Reform War - Ascendency of The Liberals in The 1850s

Ascendency of The Liberals in The 1850s

In the 1850s, the Liberal factions gained political control under leaders such as Benito Juárez, Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, Juan Álvarez and others. This ascendancy came after the loss of about half of Mexico’s colonial territory to the United States in the Mexican-American War. Liberals believed that the Church and the military were the source of most of Mexico’s problems.

Liberals had two internal factions, the puros or radicals, and the moderados or moderates. These two factions united when Juárez and Melchor Ocampo, the leaders of these two factions and both in exile in New Orleans in 1854, supported the uprising of Juan Alvarez against Antonio López de Santa Anna, who was widely blamed for the loss of Texas and what is now the southwest U.S. The two set out principles in a document called the Plan of Ayutla. The Plan brought together a broad coalition of forces that was able to oust Santa Anna from the Mexican presidency.

The Liberals’ challenge to the Catholic Church’s hegemony in Mexico came about in stages even before the 1850s. State level measures adopted since the 1820s and the reform measures of Valentín Gómez Farías led to political defense of Mexico’s Catholic identity, including integration of Church and State. This included Catholic newspapers such as La Cruz and conservative groups that strongly attacked Liberal policies and ideology. This ideology had roots in the European Enlightenment, which sought to reduce the role of the Catholic Church in society. The Reforms began in the 1830s and 1840s coalesced into principle laws of the Reform era, which were passed in two phases, from 1855–1857 and then from 1858 to 1860. The 1857 Constitution of Mexico was promulgated near the end of the first phase. More Reform laws were passed from 1861–1863 and after 1867 after the Liberals emerged victorious after two civil wars with Conservative opponents.