The son of a wealthy landowning family, Madero attended Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Md. (1886–88), then studied for several years at a business school in Paris and one semester at the University of California at Berkeley. He was an unimpressive man—short, slender, and pale—and a vegetarian, teetotaler, and spiritualist. Madero became a believer in a moderate form of democracy, and he helped organize the Benito Juárez Democratic Club and a political party in Coahuila (1904–05) in an unsuccessful attempt to become governor of the state. He quickly learned, however, that efforts to end the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz (Díaz, Porfirio) would require a national democratic movement, and to this end he supported independent journalists and encouraged efforts at political organization.

Díaz inadvertently hastened events when, in 1908, he told an American journalist, James Creelman, that Mexico was ready for democracy and that he intended to retire in 1910. This declaration prompted a flood of political literature and a flurry of political activity, including an immensely successful book by Madero, La sucesión presidencial en 1910 (1908; “The Presidential Succession in 1910”), in which he called for honest elections, mass participation in the political process, and no reelection to the office of president. The political scene became even more hectic when Díaz changed his mind in 1909 and stated his intention to run for reelection in 1910. Madero helped organize the Antireelectionist Party and became its presidential candidate with the slogan “Effective Suffrage—No Reelection!” On the eve of the farcical election, he was arrested on charges of fomenting a rebellion and insulting the authorities. Released on bond, he escaped to San Antonio, Texas, where in October 1910 he published the Plan of San Luis Potosí, declared himself the legitimate president of Mexico, and called for an armed insurrection to begin on November 20.

In Chihuahua his supporters Pascual Orozco and Pancho Villa (Villa, Pancho) kept the rebellion alive, and by February 1911 Madero was in Chihuahua with a following and an army. The Díaz government, besieged by crowds of Maderistas, undertook negotiations with the rebels. The conflagration continued to spread, however, and, after Orozco and Villa captured Ciudad Juárez (May 10, 1911), Díaz capitulated and resigned. An interim government was established under Francisco León de la Barra, the secretary of foreign relations.

The presidential election in October 1911 was a sweeping triumph for Madero. He assumed office on November 6 and was hailed throughout Mexico as the “apostle of democracy.” His administration, nevertheless, culminated in personal and national disaster. Handicapped by political inexperience and excessively optimistic idealism, he failed to recognize that many of his supporters had other ends in mind. In spite of Madero's personal honesty, Mexico had another thoroughly corrupt administration. More seriously, in his preoccupation with fostering democratic institutions, Madero was attacked both by the entrenched supporters of the old regime who opposed any change and by revolutionary elements who were insistent on far-reaching social and economic reforms. He also had to contend with the hostility of a conservative press, the harassment of the U.S. ambassador, Henry Lane Wilson, and a series of armed rebellions.

Madero's former supporter Bernardo Reyes led the first uprising against him, which was easily suppressed. Two more conservative-inspired rebellions led, respectively, by Pascual Orozco and the former president's nephew, Félix Díaz, were put down, but Reyes and Díaz continued to plot against Madero from their jail cells. The end came when a military revolt broke out in Mexico City in February 1913. Madero had depended upon General Victoriano Huerta (Huerta, Victoriano) to command the government's troops, but Huerta conspired with Reyes and Díaz to betray Madero. The president was arrested, and while being transferred to prison he was assassinated by the escort.

In death Madero's name became a symbol of revolutionary unity in the continuing struggle against military despotism—now embodied in the Huerta regime. His martyrdom, if not his career, made him an inspiration to the democratic forces of the Mexican Revolution.