Product Details

Commemorative issue: Centennial of the Revolution Dates: Issued September 23rd, 2009 Dated November 20th, 2007 (printing) 2010 (100th anniversary of the Revolution) Banknote family: F Front: Centenario de la revolucion Mexicana - 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution Stream Train 100 pesos cien años - 100 years Back: Painting La revolución contra la dictadura porfiriana ("The Revolution against the Porfirio Díaz Dictatorship") by David A. Siqueiros Steam trains in the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) Not background décor—railways were the circulatory system of the war. 1. Strategic Mobility Porfirio Díaz’s regime had built a dense rail network to bind the country economically and militarily. Once the Revolution broke out, whoever controlled the rails controlled territory. Troops, artillery, horses, food, and ammunition all moved by steam train. Campaigns were planned around junctions: Torreón, Chihuahua, Aguascalientes, Veracruz. 2. Armored Trains (Trenes Blindados) Revolutionary factions—especially Villa’s División del Norte—converted locomotives and cars into mobile fortresses: Steel-plated boilers and cars Machine-gun ports Field guns mounted on flatcars These were rolling shock weapons, ideal for rapid assaults on garrisons along the line. 3. Villa as a Railway General Pancho Villa understood logistics better than most professional officers: Ran entire divisions by timetable Used trains to concentrate forces suddenly, strike, then vanish Captured rail workshops to repair and refit locomotives His campaigns in northern Mexico were essentially rail-based operations. 4. Sabotage and Counter-Rail Warfare Zapatistas and guerrilla units specialized in: Blowing bridges Uprooting track Derailing troop trains This forced federal armies into slow, vulnerable marches and fragmented their supply lines. 5. Political Symbolism Railways had symbolized Porfirian “order and progress.” During the Revolution they became: Instruments of popular power Sites of class conflict (rail workers often sided with rebels) Visual metaphors of modernity seized and repurposed by the peasantry and the urban proletariat In short: Steam trains were not just transport; they were the Revolution’s arteries, its armored cavalry, its supply depots, and its moving front lines. Without the rail network, Villa’s lightning campaigns, Carranza’s consolidation, and even the federal army’s survival would have been impossible.