The Reform War (17 December 185711 January 1861) or War of Reform (), also known as the Three Years' War () and the Mexican Civil War,Will Fowler, The Grammar of Civil War: A Mexican Case Study, 1857-61. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press 2022 was a complex civil conflict in Mexico that was fought between Mexican liberals and conservatives with regional variations over the promulgation of the 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."Fowler, The Grammar of Civil War, p. 43 Following the liberals' overthrow of the dictatorship of the conservative Antonio López de Santa Anna, the liberals passed a series of laws that codified their political program that 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, the separation of church and state, reduction of the power of the Mexican Army by the elimination of its special privileges, the strengthening of the secular state through public educations, and measures to develop the nation economically.Sinkin, The Mexican Reform, 169.
The constitution had been promulgated on February 5, 1857 and was to come into force on September 16, 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 at Mexico's indigenous peoples, who were forced to sell sizable 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 either losing their jobs or being excommunicated.
General Félix Zuloaga led army troops to the capital, closed congress, and issued the Plan of Tacubaya on 17 December 1857. The constitution was nullified, and President Comonfort initially agreed to 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.Fowler, The Grammar of Civil War p.43 Comonfort, hoping to establish a more moderate government, found himself triggering a civil war and began to back away from Zuloaga. On January 11, 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 government of Zuloaga, based in Mexico City, 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 to 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 the conservative forces surrendered on 22 December 1860. Juárez returned to Mexico City on January 11, 1861 and held presidential elections in March.Hamnett, Brian. Juárez. New York: Longman 1994, 255 Although the conservative forces had lost the war, guerrillas remained active in the countryside and later joined the upcoming French intervention to help establish the Second Mexican Empire.Sinkin, The Mexican Reform, 177.
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 the Centralist Republic in 1835, which 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 Oaxaca Governor Benito Juárez and Michoacán Governor Melchor Ocampo overthrew Santa Anna, and the presidency passed to a liberal caudillo, Juan Álvarez, in November 1855.
La Reforma
Álvarez's 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 the 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 the 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 church's economic power 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 former Indigenous communities' lands community increased the size of the large landed estates, the haciendas.
The Constitution of 1857 was promulgated on February 5, 1857, and it incorporated both the Juárez and the Lerdo Laws. It was meant to take into effect on September 16. On March 17, it was decreed that all civil servants had to swear to it publicly and to take an oath to it. The Catholic Church decreed excommunication for anyone that took the oath, and 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 December 17, 1857, General Zuloaga proclaimed the Plan of Tacubaya, declared 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 that made the case that more moderate reforms were needed under the current circumstances.
The Plan of Tacubaya did not lead to a national reconciliation, as Comonfort realized, and 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 had been abandoned by most of his loyal troops, he 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 the 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, but he affirmed his support for Juárez's government. Santiago Vidaurri and Manuel Doblado organized the liberal forces in the north and led a coalition in the interior that was headquartered in the town of Celaya, Guanajuato. On 10 March 1858, liberal forces under Anastasio Parrodi, the governor of Jalisco, and Leandro Valle lost the Battle of Salamanca, which opened up the interior of the country to the conservatives.Hamnett, "Wars of Reform", 1601
Juárez was in Jalisco's capital of Guadalajara, where, from March 13 to 15, part of the army there mutinied and imprisoned him and threatened his life. The 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, and Guadalajara hade become fully captured by conservatives by the end of March. The conservatives took the silver mining center of Zacatecas on 12 April. Juárez reconstituted his regime in Veracruz and embarked from the west coast port of Manzanillo. He crossed Panama, arrived in Veracruz on May 4, 1858, and made it the liberal capital.Hamnett, "Wars of Reform", 1602
Conservative Advances Juárez made Santos Degollado the head of the liberal armies, which went on to defeat upon defeat. Miramón defeated him in the Battle of Atenquique on July 2. On July 24, Miramón captured Guanajuato, and San Luis Potosi was captured by the conservatives on September 12 . Vidaurri was defeated at the Battle of Ahualulco on September 29. By October, the conservatives were at the height of their strength.
The liberals failed to take Mexico City on October 14, but Santos Degollado captured Guadalajara on October 27; the thirty-day siege had left a third of the city in ruins. The victory caused consternation at the conservative capital, but Guadalajara was taken back by Márquez on December 14.
The failure of Zuloaga's government to produce a constitution actually led to a conservative revolt against him led by General Echegaray. He resigned in favor of Manuel Robles Pezuela on December 23. On December 30, a conservative junta in Mexico City elected General Miguel Miramón as president.
First Veracruz Offensive