La Reforma
In the history of Mexico, La Reforma (from Spanish: "The Reform"), or reform laws, refers to a pivotal set of laws, including a new constitution, that were enacted in the Second Federal Republic of Mexico during the 1850s after the Plan of Ayutla overthrew the dictatorship of Santa Anna. They were intended as modernizing measures: social, political, and economic, aimed at undermining the traditional power of the Catholic Church and the army. The reforms sought separation of church and state, equality before the law, and economic development. These anticlerical laws were enacted in the Second Mexican Republic between 1855 and 1863, during the governments of Juan Álvarez, Ignacio Comonfort and Benito Juárez. The laws also limited the ability of Catholic Church and indigenous communities from collectively holding land. The liberal government sought the revenues from the disentailment of church property, which could fund the civil war against Mexican conservatives and to broaden the base of property ownership in Mexico and encouraging private enterprise. Several of them were raised to constitutional status by the constituent Congress that drafted the liberal Constitution of 1857. Although the laws had a major impact on the Catholic Church in Mexico, liberal proponents were not opposed to the church as a spiritual institution, but rather sought a secular state and a society not dominated by religion.[1]
For other uses, see Reforma (disambiguation).
The Juárez Law reduced the power that military and ecclesiastical courts held. The Lerdo Law forced land held in collective ownership to be sold to individual owners. It aimed at creating a dynamic real estate market, creating a class of yeoman farmers owning their own land, and raising revenue for the state. The measure was intended to strip the Church of most of its property, as well as to break indigenous communities' collective ownership of land.
Both of these laws were later integrated into the Constitution of 1857, which also contained many other liberal reform measures. It was published on February of that year and was meant to come into power in September. The constitution allotted considerable power to Mexican states and well as giving Congress power over the President. Conservatives pushed back against the parts of the constitution that were perceived to infringe upon the rights of the church, and controversy was further inflamed when the government mandated that all civil servants take an oath to uphold the new constitution which left Catholic public servants with the choice of either keeping their jobs or being excommunicated.
In December, a section of the army under Félix Zuloaga rebelled under the Plan of Tacubaya. The controversy that had raged throughout the year convinced President Ignacio Comonfort to accept the plan, amounting to a self coup, which recognized him as president and increased his executive powers, believing that he could bring about a compromise between radical liberals and conservatives. When that failed, and the country began to plunge into civil war, he resigned, and the constitutional line of succession handed the presidency over to Benito Juárez, president of the Supreme Court. The War of the Reform broke out, lasting three years, between the liberal government under Benito Juárez and the conservative government under Zuloaga and others. During the war, Juárez outright nationalized most church properties in the states under his control. The war raged until December 1860, when the liberals emerged triumphant.
Almost immediately after the end of the war, Napoleon III used Juarez's suspension of foreign debts as a pretext to invade Mexico in 1862 and sought local help in setting up a client state. Seeing this as an opportunity to undo the Reform, conservative generals and statesmen joined the French and invited Habsburg archduke Maximilian to become Emperor of Mexico. Emperor Maximilian however, proved to be ideologically a liberal and actually ratified the Reform laws. Regardless, the government of Benito Juárez resisted, and fought the French and Mexican Imperial forces with the material and financial aid of the United States. The French withdrew, leading the monarchy to collapse in 1867. The liberals achieved a decisive victory, and the Constitution of 1857 would remain in force all throughout the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz until he was overthrown by the Mexican Revolution, when the Constitution was replaced by the Constitution of 1917, which remains in force to this day.
Background[edit]
The types of government reforms that would go on to characterize La Reforma were first attempted under the liberal presidency of Valentín Gómez Farías who assumed power in April 1833. Among a wider program of economic and social reform, the government closed church schools, assumed the right to make clerical appointments to the church, and closed monasteries.[2] It was a time of great anti-clerical agitation led by men such as Lorenzo de Zavala and Jose Luis Mora. The measure to assume the patronato, or the right to make appointments to the Catholic Church was actually passed over Gómez Farías' opposition.[3] Opposition to Gomez Farias’ anticlerical measures and his wider policies resulted in a series of rebellions culminating in his own vice-president, Santa Anna joining the rebels after which in April 1835, Valentin Gomez Farias fell from power through a military coup like many of his predecessors in the tumultuous era of the First Republic. The question of nationalizing church properties would hence remain mostly dormant until La Reforma.
On 1 March 1854, the Plan of Ayutla was proclaimed against the dictatorship of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, indicting him for his sale of the Mesilla Valley to the United States, the Gadsden Purchase; acting as a repressive dictator, and eliminating democratic institutions.[4] The revolution was led by colonel Florencio Villarreal, Juan Alvarez and Ignacio Comonfort spread to many parts of the country, achieving success in October 1855. Juan Alvarez assumed the presidency on an interim basis who in turn convened a congress. An important aspect of Juan Alvarez was taking in his cabinet young liberals, thanks to it so important for the history of Mexico and Melchor Ocampo, Benito Juarez, Guillermo Prieto and Ignacio Comonfort men had the opportunity to have an active political participation. In his administration, Alvarez was dedicated to make laws that keep the country under the ideals of liberalism, as the Juárez Law, and the provision of Melchor Ocampo depriving the right to vote the clergy. For personal reasons Juan Alvarez resigned in December 1855 and left Ignacio Comonfort as responsible for the country's presidency.