Porfirio Diaz History IB. The year of 1910 saw the 80th birthday of Jos de la Cruz Porfirio Diaz, president of Mexico and its dictator for more than 30 years.
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Porfirio Díaz History HL - IB Ivan Camilo Martin - German Gallo The year of 1910 saw the 80th birthday of José de la Cruz Porfirio Diaz, president of Mexico and its dictator for more than 30 years. He was born in Oaxaca, Mexico, from a mestizo blood and humble family. His early years were filled with economic hardship and tragedy, for instance his father died when he was just three years old, leaving the family impoverished and hopeless. Nonetheless, Porfirio Diaz' mother named Petrona Mori, constantly struggling to raise 8 children on her own, recognized the importance of any kind of education and enrolled Porfirio in a seminary. He was educated for the Catholic Church, a body having immense influence in the country at the time and ordering and controlling revolutions by the strength given by their filled coffers. However, Porfirio Diaz' destiny lay in the world of temporal affairs. He switched his studies from the priesthood to law in the Institute of Science and Art. Known to be a diligent student, he was influenced and inspired by a remarkable figure in the Mexican society and one of his tutors named Benito Juarez, future president and beloved hero.
When Porfirio Diaz was given the information that President Juarez and Vice President Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada were running for reelection, he imposed and end to his retirement and breaking completely from his former mentor, he ran against his elder for the office of the president in 1870. Notwithstanding Diaz lost the elections but he claimed that the elections previously carried has been fraudulent and launched the "Plan de la Noria", supported by a great number of rebellions across the nation, depicting himself as a liberal populist rather than a general attempting to gain control. However, the plan failed and there was nothing he could do about it. Following Juarez's natural death on July 9 of that year, Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada assumed the presidency under constitutional record. Nonetheless, he was unpopular among the Mexican culture since it was greatly believed he granted excessive concessions to U.S railway interests and he used constantly the power of the state to enforce his goals. In 1876, Porfirio staged once again a new rebellion and crafted the "Plan of Tuxtepec", a plan of governance based on the principle of a one-term presidential office with reelection forbidden, pretty ironical knowing Porfirio Diaz's future and his coming presidential tenure that lasted 35 years with several reelections involved.
The solution was to create a paramilitary force against peasant revolts by having the most notorious bandits and putting them into the scary "Rurales", also known as the Rural Police. After achieving domestic tranquility, astonishing statistics were reached, for instance annual oil production of 10,000 barrels in 1901 rose to 13 million by 1911 and mining of the country's ample resources of gold, silver, copper and other metals was transformed. He also built an efficient transport system of thousands of railroad tracks. The rich prospered while the urban poor toiled for low wages and peasants were reduced almost to slavery in the cause of modernizing agriculture. Diaz maintained power by a mixture of bribery and rigged elections. Opposition was held in check by the police and the army; the regime controlled the courts and censored the press. However, the social atrocities occurring in tandem with these achievements created an unrest that could not be quenched. The cry of revolution could be heard throughout the country. Populist rebels such as Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata and others answered the call. The Mexican Revolution had begun and Porfirio Diaz was forced to flee the country to an exile in France, where he died, leaving behind a modernized Mexico in an unseen humanitarian conflict.
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