(3rd) a dictatorship which encouraged foreign exploitation, fostered the decadent church and remnants of creole aristocracy, denied the middle class political expression and economic opportunity, and wrested from the masses the hope of freedom which the revolution of 1857 had brought them.
Diaz, during his rule of over thirty years, welcomed foreign investors and put at their disposal the rich and varied resources of Mexico. In 1883, seven years after he came into power, a law was enacted according to which those who surveyed and mapped public lands, should receive as recompense one-third of all land surveyed and an option to buy the remainder at a very low rate. Thus the public lands, which might have been developed into small holdings, fell into the hands of a few foreign speculators. In 1894, a still more sweeping law was enacted by the provisions of which unlimited quantities of land on which titles were uncertain could be acquired.[1] This and the breaking up of the ejidos (under laws enacted but not widely enforced in the time of Juarez) enabled foreign investors to seize large tracts of the best land, evicting families whose ancestors had tilled it for generations. In many cases the legal formality of dividing the lands among the villagers was omitted and unquestionable titles ignored. The courts were so corrupt that appeal to them was useless.[2] In case of serious resistance, armed forces were rushed in and the people ruthlessly massacred. According to official Mexican records, during the Diaz regime, grants of land totaled 180,000,000 acres, one-third the area of Mexico.[3]
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