn't get along very well.