AGRARIANISM IN MEXICO 77 



The racial basis of agrarianism in Mexico is trace- 

 able today to the fact that the mestizos (hybrid 

 Iberian and Indian) constitute about forty- three per 

 cent of the population, and fifteen or twenty per 

 cent of these maintain the old Indian traditions and 

 social organization. Thirty-eight per cent are still 

 Indian. A large number (perhaps two million) do 

 not know Spanish or refuse to speak it. In other 

 words, more than eighty per cent of the population 

 are Indian, or part Indian, with Indian traditions 

 predominating. 2 Beals states that at the beginning 

 of the nineteenth century the population of Mexico 

 consisted of 3,600,000 Indians, 1,000,000 mestizos 

 and a million whites. 



The genesis of agrarianism in Mexico arose out of 

 the conflict between the agricultural commune sys- 

 tem of the Indian tribes and the feudal system or 

 encomiendas of the Spanish conquerors. This con- 

 flict of interests has persisted until the present time. 

 It has been a determining cause of most of the 

 revolutions of Mexico throughout the history of the 

 country. 



Land Hunger and Revolution 



The war of Mexico for independence from Spain 

 was essentially an agrarian revolution. "The war 

 was not against Spain," says Ramon P. De Negri, 

 "it was against Spanish influence. Hidalgo and 

 Morelos, leaders of the revolution, and their Indian 



* Mexico, An Interpretation, by Carleton Beals (1923), Chap. I, 

 p. 5. 



