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He was a dictator. was in the military.

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Porfirio Díaz, (born September 15, 1830, Oaxaca, Mexico-died July 2, 1915, Paris, France), soldier and president of Mexico (1877-80, 1884-1911), who established a strong centralized state that he held under firm control for more than three decades.

A mestizo, Díaz was of humble origin. He began training for the priesthood at age 15, but upon the outbreak of the Mexican-American War (1846-48) he joined the army. An illustrious military career followed, including service in the War of the Reform ( see La Reforma) and the struggle against the French in 1861-67, when Maximilian became emperor. Earlier (1849) Díaz had studied law with the encouragement of the Liberal Benito Juárez, who first became president in 1858.

Díaz resigned his command and went back to Oaxaca when peace was restored but soon became dissatisfied with the Juárez administration. He led an unsuccessful protest against the 1871 reelection of Juárez, who died the following year. Díaz continued his protests in an unsuccessful revolt against Pres. Sebastían Lerdo de Tejada in 1876, after which he fled to the United States. Six months later, however, he returned and defeated the government forces at the Battle of Tecoac (November 1876), and in May 1877 he was formally elected president.

During his first four years in office, Díaz began a slow process of consolidation of power and built up a strong political machine. His administration achieved a few public improvements but was more noted for its suppression of revolts. Having opposed Lerdo's reelection, he decided not to run for another term himself but handpicked his successor, Gen. Manuel González, who also soon dissatisfied him. Therefore, in 1884 Díaz ran for the presidency again and was elected.

Over the course of the next 26 years Díaz produced an orderly and systematic government with a military spirit. He succeeded in destroying local and regional leadership until the majority of public employees answered directly to him. Even the legislature was composed of his friends, and the press was muffled. He also maintained tight control over the courts.

Díaz secured his power by catering to the needs of separate groups and playing off one interest against another. He won the mestizos' support by supplying them with political jobs. The privileged Creole classes were cooperative in return for the government's noninterference in their haciendas and for positions of honour in the administration. The Roman Catholic Church maintained a policy of noninvolvement in return for a certain degree of freedom. The Indians, who formed a full third of the population, were ignored.

When Díaz came to power, the Mexican government was in debt and had very little cash reserves. Therefore, he enthusiastically encouraged investment by foreigners. Conditions were made so advantageous to the suppliers of capital that Mexican industries and workers alike suffered. Díaz was no economist, but his two principal advisers, Matías Romero and José Y. Limantour (after 1893), were responsible for the influx of foreigners to build railroads and bridges, to dig mines, and to irrigate fields. Mexico's new wealth, however, was not distributed throughout the country; most of the profits went abroad or stayed in the hands of a very few wealthy Mexicans. By 1910 the economy had declined and national revenues were shrinking, which necessitated borrowing. With wages decreasing, strikes were frequent. Agricultural workers were faced with extreme poverty and debt peonage.

On February 17, 1908, in an interview with a reporter for Pearson's Magazine, Díaz announced his retirement. Immediately opposition and progovernment groups began to scramble to find suitable presidential candidates. Then, as plans were being formalized, Díaz decided not to retire but to allow Francisco Madero, an aristocratic but democratically inclined reformer, to run against him. Madero lost the election, as was expected, but, when he resorted to a military revolution, the government proved surprisingly weak and collapsed. Díaz resigned office on May 25, 1911, and went into exile.

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Porfirio Diaz, soldier and president of Mexico (1877-80, 1884-1911), who established a strong centralized state that he controlled firmly for more than three decades. His elitist, oligarchical policies favored foreign investors and wealthy landowners. He was ousted in 1911 during the Mexican Revolution.

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He was in the military.

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Famous Otto von Bismarck, also known as "Iron Chancellor", was one of the most impressive figures in the history of the XIX century. He was an experienced diplomat and a skilled politician, and his influence in Germany was really huge.

Amazing facts about Bismarck

The nickname "Iron Chancellor" was given to Otto von Bismarck for his unyielding character

Otto von Bismarck was a native of the Kingdom of Prussia

Bismarck was an experienced horse rider

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25 Interesting Facts About Otto von Bismarck - Top Facts

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Famous Otto von Bismarck, also known as "Iron Chancellor", was one of the most impressive figures in the history of the XIX century. He was an experienced diplomat and a skilled politician, and his influence in Germany was really huge.

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Led the revolution against the Spanish rule in New Grande. Political military leader. Exiled himself and died on the way to Europe.

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Simón Bolívar, byname The Liberator or Spanish El Libertador, (born July 24, 1783, Caracas, Venezuela, New Granada [now in Venezuela]-died December 17, 1830, near Santa Marta, Colombia), Venezuelan soldier and statesman who led the revolutions against Spanish rule in the Viceroyalty of New Granada. He was president of Gran Colombia (1819-30) and dictator of Peru (1823-26).

Early life

The son of a Venezuelan aristocrat of Spanish descent, Bolívar was born to wealth and position. His father died when the boy was three years old, and his mother died six years later, after which his uncle administered his inheritance and provided him with tutors. One of those tutors, Simón Rodríguez, was to have a deep and lasting effect on him. Rodríguez, a disciple of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, introduced Bolívar to the world of 18th-century liberal thought.

At the age of 16, Bolívar was sent to Europe to complete his education. For three years he lived in Spain, and in 1801 he married the daughter of a Spanish nobleman, with whom he returned to Caracas. The young bride died of yellow fever less than a year after their marriage. Bolívar believed that her tragic death was the reason that he took up a political career while still a young man.

In 1804, when Napoleon I was approaching the pinnacle of his career, Bolívar returned to Europe. In Paris, under the renewed guidance of his friend and tutor Rodríguez, he steeped himself in the writings of European rationalist thinkers such as John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Georges-Louis Leclerc, count de Buffon, Jean le Rond d'Alembert, and Claude-Adrien Helvétius, as well as Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau. The latter two had the deepest influence on his political life, but Voltaire coloured his philosophy of life. In Paris he met the German scientist Alexander von Humboldt, who had just returned from his voyage through Hispanic America and told Bolívar that he believed the Spanish colonies were ripe for independence. That idea took root in Bolívar's imagination, and, on a trip to Rome with Rodríguez, as they stood on the heights of Monte Sacro, he made a vow to liberate his country.

One other experience enriched his intellect at that time: he watched the extraordinary performance that culminated in Napoleon's coronation in 1804 as emperor of the French. Bolívar's reaction to the coronation wavered between admiration of the accomplishments of a single man and revulsion at Napoleon's betrayal of the ideals of the French Revolution. The desire for glory was one of the permanent traits in Bolívar's character, and there can be little doubt that it was stimulated by Napoleon. The example of Napoleon was, nevertheless, a warning that Bolívar heeded. In his later days he always insisted that the title of "liberator" was higher than any other and that he would not exchange it for that of king or emperor. In 1807 he returned to Venezuela by way of the United States, visiting the eastern cities.

Independence movement

The Latin American independence movement was launched a year after Bolívar's return, as Napoleon's invasion of Spain unsettled Spanish authority. Napoleon also failed completely in his attempt to gain the support of the Spanish colonies, which claimed the right to nominate their own officials. Following the example of the mother country, they wished to establish juntas to rule in the name of the deposed Spanish king. Many of the Spanish settlers, however, saw in those events an opportunity to sever their ties with Spain. Bolívar himself participated in various conspiratorial meetings, and on April 19, 1810, the Spanish governor was officially deprived of his powers and expelled from Venezuela. A junta took over. To obtain help, Bolívar was sent on a mission to London, where he arrived in July. His assignment was to explain to England the plight of the revolutionary colony, to gain recognition for it, and to obtain arms and support. Although he failed in his official negotiations, his English sojourn was in other respects a fruitful one. It gave him an opportunity to study the institutions of the United Kingdom, which remained for him models of political wisdom and stability. More important, he fostered the cause of the revolution by persuading the exiled Venezuelan Francisco de Miranda, who in 1806 had attempted to liberate his country single-handedly, to return to Caracas and assume command of the independence movement.

Venezuela was in ferment. In March 1811 a national congress met in Caracas to draft a constitution. Bolívar, though not a delegate, threw himself into the debate that aroused the country. In the first public speech of his career, he declared, "Let us lay the cornerstone of American freedom without fear. To hesitate is to perish." After long deliberation, the national assembly declared Venezuela's independence on July 5, 1811. Bolívar now entered the army of the young republic, whose commander in chief was Miranda, and was placed in charge of Puerto Cabello, a port on the Caribbean Sea west of Caracas that was vital to Venezuela. In the short time since their London meeting, he and Miranda had drifted apart. Miranda called Bolívar a "dangerous youth," and Bolívar had misgivings about the aging general's abilities. Treasonable action by one of Bolívar's officers opened the fortress to the Spanish forces, and Miranda, the commander in chief, entered into negotiations with the Spanish commander in chief. An armistice was signed (July 1812) that left the entire country at the mercy of Spain. Miranda was turned over to the Spaniards-after Bolívar and others prevented his escape from Venezuela-and spent the rest of his life in Spanish dungeons.

Determined to continue the struggle, Bolívar obtained a passport to leave the country and went to Cartagena in New Granada. There he published the first of his great political statements, El manifiesto de Cartagena ("The Cartagena Manifesto"), in which he attributed the fall of Venezuela's First Republic to the lack of strong government and called for a united revolutionary effort to destroy the power of Spain in the Americas.

With backing from the patriots of New Granada, Bolívar led an expeditionary force to retake Venezuela. In a sweeping hard-fought campaign, he vanquished the royalists in six pitched battles and on August 6, 1813, entered Caracas. He was given the title of Liberator and assumed political dictatorship. The war of independence was just beginning, however. The majority of the people of Venezuela were hostile to the forces of independence and weary of the sacrifices imposed. A cruel civil war broke out, and Bolívar himself resorted to extreme measures, such as the shooting of prisoners. His severity failed in its object. In 1814 Bolívar was once more defeated by the Spanish, who had converted the llaneros (cowboys) led by José Tomás Boves into an undisciplined but savagely effective cavalry that Bolívar was unable to repulse. Boves subjected Creole patriots to terrible atrocities, and his capture of Caracas and other principal cities ended the second Venezuelan republic. Narrowly escaping Miranda's fate, Bolívar fled to New Granada, where he was commissioned in Cartagena to oust a separatist faction from Bogotá (now in Colombia) and succeeded in doing so. He then laid siege to Cartagena but failed to unite the revolutionary forces and fled to Jamaica.

In exile, Bolívar turned his energies toward gaining support from Great Britain, and, in an effort to convince the British people of their stake in the freedom of the Spanish colonies, he wrote the greatest document of his career: La carta de Jamaica (" The Letter from Jamaica"), in which he outlined a grandiose panorama from Chile and Argentina to Mexico. "The bonds," wrote Bolívar, "that united us to Spain have been severed." He was not dismayed that the Spaniards had in certain instances won the upper hand. "A people that love freedom will in the end be free. We are," he said proudly, "a microcosm of the human race. We are a world apart, confined within two oceans, young in arts and sciences, but old as a human society. We are neither Indians nor Europeans, yet we are a part of each." He proposed constitutional republics throughout Hispanic America, and for the former Viceroyalty of New Granada he envisioned a government modeled on that of Great Britain, with a hereditary upper house, an elected lower house, and a president chosen for life. The last provision, to which Bolívar clung throughout his career, constituted the most dubious feature of his political thinking.

In "The Letter from Jamaica," Bolívar showed himself as a great internationalist. He looked forward to the day when the representatives of all Hispanic American nations would gather in a central location such as Panama.

By 1815, Spain had sent to its seditious colonies the strongest expeditionary force that had ever crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Its commander was Pablo Morillo. Since neither Great Britain nor the United States would promise aid, Bolívar turned to Haiti, which had recently freed itself from French rule. There he was given a friendly reception as well as money and weapons.

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Simon Bolivar | Accomplishments, Death, Route, Revolution, Biography, & Facts

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Simon Bolivar, Venezuelan soldier and statesman who led revolutions against Spanish rule in the Viceroyalty of New Granada (modern Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, and Venezuela). He was president of Gran Colombia (1819-30) and dictator of Peru (1823-26). He is widely regarded as Latin America's greatest genius.

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War that Lasted till the 20th century.

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Gran Colombia-Peru War | 3 Minute History

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Mexico was involved in

a decade of revolution from 1910 to 1920

the revolution resulted in a new

constitution much like many Latin

American countries of the late 19th

century Mexico was ruled by local

dictators known as qua Diaz one such

claudia was Porfirio Diaz he used force

against those who dissented with his

rule he kept firm control over Mexico

around 1900 so we look to modernize and

industrialize during his reign there was

a large gap between the rich and the

poor as foreign industrialists became

rich calling for a revolution against

Diaz Francisco Madero emerged as the

voice of the people

revolutionaries such as Pancho vo and

Emiliano Zapata looked to take money

from the rich and redistributed to the

poor dears agreed to give up power and

Maduro won an election in 1911 but

Madero was seen as an inefficient leader

was removed from power and later

assassinated from there Mexico went

through several presidents during years

of civil war including Victoriano Huerta

and Venustiano Carranza in 1917 a new

Mexican Constitution was adopted during

Carranza's reign it favored commoners

instead of the wealthy allowed the

government to seize private lands for

public interest gave rights to workers

and decrease the power of the Roman

Catholic Church in Mexico

Carranza believed the Constitution was

too radical he was assassinated as well

in 1920 though 1920 is used as an end

date for the revolution violence in

Mexico continued

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Mexican Revolution Review - One Minute Lesson

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Otto von Bismarck 1815 to 1898 Otto von

Bismarck was responsible for

transforming a collection of small

German states unifying them into the

German Empire and becoming its first

Chancellor his diplomacy of real politic

and powerful rule gained him the

nickname of the iron Chancellor Otto

Eduard Leopold von Bismarck was born

into an aristocratic family at Shirin

Heusen northwest of Berlin on April 1st

1815 his father was a fifth-generation

junker and his mother came from a family

of successful academics and government

ministers Bismarck attended a

prestigious School in Berlin followed by

the University of getting him he then

entered the Prussian civil service but

was bored of this job and resigned in

1838 for almost a decade he assisted his

father in managing the family estates in

1847 he married Johanna von push comma

and was sent to Berlin as a delegate to

the new Prussian Parliament it was here

that he emerged as a reactionary voice

against the liberal anti autocratic

revolutions of 1848 from 1851 to 1862

Bismarck served as ambassador to Russia

and France when he returned to Prussia

he would be appointed prime minister by

Vilhelm the first who had become King of

Prussia in 1864 his mark began a series

of wars to establish Prussian power in

Europe with Austrian support he used the

Prussian army to capture the

german-speaking territories of schleswig

and holstein from Denmark afterwards he

provoked Emperor Franz Joseph the first

into starting the austro-prussian war in

1866 which ended in a Prussian victory

Russia then annexed further territory in

Germany next he would provoke

hostilities with France as a strategy to

unified Germany's loose Confederations

against an outside enemy this would be

called the franco-prussian war lasting

from 1870 to 1871 the French declared

war with the Prussians and their German

allies were victorious

the southern German states now agreed to

join the German Empire William the first

was crowned emperor of a unified Germany

and Bismarck was Chancellor Bismarck now

concentrated on building a powerful

state with a unified national identity

in the 1870s he pursued a culture calm

or cultural struggle against the

Catholic Church which he felt had too

much influence he did this by placing

parochial schools under state control

and expelling the Jesuits Bismarck aimed

to make the German Empire the most

powerful in Europe and in 1879 he

negotiated the dual alliance with

austria-hungary to counteract and check

the power of the now allied France and

Russia in the 1880s Bismarck worked on

ending the spread of socialism by

creating a welfare state establishing

national healthcare accident insurance

and old-age pensions in 1890 Bismarck

was dismissed by the new emperor wilhelm

ii after strongly disagreeing with him

he retired to his estate near hamburg

and died on July 30th 1898.

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Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) / German Unification