Part of it has to do with the people involved and their different agendas. To begin with, the independence of Mexico, contrary to what people think about independence movements, was not accomplished by a group of patriots trying to free a country from an imperial power. The people that free Mexico from Spain were the criollos (individuals of Spaniards ancentry but born in Mexico) and the mestizo elite. Because in the colonial system only the peninsulares (spainards born in spain) could hold the high positions of power, the criollos felt the need to secure their status, more so with the French invasion to Spain. There is a saying in Mexican history that translates to something like this “the Native Americans accomplished the conquest and the Spaniard descendants the independence”. The essence of this is that the independent movement of Mexico did not truly wanted to modify the monarchist system but grant equal rights to peninsulares and criollos. This was accomplished in the Plan de Iguala that created the Ejercito Trigarante (Army of the Three Guarantees) between the forces of Iturbide and Vicente Guerrero. Forces combined, they asked for the resignation of Viceroy O’Donoju, something that was accomplished with the signing of the Treaty of Cordoba. As one of the clauses of the treaty it was stipulated that Mexico will gain independence as a monarchy that was going to be ruled by a transplanted king Ferdinand, another prince from the Bourbon house, or some other European royal. However, Iturbide included the clause that if not suitable king was found, the Mexican Congress will be able to appoint a criollo for the Mexican Crown, which in turned happened when the Regimen of Celaya marched in the streets of Mexico city demanding the appointment of Iturbide as king of the newly independent Mexican State. This is how Mexico won independence; something to be say is that the indigenous communities and the lower class mestizos got the worst part of the deal because they were left with even less ways to maneuver the bureaucracy of the newly created Mexican monarchy.

In contrast, during the 1910 Revolution the goals were aimed at modifying various social aspects that were established during the long period called Porfiriato. In particular, Ignacio I. Madero (a figure always forgotten when talking about the Mexican Revolution in the United States) started such modifications with the establishment of more democratic elections and the beginnings of what later will be agrarian reforms. However, he was killed in a matter of months after becoming president and it was this episode that started the more violent civil unrest. During those years you have many different groups fighting against each other and with different goals in mind. Before the fighting was over, the Congreso Constituyente de Mexico met in Queretaro in 1917 to write the new Mexican Constitution. It is at this moment that you truly see big debates over everything that the delegates wanted for Mexico. Curiously, the end result was more reformist that what certain groups had anticipated and because of this fighting continued for a couple of more years. However, contrary to popular belief, the figures that were pushing for more social reforms (like Emiliano Zapata or Francisco Villa) were actually on the losing side since it was the Sonoritos headed by Venustiano Carranza and Alvaro Obregon the ones that actually won the revolution. In fact some Mexican historians refer to the Mexican revolution as “la Guerra robada” or the stolen war.

Now, the “great winner” of the revolution was Plutarco Elias Calles who was abled to bring many different factions of Mexican society under the umbrella of his National Revolutionary Party (PNR). It is under his presidency that you see the beginnings of the modern Mexican government institutions and the Mexican identity. While a supporter of the Ejido sytem, Calles did not redistributed land himself. It was his successor, General Lazaro Cardenas who actually put in place many of the policies that lead to the agrarian reforms that we associate with the fighting of the Mexican Revolution. It is because of Cardenas, that Mexico had the process that we called la Reforma Agraria and the expropriation of oil. Sorry for the lengthy response, and let me know if you have follow-up questions