Díaz, Porfirio (pôrfē`ryō dē`äs), 1830–1915, Mexican statesman, a mestizo, christened José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz. He gained prominence by supporting Benito Juárez Juárez, Benito , 1806–72, Mexican liberal statesman and national hero. Revered by Mexicans as one of their greatest political figures, Juárez, with great moral courage and honesty, upheld the civil law and opposed the privileges of the clericals
..... Click the link for more information. and the liberals in the War of the Reform and in the war against Emperor Maximilian Maximilian, 1832–67, emperor of Mexico (1864–67). As the Austrian archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, he was denied a share in the imperial government by his reactionary brother, Emperor Francis Joseph.
..... Click the link for more information. and the French (1861—67). Defeated by Juárez in the presidential election of 1871, Díaz charged fraud and led a revolt against the government, which was not suppressed until after the inauguration of Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada Lerdo de Tejada, Miguel , d. 1861, Mexican liberal statesman, a leader of the Revolution of Ayutla, cabinet member under Juan Álvarez. As minister under Comonfort, he initiated the Ley Lerdo (1856), a law providing for the forced sale of all real property of
..... Click the link for more information. . Díaz again lost in the presidential race of 1876. He refused defeat, rose against Lerdo, and gained the presidency. Aside from a brief interregnum from 1880 to 1884 when he handpicked Manuel González as his temporary successor, he remained in power until 1911. His rule was ruthless and ultimately effective. Conspirators were crushed, and banditry was officially eliminated by incorporating marauders into a state police called the rurales. He shrewdly matched interest groups against each other, leaving the president supreme; elections were a mockery. Yet he also sought conciliation with previously hostile sectors, particularly the Catholic Church and the U.S. government. Díaz's policy encouraging foreign investment defused U.S. interventionism and led to U.S. recognition of his regime. Material prosperity under Díaz grew. Roads, railroads, and telegraph lines greatly increased. Díaz was influenced by positivism, the belief in the triumph of science and the scientific method. Positivists such as Jose Ives Limantour (1854–1935), the leader of the Científicos, reformed the fiscal system and gave Mexico financial stability. Mexico became a land of peace and prosperity, ruled in the interest of the few. Díaz sold three quarters of the nation's mineral resources to foreign interests and apportioned millions of acres among friendly hacendados. The peasants, far from obtaining social justice, lost more of their communal lands (see ejido ejido [Span.,=common land], in Mexico, agricultural land expropriated from large private holdings and redistributed to communal farms. Communal ownership of land had been widely practiced by the Aztecs, but the institution was in decline before the Spanish arrived.
..... Click the link for more information. ); half of the entire rural population was bound to debt slavery. Opposition and discontent grew rapidly in the last decade of Díaz's rule. In 1909, Díaz declared his intention to restore democratic rule, yet his fraudulent reelection the following year demonstrated his promises empty, and sparked a revolution headed by Francisco I. Madero Madero, Francisco Indalecio , 1873–1913, Mexican statesman and president (1911–13). A champion of democracy and social reform, he established various humanitarian institutions for the peons on his family's vast estates in Coahuila.
..... Click the link for more information. . In 1911, Díaz was forced to flee the country; he died in exile.
(born Sept. 15, 1830, Oaxaca, Mex.—died July 2, 1915, Paris, Fr.) Soldier and president of Mexico (1877–80, 1884–1911). After training for the priesthood, he pursued a military career instead. When peace was restored to Mexico under Benito Juárez, Díaz resigned his command, but he soon became dissatisfied with the government. After leading two revolts, he was elected president in 1877. He succeeded in bolstering the export economy through foreign investment, while leading in the spirit of a caudillo, suppressing opposition, rigging elections, and using patronage to win the cooperation of various groups. The Mexican Revolution was launched in 1910 to end his dictatorship and reverse his policies. See also Francisco Madero, La Reforma.
Díaz, Porfirio
..... Click the link for more information. and the liberals in the War of the Reform and in the war against Emperor Maximilian Maximilian, 1832–67, emperor of Mexico (1864–67). As the Austrian archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, he was denied a share in the imperial government by his reactionary brother, Emperor Francis Joseph.
..... Click the link for more information. and the French (1861—67). Defeated by Juárez in the presidential election of 1871, Díaz charged fraud and led a revolt against the government, which was not suppressed until after the inauguration of Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada Lerdo de Tejada, Miguel , d. 1861, Mexican liberal statesman, a leader of the Revolution of Ayutla, cabinet member under Juan Álvarez. As minister under Comonfort, he initiated the Ley Lerdo (1856), a law providing for the forced sale of all real property of
..... Click the link for more information. . Díaz again lost in the presidential race of 1876. He refused defeat, rose against Lerdo, and gained the presidency. Aside from a brief interregnum from 1880 to 1884 when he handpicked Manuel González as his temporary successor, he remained in power until 1911. His rule was ruthless and ultimately effective. Conspirators were crushed, and banditry was officially eliminated by incorporating marauders into a state police called the rurales. He shrewdly matched interest groups against each other, leaving the president supreme; elections were a mockery. Yet he also sought conciliation with previously hostile sectors, particularly the Catholic Church and the U.S. government. Díaz's policy encouraging foreign investment defused U.S. interventionism and led to U.S. recognition of his regime. Material prosperity under Díaz grew. Roads, railroads, and telegraph lines greatly increased. Díaz was influenced by positivism, the belief in the triumph of science and the scientific method. Positivists such as Jose Ives Limantour (1854–1935), the leader of the Científicos, reformed the fiscal system and gave Mexico financial stability. Mexico became a land of peace and prosperity, ruled in the interest of the few. Díaz sold three quarters of the nation's mineral resources to foreign interests and apportioned millions of acres among friendly hacendados. The peasants, far from obtaining social justice, lost more of their communal lands (see ejido ejido [Span.,=common land], in Mexico, agricultural land expropriated from large private holdings and redistributed to communal farms. Communal ownership of land had been widely practiced by the Aztecs, but the institution was in decline before the Spanish arrived.
..... Click the link for more information. ); half of the entire rural population was bound to debt slavery. Opposition and discontent grew rapidly in the last decade of Díaz's rule. In 1909, Díaz declared his intention to restore democratic rule, yet his fraudulent reelection the following year demonstrated his promises empty, and sparked a revolution headed by Francisco I. Madero Madero, Francisco Indalecio , 1873–1913, Mexican statesman and president (1911–13). A champion of democracy and social reform, he established various humanitarian institutions for the peons on his family's vast estates in Coahuila.
..... Click the link for more information. . In 1911, Díaz was forced to flee the country; he died in exile.
Bibliography
See studies by J. F. Godoy (1976), J. Coatsworth (1980), and P. J. Vanderwood (1981).
Díaz, Porfirio
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Porfirio Díaz.
(credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)
Díaz, Porfirio
Born Sept. 15, 1830, in Oaxaca; died July 2, 1915, in Paris. Mexican politician and statesman, general.
During the bourgeois revolution and civil war of 1854–60, Diaz fought on the side of the liberals against the conservatives. During the foreign intervention in Mexico (1861-67) he commanded large detachments of the patriotic army. He was president of Mexico from 1877 to 1880; after becoming president again in 1884, he established a despotic regime based on the clergy and landowners. Under Diaz’s dictatorship, Mexico’s economic dependence on Great Britain and the USA increased. The 1910–17 revolution put an end to his regime, and in May 1911 he fled to Europe.
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