The Constitution of 1917 Codifies the Revolution's Demands
Delegates in Queretaro write land reform, labor rights, and secular education into a document still in force a century later
Quick facts
- Convention convened
- November 1916, Santiago de Queretaro
- Ratified
- 5 February 1917
- Total articles
- 137
- Key articles
- 3 (education), 27 (land), 123 (labor)
What happened
By late 1916, Venustiano Carranza controlled every Mexican state except Chihuahua and Morelos and convened a Constitutional Convention in Santiago de Queretaro that November, drawing mostly young, university-educated delegates who proved considerably more radical on social policy than Carranza expected. The resulting Constitution of 1917, ratified on 5 February 1917 and still in force today, runs to 137 articles. Article 3 established free, secular, compulsory public education outside clerical control; Article 27 mandated the return of land seized from peasant communities during the Porfiriato, even without written titles, and allowed government expropriation of land not put to appropriate use; and Article 123 set an eight-hour workday, a six-day week, a minimum wage, and the right of workers to organize and strike.
Why it matters
The 1917 Constitution is generally treated as the point at which the Mexican Revolution's demands became law rather than only battlefield slogans, and its labor and land provisions influenced other 20th-century constitutions that followed. Its core articles on education, land, and labor remained the legal foundation of Mexican governance for the rest of the century.
How we know
The Constitution's full text was printed in the Diario Oficial on 5 February 1917 and survives in the Library of Congress Law Library's collection, including the specific articles on education, land, and labor cited above.
Sources
- The Mexican Revolution and the United States exhibit, Library of Congress. The Constitution of 1917 · Primary source (author-declared)loc.gov · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Library of Congress Country Studies. Mexico - The Constitution of 1917 · General sourcecountrystudies.us · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match).
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