Restored Republic (Mexico)
The Restored Republic is the Mexican political era between the 1867 and 1876, starting with the defeat of the French imperial monarchy and the return of republican rule under Benito Juárez. Following his 1872 death, the presidency of Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada the Restored Republic continued until the revolt of General Porfirio Díaz in 1876. During the Restored Republic, the liberal Constitution of 1857 was the nation's governing document until its replacement in Constitution of 1917. Although formally Republic of Mexico continued to exist during French imperial rule, Juárez’s republican government was in exile from the capital and pushed to the extremity of northern Mexico in El Paso del Norte, Chihuahua, now Ciudad Juárez. The U.S. steadfastly refused to recognize the imperial government of Maximilian of Mexico in favor of the Mexican republic under Juárez. Historian Daniel Cosío Villegas made the Restored Republic the starting point of his multi-volume Historia Moderna de México. He considered it the high point of democracy in Mexico that brought new political players into the arena. "The most common and patriotic interpretation of politics during the Restored Republic is that Benito Juárez, Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, and a small group of determined liberals surrounding them were given the reins of power by a grateful nation to create a united democratic republic." Political opposition to Juárez and Lerdo grew in the period and gravitated to support of Porfirio Díaz. Díaz found success in the 1876 civil war against Lerdo and began the next political era, the Porfiriato.
