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Emiliano Zapata Salazar, leading figure in the Mexican Revolution, the main leader of the peasant revolution in the state of Morelos, and the inspiration of the agrarian movement called Zapatismo was born #OnThisDay in 1879. 
A revolutionary from an early age, in 1897 he was arrested because he took part in a protest by the peasants of his village against the hacienda (plantation) that had appropriated their lands.
In 1909 his leadership skills were already well known, and he was summoned to his village of birth, Anenecuilco, where he was elected as the village’s council board president.
A few years later, Mexican president Porfirio Díaz was being threatened by the candidacy of Francisco Madero, who had lost the 1910 election to Díaz but had subsequently fled the country, declared himself president and then returned to confront Díaz.
In Madero, Zapata saw an opportunity to promote land reform in Mexico, and he made a quiet alliance with Madero.
In 1910, Zapata joined Madero’s campaign against President Díaz, taking on an important role as the general of the Ejército Libertador del Sur.
In 1910, Zapata joined Madero’s campaign against President Díaz, taking on an important role as the general of the Ejército Libertador del Sur.
Zapata’s army captured Cuautla after a 6-day battle on May 1911, a clear indication that Díaz’s grasp on power was tenuous at best. The battle was described as "six of the most terrible days of battle in the whole Revolution,” and it was clearly a clarion call to the Zapatistas.
When Díaz’s men withdrew, Zapata’s forces took control of the town. This defeat, paired with defeat at the First Battle of Ciudad Juárez at the hands of Pancho Villa, led Díaz to determine that his time was up.
Read more: biography.com/political-figu…
