Zapata, Emiliano

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Zapata, Emiliano (1880–1919) Mexican revolutionary leader. His Indian peasant army supported Francisco Madero's successful coup (1910) against Porfirio Díaz. Madero's failure to meet his demands for radical agrarian reform, such as the return of haciendas (great estates) to native Mexican communal ownership, led to the Mexican Revolution. In pursuit of “land and liberty’, Zapata captured much of s Mexico. Allied with ‘Pancho’ Villa, he opposed the regimes of Victoriano Huerta and Venustiano Carranza and captured Mexico City (1914–15). Zapata was murdered by an agent of Carranza.

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