Porfirio Díaz, a liberal general who had distinguished himself during the War of Reform and resistance to French intervention, seized control of the Mexican government from Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada in an 1876 coup d'etat, in which Diaz and other Mexican military officials explicitly opposed presidential re-election.

While Diaz himself has been characterized as a liberal and political pragmatist, his regime was dominated by technocratic intellectuals, known as los cientificos, inspired by the works of August Comte and Herbert Spencer.

[2] During the Porfiriato, authority was centralized in the federal government, which pursued a policy of foreign direct investment, urbanization, liberalization of social attitudes, and rapid technological development.

Through conciliation with local political bosses and repressive policies, including the expropriation of indigenous land for the development of railways and haciendas (often owned by foreign investors) and expansion of the internal police force known as the rurales, the Diaz regime established a period of relative internal stability in Mexico following a period of warfare and turmoil.

[4] In 1908, President Diaz consented to an interview by the American journalist James Creelman for Pearson's Magazine at Chapultepec Castle.

During the interview, Diaz praised democratic principles, arguing that certain repressive and anti-democratic measures had only been necessary to develop political consciousness in a population that was apolitical and illiterate.

I would not exchange it for all the millions of your American oil king.”[5]After its publication in Pearson's in March 1908, the Creelman interview was translated and published by El Imparcial.

Immediately, several groups in both opposition and support of the government put forward candidates, including Governor of Nuevo Leon Bernardo Reyes.