Reform War
The Reform War or War of Reform, also known as the Three Years' War, and the Mexican Civil War, was a complex civil conflict in Mexico fought between Mexican liberals and conservatives with regional variations over the promulgation of Constitution of 1857. It has been called the "worst civil war to hit Mexico between the War of Independence of 1810–21 and the Revolution of 1910–20". Following the liberals' overthrow of the dictatorship of conservative Antonio López de Santa Anna, liberals passed a series of laws codifying their political program. These laws were incorporated into the new constitution. It aimed to limit the political power of the executive branch, as well as the political, economic, and cultural power of the Catholic Church. Specific measures were the expropriation of Church property; separation of church and state; reduction of the power of the Mexican Army by elimination of their special privileges; strengthening the secular state through public education; and measures to develop the nation economically.
The constitution had been promulgated on 5 February 1857 was to come into force on 16 September 1857. There was intense opposition from Conservatives and the Catholic Church over its anti-clerical provisions, but there were also moderate liberals, including President Ignacio Comonfort, who considered the constitution too radical and likely to trigger a civil war. The Lerdo Law forced the sale of most of the Church's rural properties. The measure was not exclusively aimed at the Catholic Church, but also Mexico's indigenous peoples, which were forced to sell sizeable portions of their communal lands. Controversy was further inflamed when the Catholic Church decreed the excommunication of civil servants who took a government-mandated oath upholding the new constitution, which left Catholic civil servants with the choice of losing their jobs or being excommunicated.
General Félix Zuloaga led army troops to the capital and closed congress and issued the Plan of Tacubaya on 17 December 1857. The constitution was nullified, President Comonfort was initially signed onto the plan and was retained in the presidency and given emergency powers. Some liberal politicians were arrested, including the president of the Supreme Court of Justice, Benito Juárez. Comonfort, hoping to establish a more moderate government, found himself triggering a civil war and began to back away from Zuloaga. On 11 January 1858, Comonfort resigned and went into exile. He was constitutionally succeeded by Juárez as president of the Supreme Court. The nation's states subsequently chose to side with either the Mexico City-based government of Zuloaga or that of Juárez, which established itself at the strategic port of Veracruz. Initial choices for one side or the other often shifted over time. The first year of the war was marked by repeated conservative victories, but the liberals remained entrenched in the nation's coastal regions, including their capital at the port of Veracruz, which gave them access to vital customs revenue that could fund their forces.
Both governments attained international recognition, the liberals by the United States and the conservatives by France, the United Kingdom, and Spain. The liberals negotiated the McLane–Ocampo Treaty with the United States in 1859. If ratified the treaty would have given the liberal regime cash, but it would have also granted the United States perpetual military and economic rights on Mexican territory. The treaty failed to pass in the U.S. Senate, but the U.S. Navy still helped protect Juárez's government in Veracruz.
Liberals accumulated victories on the battlefield until conservative forces surrendered on 22 December 1860. Juárez returned to Mexico City on 11 January 1861 and held presidential elections in March. Although the conservative forces lost the war, guerrillas remained active in the countryside and later joined the upcoming French intervention to help establish the Second Mexican Empire.
Background
After achieving independence in 1821, Mexico was alternatively governed by both liberal and conservative coalitions. The original Constitution of 1824 established the federalist system championed by the liberals, with the states holding sovereign power and the central government being weak. The brief liberal administration of Valentín Gómez Farías attempted to implement anti-clerical measures as early as 1833. The government closed church schools, assumed the right to make clerical appointments to the Catholic Church, and shut down monasteries. The ensuing backlash would result in Gómez Farías's government being overthrown and conservatives established a Centralist Republic in 1835 that lasted until the outbreak of the Mexican–American War in 1846.In 1854 there was a liberal revolt, known as the Plan of Ayutla, against the dictatorship of Antonio López de Santa Anna. A coalition of liberals, including Benito Juárez, then governor of Oaxaca, and Melchor Ocampo of Michoacán overthrew Santa Anna, and the presidency passed on to the liberal caudillo Juan Álvarez.
La Reforma
assumed power in November 1855. His cabinet was radical and included the prominent liberals Benito Juárez, Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, Melchor Ocampo, and Guillermo Prieto, but also the more moderate Ignacio Comonfort.Clashes in the cabinet led to the resignation of the radical Ocampo, but the administration was still determined to pass significant reforms. On 23 November 1855, the Juárez Law, named after the Minister of Justice, substantially reduced the jurisdiction of military and ecclesiastical courts which existed for soldiers and clergy.
Further dissension within liberal ranks led to Álvarez's resignation and the more moderate Comonfort becoming president on 11 December and choosing a new cabinet. A constituent congress began meeting on 14 February 1856 and ratified the Juárez law. In June, another major controversy emerged over the promulgation of the Lerdo Law, named after the secretary of the treasury, Miguel Lerdo de Tejada. The law aimed at disentailing the collective ownership of real estate by the Roman Catholic Church and indigenous communities. It forced "civil or ecclesiastical institutions" to sell any land that they owned, with the tenants receiving priority and generous terms for purchasing the community-held land they cultivated. The law sought to undermine the economic power of the Church and to force create a class of yeoman farmers of indigenous community members. The law was envisioned as a way to develop Mexico's economy by increasing the number of indigenous private property owners, but in practice the land was bought up by rich speculators. Most of the lost indigenous lands community lands increased the size of large landed estates, haciendas.
The Constitution of 1857 was promulgated on 5 February 1857, and it incorporated both the Juárez and the Lerdo Laws. It was meant to take into effect on 16 September. On 17 March it was decreed that all civil servants had to publicly swear and sign and oath to it. The Catholic Church decreed excommunication for anyone that took the oath, and subsequently many Catholics in the government lost their jobs for refusing the oath.
Controversy over the constitution continued to rage, and Comonfort himself was rumored to be conspiring to form a new government. On 17 December 1857, General Félix Zuloaga proclaimed the Plan of Tacubaya, declaring the Constitution of 1857 nullified, and offered supreme power to President Comonfort, who was to convoke a new constitutional convention to produce a new document more in accord with Mexican interests. In response, congress deposed President Comonfort, but Zuloaga's troops entered the capital on the 18th and dissolved congress. The following day, Comonfort accepted the Plan of Tacubaya, and released a manifesto making the case that more moderate reforms were needed under the current circumstances.
The Plan of Tacubaya did not lead to a national reconciliation, and as Comonfort realized this he began to back away from Zuloaga and the conservatives. He resigned from the presidency and even began to lead skirmishes against the Zuloaga government, but after he was abandoned by most of his loyal troops, Comonfort left the capital on 11 January 1858, with the constitutional presidency having passed to the president of the Supreme Court, Benito Juárez. The Conservative government in the capital summoned a council of representatives that elected Zuloaga as president, and the states of Mexico proclaimed their loyalties to either the conservative Zuloaga or liberal Juárez governments. The Reform War had now begun.
The War
Flight of the Liberal Government
President Juárez and his ministers fled from Mexico City to Querétaro. General Zuloaga, knowing the strategic importance of the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, tried to win over its governor, Gutierrez Zamora, who however affirmed his support for the government of Juárez. Santiago Vidaurri and Manuel Doblado organized Liberal forces in the north and led a liberal coalition in the interior headquartered in the town of Celaya, Guanajuato. On 10 March 1858, liberal forces under Anastasio Parrodi, governor of Jalisco, and Leandro Valle lost the Battle of Salamanca, which opened up the interior of the country to the conservatives.Juárez was in Jalisco's capital Guadalajara at this time, when on 13–15 March part of the army there mutinied and imprisoned him, threatening his life. Liberal minister and fellow prisoner Guillermo Prieto dissuaded the hostile soldiers from shooting Juárez, an event now memorialized by a statue. As rival factions struggled to control the city, Juárez and other liberal prisoners were released on agreement after which Guadalajara was fully captured by conservatives by the end of March. Conservatives took the silver mining center of Zacatecas on 12 April. Juárez reconstituted his regime in Veracruz, embarking from the west coast port of Manzanillo, crossing Panama, and arriving in Veracruz on 4 May 1858, making it the liberal capital.