The causes of the War of the Reformation happened in Mexico, were several, placing like main the contraposition of liberals against conservatives.
The War of Reformation or War of the Three Years, passed between the 17 of December of 1857 and January of 1861. This war led to armed confrontations to the liberals and conservatives.
The causes of this conflict were caused by the promulgation of liberal laws that removed the ecclesiastical and military jurisdiction.
These laws also made any person who committed a crime, whether outside the Church or the army, be tried as a citizen in a civil court.
To date, if these people committed a crime, they were tried by an ecclesiastical or military court, where penalties were often laughable compared to civil penalties.
The main causes of the Reformist war
The Juarez Law
The Juarez law, which is known as this set of laws, was promulgated on November 23, 1855 under the official name of the Administration and Justice of the District and Territory Courts of the Nation.
Benito Juarez Was at that time the secretary of Justivia, ecclesiastical Businesses and Public instruction of the cabinet of Juan Álvarez. Juan Álvarez had assumed the presidency after the revolution of Ayutla.
Juarez, who was considered a pure radical, sought to eliminate all military and religious privileges. However, the Minister of War, Ignacio Comonfort, did not agree.
In the first instance he had recommended prudence to the president with the promulgation of these laws. For that reason, the military and ecclesiastical courts were maintained for a few years.
Once the new law was promulgated, Juarez sent it to the Archbishop of Mexico. This was contrary to the law, considering that it violated the rights of the Catholic Church.
The bishops and archbishops refused to accept the law and refused to renounce their jurisdiction, appealing to the decisions of the Holy See on the grounds that ecclesiastical law was based on divine right.
This was one of the first causes that led to the War of the Reformation. Conservative newspapers repudiated the law, while the liberals hailed it.
While Law Juarez was in the focus of Mexican society, another law, the Law Lerdo, continued to stir up the controversy.
The Lerdo Law
The law Lerdo counts on the official name of Law of Disentailment of the Rustic and Urban Farms of the Civil and Religious Corporations of Mexico. It was approved on June 25, 1856.
Its main objective was to create a rural middle class to clean up state finances, eliminating what they considered obstacles to prosperity, which were mainly the lack of movement of part of the property that was in the hands of the church and the army.
These goods were considered to be in dead hands, and needed to be expanded and used by the rural labor force.
The Catholic Church in Mexico, like the army, had many immovable property that was not being used, so the government decided and decreed the sale of the same to private individuals to promote the market.
Not only did this law force the army and the Church to dispose of their property, but it prevented them from acquiring others that were not strictly necessary for the conduct of their activity.
One of the main consequences of this law was that many foreign investors took advantage of the situation to take over large estates, which gave rise to latifundios.
Reform laws
The Juarez Law and the Lerdo Law were the main laws that were later known as Reform Laws. Where the separation of Church-State and the abolition of ecclesiastical fueros took place.
At this point began the Civil War facing liberals and conservatives. On the one hand, the liberal party headed by Benito Juarez that would defend the constitutional order.
And on the other hand, Felix Zuloaga. When the president had to leave, Juarez took command of the Government in Guanajuato, while Zuloaga did it in the capital.
Zuloaga promulgated the Five Laws that repealed the Lerdo Law and the Juarez Law among others. The liberal government suffered a continuous series of defeats which led him to tighten the laws and his position
Other laws that influenced this Law of Reformation that were reinforced by the liberal defeats suffered were, the Law of Nationalization of the Ecclesiastical Goods 12 of July of 1859; The Civil Marriage Law, approved on the 23rd of the same month; The Organic Law of the Civil Registry, which was approved on the 28th, and the Law on the Civil Status of Persons, approved on July 31, 1859, all approved in Veracruz.
The end of the war
After three years of civil war, the two sides clashed in a final battle on December 22, 1860 in Calpulapan, where the Liberals won. Juarez triumphantly entered the capital and called for elections.
He won with a fair victory and Benito Juarez was proclaimed president with González Ortega in charge of the Court of Justice, which implied to be the substitute to the president if something happened to him.
Once the constitutional order of the country had been restored, reforms that had been approved during the war were reinforced, and new ones were added, such as the Law on Secularization of Hospitals and Welfare Establishments in 1861.
In spite of having been defeated, Zuloaga returned to proclaim itself president of the republic. This coup did not come to term, but for Juarez they still had not finished the problems.
The years in which the conservatives had manipulated public finances had left the country in a decadent situation, where the laws of reform were not enough to bring about the pacification of the country and solve its financial problems.
References
- PALACIO, Vicente Riva; OF DIOS ARIAS, Juan. Mexico through the centuries . Publications Herrerías, 1977.
- KATZ, Friedrich. The Secret War in Mexico: Europe, the United States and the Mexican Revolution . Ediciones Era, 1981.
- COVO, Jacqueline. The ideas of the Reformation in Mexico (1855-1861) . National Autonomous University of Mexico, Coordination of Humanities, 1983.
- WAR, François-Xavier. Mexico: from the old regime to the revolution . Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1988.
- WAR, François-Xavier. Modernity and Independence: Essays on the Hispanic Revolutions . Meeting, 2011.
- BAZÁN, Cristina Oehmichen. Reform of the state: social policy and indigenism in Mexico, 1988-1996 . National Autonomous University of Mexico Instituto de Inv Tig, 1999.
- KNOWLTON, Robert J. The goods of the clergy and the Mexican Reform, 1856-1910 . Fondo de Cultura Economica USA, 1985.