Mexican Constitution of 1917

Mexico’s constitution, adopted in 1917 during the Mexican Revolution, established a federal republic and became known for its provisions on land, labor, education, and church-state relations.

Mexican Revolution: An armed conflict and political upheaval in Mexico from 1910 to 1920 that ended the Porfirian dictatorship and reshaped the state. The revolution created the competing armies and reform demands that produced the constitution.
Article 3 of the Mexican Constitution: The constitutional provision establishing principles for education in Mexico, including secular public schooling. It made secular education a constitutional responsibility and restricted clerical influence in schools.
Constitution of 1857: Mexico’s liberal constitution adopted in 1857, which established a federal republic and curtailed church and military privileges. The 1917 charter revised this predecessor while retaining much of its liberal constitutional framework.
Mexican land reform: The redistribution of land in Mexico, especially through communal holdings and expropriation of large estates. Article 27 became the constitutional foundation for decades of agrarian redistribution.
Constitutionalism: The principle that government authority is established and limited by a constitution. The document sought to replace revolutionary rule by force with a durable constitutional order.
Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution: The constitutional provision declaring the nation’s original ownership of land and waters and empowering redistribution and regulation. It supplied the legal basis for agrarian reform and public control of subsoil resources.
Venustiano Carranza: A Mexican revolutionary leader who served as president and led the movement that convened the 1916–1917 constitutional congress. Carranza called the congress to reform the 1857 Constitution, though delegates adopted broader social measures.
Mexican oil expropriation: The 1938 nationalization of foreign-owned oil companies by President Lázaro Cárdenas. The government invoked Article 27’s national ownership of subsoil resources to justify nationalization.
Porfiriato: The period of Porfirio Díaz’s dominance in Mexico, generally dated from 1876 to 1911. Land concentration and political exclusion under Díaz fueled demands the constitution addressed.
Article 123 of the Mexican Constitution: The constitutional provision setting labor protections, including limits on working hours, minimum wages, and rights to organize. It converted revolutionary labor demands into enforceable constitutional standards.

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