What was porfirio díaz known for
Porfirio Díaz
Mexican general and president (–)
For the biographical film, see Porfirio Díaz (film).
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Díaz and the second or maternal family name is Mori.
José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori (Spanish pronunciation:[]; 15 September – 2 July ), was a Mexican general and dictator who served on three separate occasions as President of Mexico, a total of over 30 years, from 28 November to 6 December , 17 February to 1 December , and 1 December to 25 May The period from to is often referred to as the Porfiriato,[4] and has been called a de factodictatorship.[5][6]
Díaz was born to a Oaxacan family of modest means.
He initially studied to become a priest but eventually switched his studies to law, and among his mentors was the future President of Mexico, Benito Juárez.[7] Díaz increasingly became active in Liberal Party politics fighting with the Liberals to overthrow Santa Anna in the Plan of Ayutla, and also fighting on their side against the Conservative Party in the Reform War.
During the Second French Intervention in Mexico, Díaz fought in the Battle of Puebla in , which temporarily repulsed the invaders, but was captured when the French besieged the city with reinforcements a year later. He escaped captivity and made his way to Oaxaca City, becoming political and military commander over all of Southern Mexico, and successfully resisting French efforts to advance upon the region, until Oaxaca City fell before a French siege in Díaz once more escaped captivity seven months later and rejoined the army of the Mexican Republic as the Second Mexican Empire disintegrated in the wake of the French departure.
As Emperor Maximilian made a last stand in Querétaro, Díaz was in command of the forces that took back Mexico City in June
During the era of the Restored Republic, he subsequently revolted against presidents Benito Juárez and Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada on the principle of no re-election. Díaz succeeded in seizing power, ousting Lerdo in a coup in , with the help of his political supporters, and was elected in In , he stepped down and his political ally Manuel González was elected president, serving from to In , Díaz abandoned the idea of no re-election and held office continuously until
A controversial figure in Mexican history, Díaz's regime ended political instability and achieved growth after decades of economic stagnation.
He and his allies comprised a group of technocrats known as científicos ("scientists"),[9] whose economic policies benefited a circle of allies and foreign investors, helping hacendados consolidate large estates, often through violent means and legal abuse.[10] These policies grew increasingly unpopular, resulting in civil repression and regional conflicts, as well as strikes and uprisings from labor and the peasantry, groups that did not share in Mexico's growth.
Despite public statements in favoring a return to democracy and not running again for office, Díaz reversed himself and ran in the election. Díaz, then 80 years old, failed to institutionalize presidential succession, triggering a political crisis between the científicos and the followers of General Bernardo Reyes, allied with the military and peripheral regions of Mexico.[11] After Díaz declared himself the winner for an eighth term, his electoral opponent, wealthy estate owner Francisco I.
Madero, issued the Plan of San Luis Potosí calling for armed rebellion against Díaz, leading to the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution. In May , after the Federal Army suffered several defeats against the forces supporting Madero, Díaz resigned in the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez and went into exile in Paris, where he died four years later.
Early years
Porfirio Díaz was the sixth of seven children, baptized on 15 September , in Oaxaca, Mexico, but his exact date of birth is unknown.[12] 15 September is an important date in Mexican history, the eve of Miguel Hidalgo's Grito de Dolores, which triggered the Mexican War of Independence in After Díaz became president, it would become customary to commemorate the Grito de Dolores on the eve of its anniversary.[13][14]
Díaz's father, José Díaz, was a Criollo (a Mexican of predominantly Spanish ancestry).[14][15] José Díaz was an illiterate dependiente, or workman employed by a firm of merchants.
In , he had married Patrona Mori, whose mother was Mixtec, and whose father could trace his ancestry from Asturias.
Eventually, Jose de la Cruz had saved enough to start planting agave, and he opened a wayside inn in Oaxaca City to sell the products of his business. Jose de la Cruz died in of cholera[14][15] when Díaz was only three years old.
Patrona Mori began to manage the inn while raising her multiple children.
Education
The young Díaz was sent to primary school at the age of 6[18] and at one point was apprenticed to a carpenter. In , at the age of fifteen, Díaz entered the Colegio Seminario Conciliar de Oaxaca, to study for the priesthood, sponsored by his godfather, José Agustín Domínguez, canon of and eventually Bishop of Oaxaca.
In , the Mexican-American War broke out, and Díaz joined an Oaxacan military battalion.
He practiced drills and attended lectures on tactics and strategy at the Institute of Arts and Sciences, but he never saw combat by the time the war ended in
By , Díaz decided that he did not have a vocation to the priesthood[18] and over the objections of his family decided to switch his studies to law.[15][21] He gained the friendship of Don Marcos Pérez and Indigenous judge and professor of law at the Institute of Arts and Sciences through which Díaz also came to know his future colleague and president of Mexico, Benito Juárez who was at that time Governor of Oaxaca.[21] Díaz passed his first examination in civil and canon law in , at the age of
Plan of Ayutla
In that same year however, a Conservative Party coup overthrew the Liberal government of Mariano Arista and raised Santa Anna for what would turn out to be his final dictatorship.
Many prominent Liberals were expelled from the country, including Benito Juárez who found refuge in New Orleans. Don Marcos Pérez was arrested, but Díaz was able to communicate with him in prison with the help of Díaz's brother Félix&#;[es].
In March the Plan of Ayutla broke out against Santa Anna led by the Liberal caudilloJuan Álvarez.
After openly expressing support for Álvarez, Díaz was forced to flee Oaxaca and joined up with the Liberal partisan, Francisco Herrera.[26] Authorities managed to attack and disperse Herrera's troops, and Díaz once more had to flee, but the Ayutla movement was increasingly growing in strength. When the Liberals captured the city of Oaxaca, Díaz was made subprefect of Ixtlan.
As sub-prefect Díaz helped in an ill-fated effort to put down a barracks revolt in Oaxaca, but the Ayutla movement ultimately triumphed by August , when Santa Anna resigned, subsequently fleeing the nation.
Reform War
Main article: Reform War
Juan Álvarez was elected president in October and his administration inaugurated what would come to be known as La Reforma an unprecedented attempt to pass through progressive constitutional reforms for Mexico culminating in the promulgation of the Constitution of Conservative Party resistance ended up triggering the outbreak of the Reform War in late , at the same time when Díaz's old mentor, Benito Juarez became president.
The Conservatives set up their rival government in opposition to Juarez and the Liberals.
Díaz at this time was still in Oaxaca. He had previously accepted a commission as captain in the National Guard in December As the Reform War broke out, he maintained his command in Ixtlan, until the Conservative General Marcelino Cobos defeated the Liberal forces in Oaxaca in January Díaz was shot in the leg and would not recover for four months.
Díaz rejoined the war and was present when Cobos was defeated in Xalapa in February Diaz was subsequently named Governor and Military Commandant of the district of Tehuantepec.
He was given command over men and tasked with raising funds and receiving arms imported from the United States. Díaz chose the coast town of Juchitán de Zaragoza as his headquarters and exercised his command for two years. For winning repeated victories against the Conservatives he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
At the beginning of , Díaz went to the aid of the Liberal general José María Díaz Ordaz in defending Oaxaca City against Cobos.
The latter fell upon Díaz at Mitla on 20 January and defeated him, but Cobos retreated as Ordaz arrived with reinforcements, only for Ordaz to lose his life in the effort. His command over the forces of Oaxaca was passed down to Cristóbal Salinas. Díaz's old mentor Marcos Perez fell into a quarrel with Salinas over his strategy, and Díaz failed to mediate.
Juarez replaced Salinas with Vicente Rosas Landa, but the Liberals in Oaxaca were defeated at the hands of Cobos in November Díaz and Salinas found refuge in the mountains of Ixtlan.
While the fortune of the Liberals appeared to be at a low ebb at Oaxaca, the Conservatives as a whole at this point, were losing the war throughout the entire country, rapidly being drained of funds and resources.
This helped Díaz and Salinas take back Oaxaca City by August Díaz was promoted to colonel and transferred from the National Guard to the regular army. He was present at the decisive Battle of Calpulalpan, which decisively ended the war in favor of the Liberals.
The victorious President Juarez reentered the capital in January Díaz also joined the national congress as a deputy from Ocotlan.
The Conservative government had ceased to operate and its president, Miguel Miramon had fled the nation, but Conservative guerillas were still active in the countryside. In June , the Conservative General Leonardo Márquez made a raid upon the capital and Díaz left his congressional seat to join Ignacio Mejía and Jesús González Ortega in once more defending the city.
At Xalatlaco, Díaz without waiting for orders fell upon the forces of Marquez and won a notable victory. The Conservative forces were scattered and fled into the hills.
Second French Intervention in Mexico
Main article: Second French Intervention in Mexico
Battle of Puebla
At the opening of the Second French Intervention, in which France would attempt to overthrow the Mexican Republic and replace it with a client monarchy, Díaz had advanced to the rank of general and was in command of an infantry brigade.[15][41] He was present at the first engagement of the war when he lost three-fourths of his men after the French attacked his brigade in the state of Veracruz.
He retreated and joined up with the forces of Ignacio Zaragoza to continue harassing the enemy in the vicinity of Orizaba. Díaz and Zaragoza were forced to retreat before ending up in the city of Puebla by 3 May.
On the morning of 5 May, Díaz was in command of the Oaxaca battalion, guarding one of the roads leading into Puebla.
Porfirio diaz biography summary page 1 But that empire had lost its jewel in when New Spain had won independence and declared itself Mexico. In the capital, the Porfiriato ground on like nothing had changed. That done, Diaz turned his attention to the second part: attract money into Mexico. Chaos and instability dogged this administration.Commander of the French forces, Charles de Lorencez ordered his troops to ascend a hill overlooking the town for a direct attack upon the forts of Loreto and Guadalupe. The ascent failed, and the French were repulsed by attacks of Mexican cavalry and infantry. During the battle, Díaz was not present at the hill but rather on the plains to the right of the Mexican front, where he repulsed another French attack.
General Díaz pursued the French on their retreat to the Hacienda San Jose Renteria until recalled by Zaragoza.
The French attributed their defeat at Puebla to a lack of Conservative Party support. The Mexican monarchist expatriates who had given the idea of a Mexican monarchy to Napoleon III had also been working independently of any Mexican authority or political party.
When the French invaders arrived in Mexico they found the Conservatives reluctant to help the French in establishing a monarchy and proclaiming their loyalty to the type of centralist republic they had once established in Mexico. However, the Conservatives were increasingly won over to collaborate with the French as a means of receiving the military aid that would return them to power.
Díaz would once again have to fight many of the men he once faced in the Reform War such as Leonardo Márquez and the ex-Conservative president Miguel Miramon. Eventually, Porfirio Díaz as well would be personally asked to join the French, an offer which he would refuse.
Second Battle of Puebla
The French loss at the Battle of Puebla delayed the French march into the interior of Mexico by a year while Lorencez awaited reinforcements from France.
Meanwhile, Díaz had been made military governor of the Veracruz district. Soon after the Battle of Puebla, General Zaragoza died of typhus and was replaced in his command by Jesús González Ortega.
A second French siege of Puebla was this time led by Élie Frédéric Forey with 26, men, against the 20, troops commanded by Ortega. The Mexican defenders would hold out for two months from 16 March to 17 May in , until they ran out of provisions.
Against the advice of Díaz who suggested an offense, Ortega simply maintained a policy of defense, until the city was stormed.
As street fighting broke out at the beginning of April, Díaz was in command of the most exposed quarter of the city made up of seventeen blocks, and he made his headquarters at the strongest point of the district which was a large building known as the meson de San Marcos.
As Díaz planned his defenses, the French advanced with artillery and cannonballs began to crash through the building.
As French zouaves poured through the breaches, they were repulsed every time, and by the evening Díaz had regained complete control over his headquarters. Similar scenes occurred throughout the city and by April 25, Forey was contemplating suspending military operations until larger siege guns could arrive.
Despite the ongoing stalemate, the French were reassured by the knowledge that the Mexicans were running out of food and supplies.
First Escape
Díaz, among other officers, managed to escape before even arriving in Veracruz. Díaz then headed for Mexico City to report to President Benito Juárez.
The president prepared to depart Mexico City and commissioned Díaz to raise troops for the military district of Queretaro.
After capturing Mexico City in June , Dubois de Saligny, Napoleon's representative, appointed the members of a Mexican puppet government tasked with ratifying French intentions of establishing a monarchy.
On 8 July , this so-called Assembly of Notables resolved to change the nation into a monarchy, inviting Napoleon's candidate, Maximilian of Habsburg, to become Emperor of Mexico.
In August, Forey and Saligny were recalled to France, and command over the French administration and the military of the conquered Mexican territories fell upon Marshal Bazaine, already present with the expedition, who officially assumed his post on 1 October
By October Díaz was placed in charge of the Eastern division of the Mexican military with command over men.
Porfirio diaz biography in spanish: Mexico entered the modern age with electricity brought to the cities and thousands of miles of railway built. He switched his studies from the the priesthood to law. But, politically, the war paid dividends. Well, it did physically.
General Díaz proceeded to sweep through the states of Queretaro, Michoacan, and Mexico, into Guerrero, proceeding to capture the rich silver-bearing town of Taxco on 29 October. Díaz then proceeded south toward Oaxaca recruiting more men on the way until his forces had swelled to troops. The state of Oaxaca would be his main base of operations for the rest of the war.
Commander of the South
Porfirio Díaz was now not only the military but also the political commander over all unoccupied territories south of Veracruz. As the French made encroachments, forces under the command of Díaz managed in the Battle of San Juan Bautista to back the capital of Tabasco, in February Díaz's hold was consolidated enough that he began making excursions into Veracruz, and Minatitlán was taken by 28 March
Meanwhile, French control over central Mexico was rapidly expanding, and by March President Juárez had fled to Monterrey.
Even as the northern military situation was dire, Díaz still maintained a solid hold over Guerrero, Oaxaca, Tabasco, and Chiapas. Meanwhile, Emperor Maximilian and his wife Charlotte, now Empress of Mexico finally arrived in Mexico City on 12 June
By December , forces under Díaz had taken back the port of Acapulco. The French still struggled to make any inroads south against the forces commanded by Díaz and his lieutenant, the elderly Liberal caudillo, and former president of Mexico, Juan Álvarez.
By the end of the year, the French were making scouting expeditions and building roads to make further attempts south.
Finally, in early , a French expedition against Díaz's base of operations in Oaxaca City set out under General Courtois d’Hurbal by way of Yanhuitlan. Díaz evacuated Oaxaca City and began to build barricades while commanding troops for the defense of the city.
It was such an important republican stronghold, that Bazaine himself assumed command of the operation in person.
By February , the French had surrounded the city with siege materials and troops. An assault was scheduled for 9 February. Due to mass desertions which left him outnumbered ten to one, Díaz chose not to fight, instead surrendering unconditionally.
Díaz and his officers were taken prisoner and sent to Puebla.
Second Escape
After being kept seven months in Puebla, Díaz managed to escape from French confinement yet again and returned to Oaxaca. When news of this reached Paris, former commander of the French Intervention, Forey who had once fought against Díaz at Puebla, criticized Bazaine for not having had Díaz shot immediately upon capturing him.
Throughout late , as the French were still unable to secure the entire country, Napoleon III was led to the conclusion that France had gotten involved in a military quagmire.
At the opening of the French Chambers in January , he announced his intention of withdrawing French troops from Mexico. The French considered Emperor Maximilian to be doomed due to a lack of popular support and began to pressure him to abdicate.
French authorities considered forming an alternative Liberal government, more accommodating, and less humiliating to French interests than Juárez, and Díaz was proposed but ultimately rejected as a candidate to lead such a government due to his loyalty to Juárez.
The alternative government scheme never materialized, Maximilian refused to abdicate, and the French left him in Mexico to his fate, the last French troops departing by March
Fall of the Second Mexican Empire
When Díaz returned to Oaxaca in late , he found his army of the South dispersed, and enemy forces controlling the Oaxacan coast along with Tehuantepec.
By Spring, , Díaz had gained some victories, aided by local uprisings. He began to focus on cutting off communications between Oaxaca City and Veracruz Díaz won the Battle of Miahuatlán on 3 October, and then advanced upon Oaxaca City which surrendered by 1 November Most of southern Mexico except for certain areas of Yucatan were now back in the hands of the Mexican Republic.
Díaz now concentrated his forces in northern Oaxaca, Vera Cruz, Mexico, and Puebla for future operations. On 9 March , Díaz began the Third Battle of Puebla, subjecting the city to an attack much like the one he had once defended it from, taking the city by 2 April. Díaz spared the troops, but ordered the execution of the officers, taunting them by saying that “even though they had not lived like men, they could die like men”.
All that remained of the Empire were Querétaro City, where Maximilian and his leading generals were present, Mexico City, and Veracruz, the latter two which had, through Díaz’ capture of Puebla, been cut off from communications with each other.
Leonardo Márquez had been sent from Queretaro to relieve the siege of Puebla, but he was too late. Díaz pursued Márquez and a skirmish ensued on 8 April, but Márquez got away and made it back to Mexico City
Siege of Mexico City
Díaz now focused on taking back Mexico City and succeeded in seizing Chapultepec Castle, Maximilian's former residence, from its remaining imperial defenders, subsequently making it his headquarters.
Porfirio diaz biography oaxaca What was there not to love? This success came at a high cost for Mexico's poor, however. He would die in poverty in , having never regained the presidency. But, politically, the war paid dividends.Díaz now had Mexico City surrounded with 28, troops yet being concerned with preventing damage to the capital he did not attack, and a seventy-day standoff ensued. Meanwhile, the Siege of Querétaro against Emperor Maximilian's headquarters was ongoing and ultimately ended by May 14 in a Liberal victory.
Even after Maximilian had been captured, Leonardo Márquez was stalling for time at Mexico City, but hope for the imperialists was running out.
Márquez' officer General O’Horan went to meet Díaz without authorization and offered to surrender the city, warning Díaz that Márquez was about the escape, but Díaz rejected the offer. On 20 June, the day after Maximilian had been executed, Díaz ordered a barrage of artillery against the positions of the enemy, and his observers suddenly began to notice white flags of surrender.
The remaining imperialist officers were arrested and it was discovered that Márquez had disappeared the day before. Upon occupying the city Díaz ordered his military bakers to begin supplying the city's starving population with food. He placed the city under martial law to prevent looting but also began a house-by-house search for any remaining imperialist officers.
Márquez would never be found and he successfully escaped the country to find refuge in Cuba.
Díaz Rebels Against the Government
Plan de la Noria
Main article: Plan de la Noria
Díaz declared himself a candidate for presidential elections scheduled for August Meanwhile, President Juarez proposed certain amendments to the constitution, and opponents of them began to coalesce around Diaz's campaign.
Juárez subsequently won the presidential election and began a new term scheduled to end on 30 November
Juárez controversially once more declared his candidacy for the elections which he won again against Díaz. Supporters of Díaz accused the government of engaging in election fraud, refused to recognize Juárez as the legitimate president, and prepared to take up arms.
The subsequent insurrection would come to be known as the Plan de la Noria from the eponymous Oaxacan town in which the revolution was proclaimed on 8 November
Supporting revolts flared up across the country, but Juárez sustained himself against them[] until dying in office on 18 July , the presidency passing on to the legal successor Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada.
President Lerdo offered an amnesty to the rebels in July , an offer which many commanders subsequently took. Díaz himself refused it, and on 1 August, sent a letter to the president urging a modification of the amnesty terms and urging an extension for upcoming presidential elections in October ostensibly to allow rebellious regions to fully participate.
The president was unyielding but so was Díaz, who urged Lerdo, in a later communication to also initiate constitutional reforms to prohibit presidential reelection.
As more rebel commanders yielded and the October elections came and went with Lerdo winning an overwhelming majority of votes, Díaz realized that his case was hopeless and finally submitted unconditionally before the amnesty in late October.
Plan of Tuxtepec
Main article: Plan of Tuxtepec
Díaz was eventually restored to official military rank in but retired to private life,[] and subsequently moved to the United States in December , settling in Brownsville, Texas, across the border from Matamoros.
In early , President Lerdo doomed his already unpopular[] presidency by announcing his plans for re-election scheduled for June of that year. On 15 January , the Plan of Tuxtepec was proclaimed in Tuxtepec, Oaxaca. Porfirio Díaz was invited to assume leadership of the revolution.
As support for the Tuxtepec Plan rapidly spread throughout the country, Díaz returned to the country on March At the town of Palo Blanco, he published a revised version of the Tuxtepec Plan.
The plan was a miscellaneous set of critiques against the Lerdo Administration focusing on the claim that the president's domination of the electoral process rendered free suffrage null. Díaz was declared the military leader of the revolution and Lerdo was declared deposed along with all governors who would not accede to the Tuxtepec Plan.
The interim executive was first offered to the president of the supreme court and legal successor to the president José María Iglesias, but he rejected any role in the plan as a violation of the constitution. The revolutionaries now recognized Díaz as president.
As federalist forces under Mariano Escobedo approached Díaz, the latter was forced to take flight, intending to rejoin the revolution in his familiar base of Oaxaca.
He crossed back into the United States, disguised himself as a Cuban doctor, and boarded a steamer bound for Veracruz. He was detected by military officers on board as the ship approached Veracruz. Although the ship was four miles from the coast, Díaz jumped overboard and attempted to swim ashore, but officers sent a boat after him and he was returned to the ship.
The ship's purserAlexander Coney a fellow Mason was sympathetic to Díaz and helped him escape again from which he hastened to Oaxaca, arriving by July.
On 15 November, as Díaz approached Mexico City from Oaxaca his troops clashed at Tecoac with those of the federalist General Alatorre. The outcome of the hours-long battle hung in the balance, but Díaz routed the Federalist troops after reinforcements arrived.
Mexico City now lay open to Díaz's forces, and President Lerdo de Tejada, realizing his cause was lost, evacuated the capital with military and civilian supporters, intending to flee the country.
After the elections of July, a rival revolt known as the Plan of Salamanca had flared up under Iglesias, alleging that Lerdo's election had been fraudulent and that he was now the legitimate president of Mexico until legal elections could be held.
Iglesias began to correspond with Díaz, hoping to unite their movements, but no agreement could be reached, even after the flight of Lerdo.
Díaz entered Mexico City on 29 November and finally ascended to the presidency. He organized his cabinet but now focused on crushing the movement of Iglesias and set out for the latter's base in Guanajuato with 10, men.
Iglesias began to experience mass defections in both political and military support and after a series of failed negotiations with Díaz in December, decided upon giving up and departing the country. The victorious Díaz reentered the capital on 12 February
Becoming president and first term, –
Díaz did not take formal control of the presidency until the beginning of , putting in General Juan N.
Méndez as provisional president, followed by new presidential elections in that gave Díaz the presidency. Ironically, one of his government's first amendments to the liberal constitution was to prevent re-election.[]
Although the new election gave some air of legitimacy to Díaz's government, the United States did not recognize the regime.
It was not clear that Díaz would continue to prevail against supporters of ousted President Lerdo, who continued to challenge Díaz's regime by insurrections, which ultimately failed. In addition, cross-border Apache attacks with raids on one side and sanctuary on the other were a sticking point. Mexico needed to meet several conditions before the U.S.
would consider recognizing Díaz's government, including payment of a debt to the U.S. and restraining the cross-border Apache raids. The U.S. emissary to Mexico, John W. Foster, had the duty to protect the interests of the U.S. first and foremost. Lerdo's government had entered into negotiations with the U.S. over claims that each had against the other in previous conflicts.
A joint U.S.-Mexico Claims Commission was established in , in the wake of the fall of the French Empire.[] When Díaz seized power from Lerdo's government, he inherited Lerdo's negotiated settlement with the U.S. As Mexican historian Daniel Cosío Villegas put it, "He Who Wins Pays."[] Díaz secured recognition by paying $, to settle claims by the U.S.
In , the U.S. government recognized the Díaz regime, and former U.S. president and Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant visited Mexico.[]See also: Lerdista Uprising of
During his first term in office, Díaz developed a pragmatic and personalist approach to solving political conflicts. Although a political liberal who had stood with radical liberals in Oaxaca (rojos), he was not a liberal ideologue, preferring pragmatic approaches towards political issues.
He was explicit about his pragmatism. He maintained control through generous patronage of political allies.[] In his first term, members of his political alliance were discontented that they had not sufficiently benefited from political and financial rewards. In general, he sought conciliation, but force could be an option. "'Five fingers or five bullets,' as he was fond of saying." Although he was an authoritarian ruler, he maintained the structure of elections, so that there was the façade of liberal democracy.
His administration became famous for the suppression of civil society and public revolts. One of the catchphrases of his later terms in office was the choice between "pan o palo", ("bread or the bludgeon")—that is, "benevolence or repression".[] Díaz saw his task in his term as president to create internal order so that economic development could be possible.
As a military hero and astute politician, Díaz's eventual successful establishment of that peace (Paz Porfiriana) became "one of [Díaz's] principal achievements, and it became the main justification for successive re-elections after "[]
Díaz and his advisers' pragmatism about the United States became the policy of "defensive modernization", which attempted to make the best of Mexico's weak position against its northern neighbor.
Attributed to Díaz was the phrase "so far from God, so close to the United States." Díaz's advisers Matías Romero, Juárez's emissary to the U.S., and Manuel Zamacona, a minister in Juárez's government, advised a policy of "peaceful invasion" of U.S. capital to Mexico, with the expectation that it would then be "naturalized" in Mexico. In their view, such an arrangement would "provide 'all possible advantages of annexation without its inconveniences'."[] Díaz was won over to that viewpoint, which promoted Mexican economic development and gave the U.S.
an outlet for its capital and allowed for its influence in Mexico.
Porfirio diaz biography summary page Diaz brought Mexico into the modern age and the country achieved financial solvency under his reign. Almost overnight, railroad tracks sprang up, linking cities to ports, to the USA. His Plan of la Noria claimed the election had been fraudulent and demanded that the presidency be limited to a single term. A Photo Gallery of the Mexican Revolution.By , Mexico was forging a new relationship with the U.S. as Díaz's term of office was ending.
Díaz stepped down from the presidency, with his ally, General Manuel González, one of the trustworthy members of his political network (camarilla), elected president in a fully constitutional manner.[15] This four-year period, often characterized as the "González Interregnum",[] is sometimes seen as Díaz placing a puppet in the presidency, but González ruled in his own right and was viewed as a legitimate president free of the taint of coming to power by coup.
During this period, Díaz briefly served as governor of his home state of Oaxaca. He also devoted time to his personal life, highlighted by his marriage to Carmen Romero Rubio, the devout year-old daughter of Manuel Romero Rubio, a supporter of Lerdo. The couple honeymooned in the U.S., going to the World Cotton Centennial in New Orleans, then St.
Louis, Washington, D.C., and New York. Accompanying them on their travels was Matías Romero and his U.S.-born wife. This working honeymoon allowed Díaz to forge personal connections with politicians and powerful businessmen with Romero's friends, including former U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant. Romero then publicized the growing amity between the two countries and the safety of Mexico for U.S.
investors.
President González was making room in his government for political networks not originally part of Díaz's coalition, some of whom had been loyalists to Lerdo, including Evaristo Madero, whose grandson Francisco would challenge Díaz for the presidency in Important legislation changing rights to land and subsoil rights, and encouraging immigration and colonization by U.S.
nationals was passed during the González presidency.
The administration also extended lucrative railway concessions to U.S. investors. Despite those developments, the González administration met financial and political difficulties, with the later period bringing the government to bankruptcy and popular opposition. Díaz's father-in-law Manuel Romero Rubio linked these issues to personal corruption by González.
Despite Díaz's previous protestations of "no re-election", he ran for a second term in the elections.
During this period the Mexican underground political newspapers spread the new ironic slogan for the Porfirian Times, based on the slogan "Sufragio Efectivo, No Reelección" (Effective suffrage, no re-election) and changed it to its opposite, "Sufragio Efectivo No, Reelección" (Effective suffrage – No.
Re-election!).[] Díaz had the constitution amended, first to allow two terms in office, and then to remove all restrictions on re-election. With these changes in place, Díaz was re-elected four more times by implausibly high margins, and on some occasions claimed to have won with either unanimous or near-unanimous support.[]
Over the next twenty-six years as president, Díaz created a systematic and methodical regime with a staunch military mindset.[15] His first goal was to establish peace throughout Mexico.
According to John A. Crow, Díaz "set out to establish a good strong Paz Porfiriana, or Porfirian peace, of such scope and firmness that it would redeem the country in the eyes of the world for its sixty-five years of revolution and anarchy" since independence.[] His second goal was outlined in his motto – "little of politics and plenty of administration",[] meaning the replacement of open political conflict by a well-functioning government apparatus.
Administration, –
See also: Mexican Revolution §&#;Porfiriato –, and Porfiriato
To secure his power, Díaz engaged in various forms of co-optation and coercion. He constantly balanced between the private desires of different interest groups and playing off one interest against another.[15] Following the González presidency, Díaz abandoned favoring his political group (camarilla) that brought him to power in in the Plan of Tuxtepec and selected ministers and other high officials from other factions.
Those included those loyal to Juárez (Matías Romero) and Lerdo (Manuel Romero Rubio). Manuel Dublán was one of the few loyalists from the Plan of Tuxtepec that Díaz retained as a cabinet minister. As money flowed to the Mexican treasury from foreign investments, Díaz could buy off his loyalists from Tuxtepec. An important group supporting the regime were foreign investors, especially from the U.S.
and Great Britain, as well as Germany and France. Díaz himself met with investors, binding him with this group in a personal rather than institutional fashion. The close cooperation between these foreign elements and the Díaz regime was a key nationalist issue in the Mexican Revolution.
To satisfy any competing domestic forces, such as mestizos and Indigenous leaders, Díaz gave them political positions or made them intermediates for foreign interests.
He acted similarly to rural elites by not interfering with their wealth and haciendas. The urban middle classes in Mexico City were often in opposition to the government, but with the country's economic prosperity and the expansion of the government, they had job opportunities in federal employment.
Covering both pro- and anti-clerical elements, Díaz was both the head of the Freemasons in Mexico and an important advisor to the Catholic bishops.[] Díaz proved to be a different kind of liberal than those of the past.
He neither assaulted the Church nor protected it.[] With the influx of foreign investment and investors, Protestant missionaries arrived in Mexico, especially in Mexico's north, and Protestants became an opposition force during the Mexican Revolution.[]
Although there was factionalism in the ruling group and some regions, Díaz suppressed the formation of opposition parties.
Díaz dissolved all local authorities and all aspects of federalism that once existed. Not long after he became president, the governors of all federal states in Mexico answered directly to him.[15] Those who held high positions of power, such as members of the legislature, were almost entirely his closest and most loyal friends.
Congress was a rubber stamp for his policy plans and they were compliant in amending the Constitution to allow his re-election and extension of the presidential term. In his quest for political control, Díaz suppressed the press and controlled the court system.[15] Díaz could intervene in political matters that threatened political stability, such as in the conflict in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila, placing José María Garza Galan in the governorship, undercutting wealthy estate owner Evaristo Madero, grandfather of Francisco I.
Madero, who would challenge Díaz in the election. In another case, Díaz placed General Bernardo Reyes in the governorship of the state of Nuevo León, displacing existing political elites.
A key supporter of Díaz was former Lerdista Manuel Romero Rubio. According to historian Friedrich Katz, "Romero Rubio was in many respects the architect of the Porfirian state." The relationship between the two was cemented when Díaz married Romero Rubio's young daughter, Carmen.
Romero Rubio and his supporters did not oppose the amendment to the Constitution to allow Díaz's initial re-election and then indefinite re-election. One of Romero Rubio's protégés was José Yves Limantour, who became the main financial adviser to the regime, stabilizing the country's public finances. Limantour's political network was dubbed the Científicos, "the scientists", for their approach to governance.
They sought reforms, such as decreasing corruption and increasing uniform application of laws. Díaz opposed any significant reform and continued to appoint governors and legislators and control the judiciary.
Díaz and the military
See also: Military history of Mexico §&#;Porfiriato ()
Díaz had not trained as a soldier, but made his career in the military during a tumultuous era of the U.S.
invasion of Mexico, the age of General Antonio López de Santa Anna, the Reform War, and the Second French Intervention. A study of his presidential cabinets found that 83% of cabinet members old enough had fought in one or more of those conflicts. The tradition of post-independence Mexico of the military intervening and dominance over civilian politicians continued under Díaz.
A closer study shows that over time prominent military figures increasingly played a much smaller role in his government. Civilian politicians loyal to him rather than his military comrades in arms came to dominate his cabinet. His regime was not a military dictatorship but rather had strong civilian allies.
Porfirio diaz biography summary page by line Mexico City : Planeta, Money was suddenly pouring into a Mexico that was suddenly safe. You might recognize Santa Anna from your American history class. In return, these investors would modernize his country.His replacement of military advisors for civilians signaled that it was civilians who held power in the political arena.[][]
In office, Díaz was able to bring provincial military strongmen under the control of the central government, a process that took fifteen years. He provided opportunities for graft for military men he could not successfully confront on the battlefield.
Ample salaries helped maintain the loyalty of others. Dangerous military leaders could be sent on foreign missions to study military training in Europe as well as nonmilitary issues, and thereby keep them out of Mexico. Officers who retired could receive half the salary of their highest rank. He created military zones that were not contiguous with state boundaries and rotated the commanders regularly, preventing them from becoming entrenched in any one zone, then extended the practice to lower-ranking officers.
"Díaz destroyed provincial militarism and developed in its stead a national army that sustained the central government."[]
A potential opposition force was the Mexican Federal Army. Troops were often men forced into military service and poorly paid. Díaz increased the size of the military budget and began modernizing the institution along the lines of European militaries, including the establishment in of separate military academies to train army and naval officers.
High-rank officers were brought into government service. Díaz expanded the crack police force, the Rurales, who were under the control of the president. Díaz knew that he needed to suppress banditry; he expanded the Rurales, although it guarded chiefly only transport routes to major cities.[] Díaz thus worked to enhance his control over the military and the police.[] By the time of the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in , the Federal Army had an aging leadership, and disgruntled troops, and they were unable to control the revolutionary forces in active multiple locations.[]
Relations with the Catholic Church
See also: History of the Catholic Church in Mexico §&#;Porfiriato ()
Unlike other Mexican liberals, Díaz was not anti-clerical, which became a political advantage when Díaz came to power.
He won over conservatives, including the Catholic Church as an institution and social conservatives supporting it.[]
Radical liberalism was anti-clerical, seeing the privileges of the Church as challenging the idea of equality before the law and individual, rather than corporate identity.
They considered the economic power of the Catholic Church a detriment to modernization and development. The Church as a major corporate landowner and de facto banking institution shaped investments to conservative landed estates more than industry, infrastructure building, or exports. In power after the ouster of Santa Anna, liberals implemented legal measures to curtail the power of the Church.
The Juárez Law abolished special privileges (fueros) of ecclesiastics and the military, and the Lerdo law mandated disentailment of the property of corporations, specifically the Church and indigenous communities. The liberal constitution of removed the privileged position of the Catholic Church and opened the way to religious tolerance, considering religious expression as freedom of speech.
Catholic priests were ineligible for elective office but could vote.[] Conservatives fought back in the Reform War, under the banner of religión y fueros (religion and privileges), but were defeated in Following the fall of the Second Empire in , liberal president Benito Juárez and his successor Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada began implementing the anti-clerical measures of the constitution.
Lerdo went further, extending the laws of the Reform to formalize the separation of Church and State; civil marriage as the only valid manner for State recognition; prohibitions of religious corporations to acquire real estate; elimination of religious elements from legal oaths; and the elimination of monastic vows as legally binding.[] Further prohibitions on the Church in included the exclusion of religion in public institutions; restriction of religious acts to church precincts; banning of religious garb in public except within churches; and prohibition of the ringing of church bells except to summon parishioners.[]
Díaz was a political pragmatist, seeing that the religious question re-opened political discord in Mexico.
When he rebelled against Lerdo, Díaz had at least the tacit and perhaps even the explicit support of the Catholic Church.[] When he came to power in , Díaz left the anti-clerical laws in place, but no longer enforced them as state policy, leaving that to individual Mexican states. This led to the re-emergence of the Church in many areas but in others a less full role.
The Church flouted the Reform prohibitions against wearing clerical garb, there were open-air processions and Masses, and religious orders existed.[] The Church also recovered its property, sometimes through intermediaries, and tithes were again collected.[] The church regained its role in education, with the complicity of the Díaz regime which did not invest in public education.
The Church also regained its role in running charitable institutions.[] Despite the increasingly visible role of the Catholic Church during the Porfiriato, the Vatican was unsuccessful in getting the reinstatement of a formal relationship between the papacy and Mexico, and the constitutional limitations of the Church as an institution remained as law.[]
This modus vivendi between Díaz and the Church had pragmatic and positive consequences.
Díaz did not publicly renounce liberal anti-clericalism, meaning that the Constitution of remained in place, but he did not enforce its anti-clerical measures. Conflict could reignite, but it was to the advantage of both the Church and the Díaz government for this arrangement to continue. If the Church did counter Díaz, he had the constitutional means to rein in its power.
The Church regained considerable economic power, with conservative intermediaries holding lands for it. The Church remained important in education and charitable institutions. Other important symbols of the normalization of religion in late 19th century Mexico included: the return of the Jesuits (expelled by the BourbonCharles III in ); the crowning of the Virgin of Guadalupe as "Queen of Mexico"; and the support of Mexican bishops for Díaz's work as a peacemaker.[] When the Mexican Revolution broke out in , the Catholic Church was a staunch supporter of the Díaz regime.[]
Economic liberalization under Díaz
Main article: Economic history of Mexico §&#;Porfiriato, –