Francisco Ignacio Madero González (1873–1913) was a member of one of the wealthiest northern Mexican families. His grandfather had helped build up the family’s riches by transporting cotton from the Confederate states during the U.S. Civil War (1861–65). Francisco was born on the family hacienda in the province of Coahuila, but he had a broad education. He was sent to study business in France between 1886 and 1892. By the early twentieth century, he had returned to Coahuila and had started a career managing the family estates, which were involved mostly in growing guayule, a source of natural rubber.