Porfiriato
Mexico, 1876–1911.
General Porfirio Díaz ruled for over three decades. Railways and foreign investment modernised the economy, but land and wealth were held by very few.
Seat of power: Mexico City
Rulers
Porfirio Díaz
President, 1876–1911
Ruled under the motto 'order and progress' through rigged re-elections, a powerful rural police and deals with regional bosses. When he ran again in 1910 after promising to retire, the Revolution broke out.
Portrait of Porfirio Díaz: Aurelio Escobar Castellanos, Archive, Public domain, file
Culture
- About 19,000 km of railway are built.
- José Guadalupe Posada's prints create La Catrina, the elegant skeleton.
- Work begins on the Palacio de Bellas Artes in 1904.
Picture
The Palacio de Bellas Artes, begun under Díaz and finished in 1934.
Image: Xavier Quetzalcoatl Contreras Castillo, CC BY-SA 3.0, file
