We explain who Porfirio Díaz was, what his personal life and studies were like, as well as his characteristics and political and military career.
Porfirio Díaz ruled Mexico for thirty years.
Who was Porfirio Díaz?
José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori (1830-1915), better known as Porfirio Diaz, was a Mexican military man who served as president of the Mexican Republic for just over thirty years, the last twenty-six of them consecutively.
His military career was brilliant and stood out during the Second French intervention in Mexicoan armed conflict between Mexico and France that lasted from 1862 to 1867. He commanded troops at the Battle of Puebla, the Siege of Puebla, the Battle of Miahuatlán, and the Battle of Carbonera. He also organized guerrillas against the French in the state of Oaxaca.
He became interim president through an uprising in 1876 and He was elected as constitutional president in 1877After being succeeded by a politician he trusted in 1880, he returned to the presidency in 1884 and continued in office uninterruptedly until 1911 thanks to the mechanism of re-election.
Porfirio Díaz’s last mandate was the most resisted by his opponents, among whom was Francisco I. Madero, his main political adversary. The fight against his authoritarian government, known as “the Porfiriato,” led to the Mexican Revolution that began in 1910 and forced Porfirio Díaz to resign the following year.
Birth and education
Porfirio Díaz studied law under the tutelage of Benito Juárez.
Porfirio Diaz He was born in Oaxaca, former province of Antequera.on September 15, 1830. He was the sixth of seven siblings, sons of José Faustino Díaz Orozco and María Petrona Cecilia Mori Cortés. He grew up in a wealthy family that fell into poverty after the death of his father, a victim of cholera, in 1833.
Diaz He began his studies at the Tridentine Seminary of Oaxaca, sponsored by José Agustín Domínguez y Díaz, who later became bishop of Antequera. He remained there until 1846, when he decided to retire and enroll in the Institute of Sciences and Arts of Oaxaca. This was due to the inspiration of who was then governor of Oaxaca, the liberal Benito Juárez.
By the end of 1850 he was already a teacher at this institution and a couple of years later He studied law there, taught by Juárez himself..
Military career
Díaz’s military career began with the Ayutla Revolution which was deployed against President Antonio López de Santa Anna between 1854 and 1855. He joined the liberal cause and his participation earned him a bullet wound and a subsequent military post in the government presided over by Ignacio Comonfort.
Again He fought on the liberal side in the Reform War (1858-1861) and quickly reached the positions of major, colonel and lieutenant general. He was also a candidate for federal representative for Oaxaca.
The Second French intervention in Mexico, which began in 1862, called him back to the battlefield. He commanded Mexican troops loyal to the republican government of Benito Juárez in important episodes of the war, such as the Battle of Puebla (1862), the Siege of Puebla (1863), the Battle of Miahuatlán (1866) and the Battle of Carbonera (1866).
In 1864, the Second Mexican Empire was proclaimed following the French intervention and on the initiative of conservative Mexican sectors, but the Republicans ignored this government and continued fighting. Díaz was forced to surrender and sentenced to life imprisonment in Puebla. After escaping from prison, he gathered new troops and He commanded the capture of Puebla and the final capture of Mexico City in 1867 which gave victory to the Republicans of Benito Juárez. Díaz was rewarded by President Juárez with lands and military honors.
Personal life
Porfirio Díaz married twice, in 1867 and 1881.
Diaz He had affairs during the wars in which he participated. The best known are those he had with Juana C. Romero, a businesswoman and diplomat originally from Tehuantepec, and the soldier Rafaela Quiñones, with whom he had a daughter born in 1867, Amada Díaz.
However, His first marriage was in 1867 with his niece, Delfina Ortega de Díaz. He had the permission of President Juárez regarding marriage between blood relatives.
With her he had a first child in 1869 and two years later twinsbut they all died shortly after birth. The exceptions were the fourth, Deodato Lucas Porfirio Díaz Ortega, born in 1873, and a daughter born in 1875, called Luz Aurora. In 1880 another daughter, Victoria Francisca, was born, but she died after 48 hours.
Díaz was widowed in 1880, and In November 1881 he married Carmen Romero Rubioa young woman from a wealthy family with whom she had no children.
First presidential term
Porfirio Diaz He ran as a presidential candidate in the 1867 electionswhere he competed against Benito Juárez himself, but was defeated. He presented his candidacy again in 1871, but was again surpassed at the polls by Juárez, who was reelected.
This new defeat against Juárez was not well received, and both Díaz and the third liberal candidate, Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, challenged the elections. A new civil war broke out, provoked by the military uprising of Porfirio Díaz, known as the La Noria Revolution. His name came from the hacienda with which Juárez had rewarded Díaz for his past military exploits.
The revolution It ended when Juarez died in Mexico City and Lerdo was proclaimed president, first on an interim basis and then after winning the 1872 elections.
The Lerdista government soon became unpopular.and although Díaz’s figure in those days was very politically depressed, it was enough for Lerdo to announce at the end of 1875 his desire for re-election in the elections of the following year for a new civil war to break out: the Tuxtepec Revolution.
This uprising, led by Díaz and supported by a good number of military and civilians, It culminated with Lerdo’s resignation and the holding of extraordinary elections in 1877.in which Porfirio Díaz was finally elected. He constitutionally assumed the office of president on May 5, 1877.
The Porfiriato
Díaz ruled without interruption from 1884 to 1911.
With the first mandate of Díaz began the Porfiriato, a period of more than 30 years, in which Mexico was under his direct authority as president of the republic. The exception was the period 1880-1884, when Manuel González Flores, who had been Díaz’s Minister of War and was one of his most loyal men, governed.
From December 1, 1884, after being elected again, Díaz governed without interruption until May 25, 1911.
The precepts of the Porfiriato were peace, order and progress.It was a national development regime supported by large landowners, which had the support of the United States, although it also favored European investments that sought to reduce dependence on the neighboring country.
This long period of political stability held in a forced peace established from the presidency through political repression, censorship and a system of automatic re-election that gave it continuity.
This allowed the development of sciences and arts and gained him the support of the “scientists” sector, members of the urban middle classes who became his advisors and rose socially. The implementation of compulsory, secular and free education also took place. However, the unequal distribution of schooling between rural and urban areas deepened the social inequality that later helped create the revolutionary events of the 20th century.
Another important aspect of the Porfiriato was the expansion of the railway network throughout the countryAs part of his modernization project, he managed to extend the railway line to more than 20,000 kilometers. This was possible thanks to the numerous foreign investments that obtained railway concessions and also focused on the exploitation of Mexico’s natural resources.
Most of the Porfiriato was a stage of economic growth in both industry and agriculturebut the heavy dependence on foreign capital and inequalities in the countryside had negative consequences when an international crisis broke out at the beginning of the 20th century.
Political characteristics of your government
Díaz came to confess himself “Catholic, Apostolic and Roman.”
The Díaz government had the following political features:
- Reconciliation with the Catholic Church. Given the tense relations between the clergy and the previous liberal governments, Díaz brought about a certain conciliation by allowing the clergy to increase their property, create new dioceses, and form or reestablish religious orders. Díaz confessed that in private he was “Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman,” but he claimed that, as head of state, he did not profess any religion. For this reason, although he made concessions to the clergy, he did not allow the political influence of the Church to grow in his government. During the Porfiriato, Protestant congregations also grew, some of whose members became opponents of the Díaz regime.
- Peaceful international relations. With both the United States and Europe, Díaz fostered stable commercial and diplomatic relations. He paid the foreign debt to Great Britain in 1884, reestablished Mexican credit in the world and reduced dependence on the United States by favoring European investments. During the presidency of Manuel González Flores, the Herrera-Mariscal Treaty was signed in 1882, which put an end to the border conflicts with Guatemala.
- Press control and political repressionIn 1882, during the presidency of Manuel González Flores, a decree known as the “Gag Law” was published, which violated the principle of freedom of the press enshrined in the 1857 Constitution and allowed the government to censor the printed media and imprison or prosecute journalists. This strict control of the press survived throughout the years of the Porfiriato. In addition, all types of rebellion, protest or peasant uprising were violently repressed. To do so, a secret police known as “los rurales” was used. Opposition journalists and politicians were often forced into exile or imprisoned.
Resignation and exile
Díaz’s tomb is located in Paris, where he died in exile in 1915.
Over time, the “necessary dictatorship” of Porfirio Díaz (as it was sometimes called to highlight the supposed beneficial nature of the autocratic government), protected by progress and modernization, It turned him into a tyrant in the eyes of his opponents and a large part of society..
The insurrections against him came from various social sectors. Some were provoked by the rejection of political repression and indefinite re-election while others arose from economic claims. Thus, the…