In 1910 the Revolution broke out. The starting signal was given by Francisco Madero, liberal landovmer from Coahuila, who— in his Declaration of San Luis Potosi— assumed the provisional presidency of Mexico and designated November 20, 1910, as the date when Mexicans were to rise up in arms against the hated dictator. It seems paradoxical that this call for more orderly electoral procedures unleashed a storm of disorder and violence that was to sweep through Mexico for the period of an entire decade. In contrast to other revolutionary movements of the twentieth century, the Mexican Revolution was not to be led by any one group organized around a central program. In no other revolution movement did the participants in the drama prove so unaware of their roles and their lines. The movement resembles a great avalanche, essentially

"anonymous. No organized party presided at its birth. No great intellectuals prescribed its program, formulated its doctrine, outlined its objectives (Tannenbaum, 1937, 115-116)."

Its military leaders

"were children of the upheaval.... The Revolution made them, gave them the means and support. They were instruments of a movement; they did not make it, and have barely been able to guide it. (Ibid)"