Editing Mexican Revolution (section)

===Díaz and the military===
Díaz had legitimacy as a leader through his battlefield accomplishments. He knew that the long tradition of military intervention in politics and its resistance to civilian control would prove challenging to his remaining in power. He set about curbing the power of the military, reining in provincial military chieftains, and making them subordinate to the central government. He contended with a whole new group of generals who had fought for the liberal cause and who expected rewards for their services. He systematically dealt with them, providing some rivals with opportunities to enrich themselves, ensuring the loyalty of others with high salaries, and others were bought off by rewards of [[landed estate]]s and redirecting their political ambitions. Military rivals who did not accept the alternatives often rebelled and were crushed. It took him some 15 years to accomplish the transformation, reducing the army by 500 officers and 25 generals, creating an army subordinate to central power. He also created the military academy to train officers, but their training aimed to repel foreign invasions.{{sfn|Lieuwen|1981|pp=1–5}} Díaz expanded the rural police force, the {{lang|es|[[rurales]]}} as an elite guard, including many former [[Banditry|bandits]], under the direct control of the president.<ref>Vanderwood, Paul. ''Disorder and Progress: Bandits, Police, and Mexican Development''. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press 1981.</ref> With these forces, Díaz attempted to appease the Mexican countryside, led by a stable government that was nominally civilian, and the conditions to develop the country economically with the infusion of foreign investments.

During Díaz's long tenure in office, the Federal Army became overstaffed and top-heavy with officers, many of them elderly who last saw active military service against the French in the 1860s. Some 9,000 officers commanded the 25,000 rank-and-file on the books, with some 7,000 padding the rosters and nonexistent so that officers could receive the subsidies for the numbers they commanded. Officers used their positions for personal enrichment through salary and opportunities for graft. Although Mexicans had enthusiastically volunteered in [[Second French intervention in Mexico|the war against the French]], the ranks were now filled by [[draftee]]s. There was a vast gulf between officers and the lower ranks. "The officer corps epitomized everything the masses resented about the Díaz system."{{sfn|Lieuwen|1981|p=5}} With multiple rebellions breaking out in the wake of the fraudulent 1910 election, the military was unable to suppress them, revealing the regime's weakness and leading to Díaz's resignation in May 1911.{{sfn|Lieuwen|1981|p=9}}