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DIAZ, PORFIRIO (183o– )

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 172 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DIAZ, PORFIRIO (183o– ) , See also:president of the See also:republic of See also:Mexico (q.v.), was See also:born in the See also:southern -See also:state of See also:Oaxaca, on the 15th of See also:September 183o. His See also:father was an innkeeper in the little See also:capital of that See also:province, and died three years after the See also:birth of Porfirio, leaving a See also:family of seven See also:children. The boy, who had See also:Indian See also:blood in his See also:veins, was educated for the See also:Catholic See also:Church, a See also:body having immense See also:influence in the See also:country at that See also:time and ordering and controlling revolutions by the strength of their filled coffers. Arrived at the See also:age of sixteen Porfirio Diaz threw off the authority of the priests. Fired with See also:enthusiasm by stories told by the revolutionary soldiers continually passing through Oaxaca, and See also:hearing about the See also:war with the See also:United States, a See also:year later he determined to set out for Mexico See also:city and join the See also:National Guard. There being no trains, and he being too poor to ride, he walked the greater See also:part of the 250 m., but arrived there too See also:late, as the treaty of Guadalupe-See also:Hidalgo (1848) had been already signed, and See also:Texas finally ceded to the United States. Thus his entering the See also:army was for the time defeated. Thereupon he returned to his native See also:town and began studying See also:law. He took pupils in See also:order to pay his own fees at the Law See also:Institute, and help his See also:mother. At this time he came under the See also:notice and influence of See also:Don Marcos See also:Perez and Benito See also:Juarez, the first a See also:judge, the second a See also:governor of the state of Oaxaca, and soon to become famous as the deliverer of Mexico from the priesthood (War of Reform). Diaz continued in his native town until 1854, when, refusing to See also:vote for the See also:dictator, See also:Santa See also:Anna, he was stung by a taunt of cowardice, and hastily pushing his way to the voting See also:place, he recorded his vote in favour of See also:Alvarez and the revolutionists. Orders were given for his See also:arrest, but seizing a See also:rifle and mounting a See also:horse he placed himself at the See also:head of a few revolting peasants, and from that moment became one of the leading See also:spirits in that See also:long struggle for reform, known as the War of Reform, which, under the leadership of Juarez, followed the over-throw of Santa Anna.

Promotion succeeded promotion, as Diaz led his troops from victory to victory, amid See also:

great privations and difficulties. He was made See also:captain (1856), See also:lieutenant-See also:colonel and colonel (1859), brigadier-See also:general (1861), and general of See also:division for the army (1863). Closely following on See also:civil war, See also:political strife, open See also:rebellion and the great War of Reform, came the See also:French invasion of 1862, and the landing of the See also:emperor See also:Maximilian in 1864. From the moment the French disclosed their intentions of settling in Mexico in 1862, Diaz took a prominent part against the See also:foreign invasion. He was twice seriously wounded, imprisoned on three different occasions, had two hairbreadth escapes, and took part in many daring engagements. So important a personage did he become that both See also:Marshal See also:Bazaine and the emperor'Maximilian made overtures to him. At the time of Maximilian's See also:death (with which Diaz personally had nothing to do) he was carrying on the See also:siege of Mexico city, which ended in the surrender of the town two days after the emperor was shot at See also:Queretaro between his two leading generals. Diaz at once set to See also:work to pay up arrears due to his soldiers, proclaimed death as the See also:penalty of See also:plunder and See also:theft, and in the few See also:weeks that followed showed his great administrative See also:powers, the See also:officers as well as the See also:rank and See also:file receiving arrears of pay. On the very See also:day that he occupied Mexico city, the great See also:commander of the army of the See also:east, to everyone's surprise, sent in his resignation. He was, indeed, appointed to the command of the second division of the army by President Juarez in his military reorganization, but Diaz, seeing men who had given great and loyal service to the state dismissed from their positions in the See also:government, and disgusted at this course, retired to the little city of Oaxaca; there he lived, helpingin the reorganization of the army but taking no active part in the government until 1871. On Juarez' death Lerdo succeeded as president, in 1872. His See also:term of See also:office again brought discord, and when it was known that he was attempting to be re-elected in 1876, the See also:storm See also:broke.

Diaz came from retirement, took up the leadership against Lerdo, and after desperate struggles and a daring See also:

escape finally made a triumphal entry into Mexico city on the 24th of See also:November 1876, as provisional president, quickly followed by the full president-See also:ship. His term of office marks a prominent See also:change in the See also:history of Mexico; from that date he at once forged ahead with See also:financial and political reform, the scrupulous See also:settlement of all national debts, the See also:welding together of the peoples and tribes (there are 150 different Indian tribes) of his country, the See also:establishment of railroads and telegraphs, and all this in a See also:land which had been upheaved for a See also:century with revolutions and bloodshed, and which had had fifty-two dictators, presidents and rulers in fifty-nine years. In 188o Diaz was succeeded by Gonzalez, the former See also:minister of war, for four years (owing to the limit of the presidential office), but in 1884 he was unanimously re-elected. The government having set aside the above-mentioned See also:limitation, Diaz was continually re-elected to the See also:presidency. He married twice and had a son and two daughters. His gifted second wife (Carmelita), very popular in Mexico, was many years younger than himself. See also:King See also:Edward VII. made him an honorary See also:grand commander of the See also:Bath in See also:June 1906, in recognition of his wonderful See also:administration as perpetual president for over a See also:quarter of a century. See also Mrs Alec Tweedie, Porfirio Diaz, Seven Times President of Mexico (1906), and Mexico as I saw it (19o1) ; Dr Noll, From See also:Empire to Republic (189o) ; Lieut. See also:Seaton Schroeder, Fall of Maximilian's Empire (New See also:York, 1887); R. de Z. Enriquez, P. Diaz (1908); and an See also:article by See also:Percy See also:Martin in Quarterly See also:Review for See also:October 1909. (E.

A.

End of Article: DIAZ, PORFIRIO (183o– )

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