Where is benito juarez from

The government, seeking to develop a large agrarian middle class, tried to distribute the lands to those working them. However, the Liberals needed money to pay the army bureaucracy and the national debt. Pressed for funds, public officials allowed these lands to go to those who could pay for them immediately, mostly rich speculators and foreigners.

The land reform did not create a large yeoman class but instead allowed secular individuals to monopolize the large former Church estates and to gain control of Indian communal lands, also abolished by the reform laws and the Constitution of The same financial exigencies which forced the government to curtail its ambitious land reform program caused it in to declare a 2-year suspension of the external debt.

This gave England, France, and Spain the excuse to intervene in Mexico. The English and Spanish soon withdrew, but the French emperor, Louis Napoleon, attempted to establish a client Mexican empire under the Austrian archduke Maximilian. The years to determined the future of Mexico and the Liberal reforms. He retreated north with his cabinet and a small bodyguard in his famous black coach. The imperialists controlled the cities, but the countryside remained in a state of insurrection.

Faced with mounting costs in men and money and the rise of Prussia, the French withdrew from Mexico. In the empire collapsed. The government began to build railroads and schools; the military budget was cut; and the Church was stripped of its large landholdings. Most important, Mexico had its first effective government, based upon the Constitution of , which guaranteed free speech, free press, right of assembly, and the abolishment of special legal privileges. Yet when these important reinforcements did arrive, the inexperienced Mexican troops, who could not hold out against the French army in an open campaign, slowly retreated through Mexico.

Yet he was once again forced to retreat in front of the French invasion, this time up to Zacatecas, all the while protesting in the name of the national government. Only Ortega and Negrete stayed faithful to the president. But soon the rest of the federal army was dispersed after the defeat experienced at the edge of Nazas.

From this point onwards, the only option was to fight a guerrilla war in the mountains. Juarez sent his family to the United States before restarting a war without cease, fighting for the Independence of his country. He never lost hope, nor rested, for a single day. He defended his land inch by inch, withdrawing, and then charging forth again, impassive in defeat, unperturbed in resistance, setting a great example of consistent firmness.

It soon became apparent how incapable and unpopular Maximilian was, and the United States urged Napoleon to end his intervention on the American Continent. Napoleon dutifully conceded, and withdrew his troops, thereby abandoning Maximilian. Juarez retook the offensive and, with the help of capable generals such as Escobedo and de Porifirio Diaz, he re-conquered a large part of the northern states of Mexico, including notably Alamaz and de Matamoros, from the beginning of Maximilian sought refuge in Queretaro in February, , which Juarez ordered Escobedo to siege.

After a strong resistance on 15 May, Maximilian was taken prisoner, before being sentenced to death. He was shot along with Miramon and Meijia on 19 June. As the United States showed greater favor to the Liberal cause largely to offset European influence , Juarez appointed a young new generation of military leaders who subdued the conservative forces in late Juarez returned victorious to the capital in January Chastened by defeat, influential conservatives turned to European courts, hoping to place a foreign prince at the head of an imperial administration.

France, Spain and England, attempting to collect large Mexican debts, jointly occupied Veracruz in early to force redress on their claims.

Maximilian was supported by 14, French troops, pushing Juarez once again out of the capital. Just as in the Three-Years War, Juarez gradually assembled republican opposition to foreign domination and, in , with the North American Civil War over and half a million U. The final years of the Juarez presidency saw significant improvements in labor laws, an broad expansion of the educational system and the beginning of construction on a new rail line from Veracruz to Mexico City.

The resurrection of Ley Lerdo , however, further diminished Indian communal holdings as land grabbers took renewed advantage of the law to acquire Native American properties. La Reforma was throughout dedicated to creating a rural bourgeoise in Mexico, which had the ultimate effect of creating a new dominant class in Mexico, further disenfranchising the Indians and creating a lower-class, docile labor force serving the interests of a rapacious upper-middle class.

When Juarez reduced the size of the army, he confronted political opposition from the military while suppressing Indian uprisings sparked by the reimplementation of Ley Lerdo. A strong believer in traditional laissez-faire economics and republican politics, Juarez was a product of his age.

The deep colonial divisions over race and ethnicity created in Benito, as in all 19 th -century Mexican politicians, a visceral aversion to Indian culture. Dating from early colonial days the Indian way of life was seen by the Spanish as retrograde and inferior. This sentiment only intensified under middle-class Liberal rule personified by Benito Juarez.

At this time, Mexico was coming out of thirty years of domestic violence. The treasury was nearly bankrupt as two political factions emerged: conservatives, who represented the large landholders, the Catholic Church and the military and wanted to protect the status quo. The Liberals represented small merchants and rural ranchers and farmers and wanted to institute democratic reform. Making matters worse, the Catholic Church was often an ally to the rich and thwarted any resistance toward them.

The union increased his standing among conservatives and he frequently accepted appointments from Conservative state authorities. Known for his impeccable honesty and simple tastes, he was immune from corruption. He promoted a guerrilla resistance toward the United States and opposed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Soon Mexico had ratified a new constitution and the liberal party was in power. In , the presidency of Juan Alvarez ended with his retirement and Mexico entered a period of inner turmoil, known as the Three Year War or the War of Reform, a struggle for power between political factions.

In , aided by the Conservatives, French forces took control of Mexico City.