Francisco Ignacio Madero González was a Mexican landowner, reformist, writer and statesman, who became the 37th president of Mexico from 1911 until he was forced to resign in a rightwing coup d'etat in February 1913, during which he was assassinated. A member of a large and extremely wealthy landowning family in the northern state of Coahuila. Despite his wealth, he was an advocate for social justice and democracy. Madero was notable for challenging long-time President Porfirio Díaz for the presidency in 1910 and being instrumental in sparking the Mexican Revolution. Following his being jailed before fraudulent elections in the summer of 1910, he called for the violent overthrow of Díaz as a last resort in his 1910 Plan of San Luis Potosí. Histories of Mexico date the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution to this plan.
Until he ran for president in the 1910 elections, he had never held office, but he authored the book entitled The Presidential Succession in 1910. Madero called on voters to prevent the sixth reelection of Porfirio Díaz, which Madero considered anti-democratic.