JUAREZ, BENITO (PABLO) (1806-1872), was born at Guelatao, near the city of Oaxaca, Mexico, March 21, 1806, of full blooded Zapotec parents. He was educated for the church by a charitable merchant of Oaxaca, but in 1827 entered the Institute of Arts and Sciences to study law. In 1832 he received his degree of bachelor of law, and two years later was appointed advocate of the Supreme Court of the republic. He was governor of Oaxaca, 1847-52, and in this post showed himself so ardent a partisan of liberal ideas that, when Santa Anna seized the Govern ment in 1853, he was imprisoned. Escaping to New Orleans, he returned to Mexico in 1855 to assist in a successful revolt against Santa Anna led by Alvarez and Comonfort, and held the portfolio of justice in Comonfort's Government. In this capacity he issued the first of his great reform measures restricting the privileges of the military and the clergy (1855,1856,1857), which, culminat ing in the famous anti-clerical Constitution of 1857, caused a nation-wide rebellion and precipitated the War of the Reform. In Jan. 1858, Comonfort fled the country and Zuloaga, supported by the clericals and the army, declared himself de facto president and seized the capital. Juarez, as constitutional successor to Comonfort, declared himself the de jure head of the nation and established himself at Veracruz (May 1858). His Government was recognized by the United States in April 1859, and in July he felt himself strong enough to issue the Reform Laws of 1859, which completely nationalized and secularized the church. By the beginning of 1861 the clericals had been everywhere defeated, and on Jan. I1, 1861, Juarez entered Mexico City, and was con stitutionally elected president. But his Government was without funds, foreign creditors were clamouring for satisfaction, and the country, after five years of civil war, was in a state of economic chaos; so that in July 1861 he issued a decree suspending for two years payment on the national debt. This embroiled him im mediately in a new conflict. Napoleon III., who had for some time been contemplating intervention in Mexico, promptly seized upon Juarez's decree as a pretext, and induced England and Spain (Convention of London, Oct. 1861) to join him in the ostensible
purpose of enforcing the payment of foreign creditors. Armed forces appeared at Veracruz in Dec. 1861. Juarez showed himself conciliatory and in Feb. 1862 commissioners of the four Govern ments ratified the peace treaty of La Soledad. In March Gen. Lorencez landed with large French reinforcements; the English and Spanish commissioners withdrew their co-operation, and on April 12, 1862, Juarez declared war upon France. In June 1863 Gen. Bazaine entered Mexico City and on July 8 declared a monarchy. Maximilian arrived on May 28, 1864, and was crowned in the capital in July. By the spring of 1865 there were 30,000 French soldiers in the country, Juarez had been driven north ward to the Paso del Norte, almost to the U.S. border, his armies were shattered, his Government almost penniless. But he refused to relinquish his stand as constitutional president. The end of the year saw a great change. Maximilian was bankrupt ; Napoleon saw the futility of his imperial project and the United States, now that the Civil War was over, insistently demanded the with drawal of the French troops. In Feb. 1867, the last French troops sailed from Veracruz. Maximilian was captured at Queretaro on May 15 and executed on June 19, and on July 15 Juarez returned to Mexico City. He was re-elected president in August. But his genius was not equal to the appalling problem of reconstruction which confronted him. Insurrections and revolts harassed his entire term. In the election of 1870 Porfirio Diaz and Lerdo de Tejada appeared as rival candidates, and Diaz, when congress announced that Juarez had been again re-elected, immediately headed a revolt. The movement failed, but in the midst of it, on July 18, 1872, Juarez died of apoplexy in Mexico City. With his death ends one stage of Mexican history. He did not, as Diaz was to do, wholly dominate his epoch, but during the most momentous period of Mexico's history he was the guiding genius, and is by many called Mexico's national hero.
For a comprehensive bibliography of the life and career of Juarez, see H. I. Priestley, The Mexican Nation-a History (New York, 1923).