Porfirio Díaz
29th President of Mexico
1830 CE to 1915 CE
José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori (15 September 1830 – 2 July 1915) is a volunteer in the Reform War and then a leader of the successful rebellion against French intervention, an accomplished general and the President of Mexico continuously from 1876 to 1911, with the exception of a brief term in 1876 when he leaves Juan N. Méndez as interim president, and a four-year term served by his political ally Manuel González from 1880 to 1884.
Commonly considered by historians to have been a dictator, he is a controversial figure in Mexican history.
The period of his leadership is marked by significant internal stability (known as the "paz porfiriana"), modernization, and economic growth.
However, Díaz's regime grows unpopular due to repression and political stagnation, and he falls from power during the Mexican Revolution, after he had imprisoned his electoral rival and declared himself the winner of an eighth term in office.
The 35 years in which Díaz rules Mexico are referred to as the Porfiriato.
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New elections are called in 1872, and Lerdo wins the presidency.
His administration is characterized by a continuous effort to bring peace to the country, and he intervenes militarily in the countryside whenever it is necessary.
Lerdo maintains the emphasis on communications through new railroad and telegraph lines.
In education, he directs his energies to the construction of new schools and the enrollment of more students.
Juárez decides to seek reelection at the end of his term in 1871.
His opponents are Jose de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz and Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, whose candidacies divide the liberal faction and result in none of the candidates receiving a majority of the votes.
With no clear winner, it is up to congress to choose among the three candidates or to reelect the incumbent president.
The congress chooses Juarez.
Díaz invokes the principle of "no reelection" in the constitution of 1857 and stages a revolt in November 1871.
On July 18, 1872, amidst the Díaz rebellion, Juárez dies of a heart attack.
The French continue with victories in 1865, with Bazaine capturing Oaxaca on February 9 (defeating the city's defenders under General Porfirio Díaz).
The French fleet lands soldiers who capture Guaymas on March 29.
Republicans defeat Imperial forces at Tacámbaro in Michoacán on April 11.
The Mexican Republic, holding only the North and a couple of pockets in the South, has relocated to Chihuahua within a year of Maximilian’s installation as emperor, while the Empire dominates the Center to both coasts as well as the Yucatan.
In April and May, the republicans have many forces in the states of Chihuahua and ...
...Sinaloa.
Most towns along the Rio Grande are also occupied by republicans.
The republicans defeat the Belgian volunteers at the Second Battle of Tacámbaro on July 11.
The decree issued by Maximilian on October 3, known as the "Black Decree", threatens any Mexican captured in the war with immediate execution.
Several high-ranking republican officials are executed under this order on October 21.
Benito Juárez is reelected to yet another term as president in 1871 despite a constitutional prohibition of reelections, provoking one of the losing candidates, Porfirio Díaz (a Liberal general and a hero of the French war, but increasingly conservative in outlook) to launch a rebellion against the president.
Mexico’s Conservative party had been so thoroughly discredited by its alliance with the invading French troops that it had effectively ceased to exist after the victory over the French occupation, and the Liberal party has been almost unchallenged as a political force during the first years of the "restored republic".