The Republic of Yucatán () was a sovereign state during two periods of the nineteenth century. The first Republic of Yucatán, founded May 29, 1823, willingly joined the Mexican federation as the Federated Republic of Yucatán on December 23, 1823, less than seven months later. The second Republic of Yucatán began in 1841, with its declaration of independence from the Centralist Republic of Mexico. It remained independent for seven years, after which it rejoined the United Mexican States. The area of the former republic includes the modern Mexican states of Yucatán, Campeche and Quintana Roo. The Republic of Yucatán usually refers to the second republic (1841–1848).
The Republic of Yucatán was governed by the Constitution of 1841 which guaranteed individual rights, religious freedom and what was then a new legal form called (). The 1847 Caste War caused the Republic of Yucatán to request military aid from Mexico. This was given on the condition that the Republic rejoin the Mexican Federation.
Colonial era and independence from Spain
In 1617, Yucatán was administered as a Captaincy General of New Spain. Its geographical position gave it some autonomy. During the Spanish Viceroyalty, the province and captaincy of Yucatán covered the current territories of Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, and Yucatán, plus, nominally, the northern territories of the Petén and the territory that is currently Belize. In 1786, the Spanish Crown implemented the system of Intendencias and the territory changed its name to Intendency of Yucatán, which included the same territories.
War of Mexican Independence
In 1810, the priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla issued the Grito de Dolores (in effect a call for independence) in Dolores near Guanajuato. An army of insurgents began an eleven-year war of independence that culminated in a Mexican victory over the viceroy's armies. In 1821 the Mexicans offered the crown of the new Mexican Empire to Ferdinand VII or to a member of the Spanish royal family that he would designate. After the refusal of the Spanish monarchy to recognize the independence of Mexico, the (Army of the Three Guarantees), led by Agustín de Iturbide and Vicente Guerrero, cut all political and economic dependence on Spain. The Plan of Iguala established Roman Catholicism as Mexico's religion and equality for all social and ethnic groups in the new empire. These goals were summarized as "Religion, Independence and Unity" (Religión, Independencia y Unión).
Once the independence of the Mexican Empire was declared, Agustín de Iturbide was designated President of the Regency; because of his great popularity and prestige, the Interim Board gave him full authority. Elections for the Constituent Congress took place in December 1821 and in January 1822. There is no accurate record of how many deputies were elected, but it has been estimated at about 126, plus 52 given to Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Chiapas, former captaincies which also agreed to the Plan of Iguala.
José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi, called The Mexican Thinker, proposed the right of Agustín de Iturbide to be emperor. On May 19, 1822 Valentín Gómez Farías presented a proposal signed by a minority of 42 deputies to proclaim Iturbide as Emperor, citing his extraordinary services as El Libertador (The Liberator). The masses also supported the appointment. Lorenzo de Zavala, a republican and liberal, objected, claiming that the Iturbide's supporters included the old viceroyalty leadership: the clergy, the nobility, and the army (including such men as Antonio López de Santa Anna). Regardless, Iturbide's coronation took place on July 21, 1822 in the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral, and he became emperor of Mexico as Agustin I.
Impact of Mexican independence Just as Yucatán's geographical remoteness from the center of New Spain, specifically from Mexico City, had limited the influence of the viceroy on Yucatecan governance, so did it limit the military effects of Mexico's war of independence. Among the enlightened Yucatecan, the war encouraged a liberated spirit. The Yucatecan intelligentsia met regularly to discuss the war for independence in central Mexico at the Church of San Juan, located in Mérida, Yucatán. From this church they received their name, the Sanjuanistas. After the promulgation of the Constitution of Cádiz in 1812, Sanjuanistas grew in number, including Vicente María Velázquez (Chaplain of the church of San Juan), Manuel Jiménez Solís, Lorenzo de Zavala and José Matías Quintana, father of Andrés Quintana Roo. In 1814 King Ferdinand VII abolished the Constitution of Cádiz, and those who gathered in the church of San Juan were persecuted. Some of them arrested and imprisoned, including Lorenzo de Zavala, José Francisco Bates, and José Matias Quintana.
In 1820, Lorenzo de Zavala, a former Sanjuanista, formed the Patriotic Confederation. A schism developed within the Confederation that resulted in two opposing groups. One included the supporters of the Spanish government and the Constitution of Cádiz. The other, led by Zavala, sought complete independence from Spain. To eliminate the opposition, Mariano Carrillo Albornoz, then governor, forced Zavala and another former Sanjuanista, Manuel Garcia Sosa, to accept posts as deputies of the Cortes (legislative assembly of Spain) and sent them to Madrid; he ordered the other liberals imprisoned.
Federal pact with Mexico Echeverri, who succeeded Carrillo Albornoz in 1821, proclaimed the independence of the peninsula and sent two representatives to negotiate the incorporation of Yucatán into the Mexican Empire. This incorporation took place on November 2, 1821.
In December 1822 Antonio López de Santa Anna and General Guadalupe Victoria signed the Plan of Casa Mata, a pact through which they sought to abolish the monarchy and transform Mexico into a republic. Initially a supporter of Iturbide, Santa Anna had adopted the republican cause. Agustín I was forced to abdicate and left the country. In May 1823, following Iturbide's resignation, Victoria became the first president of Mexico and Santa Anna became governor of Yucatán. Yucatán joined as the Federated Republic of Yucatán on December 23, 1823. Both were founding states of the United Mexican States.
The Federal Constitution of the United Mexican States of 1824 fully satisfied the ideals of the Yucatecan. The Constitution of Yucatán of 1825 reflects the agreement in principles: Yucatán swears that recognizes and responds to the government of Mexico, only if it is liberal and representative; and with the condition that: The union of Yucatán is that of a Federated Republic, and not otherwise, and therefore entitled to form their particular Constitution and establish the laws that it deems necessary to its happiness.
In the Mexican government, two policies competed for primacy at that time. The Federalists argued for the balance of power among the three branches of state: executive, legislative, and judicial. The Centralists centered all authority on President of the Republic. Federalists ruled in Mexico from the birth of the Republic until 1835, and this corresponds with calm, peaceful relations between Mexico and the Yucatán. In 1835 the Centralists took power in Mexico and appointed the governor of Yucatán. As the Yucatán lost more and more of its autonomy, its people considered more seriously the possibility of their own independence and the formation of a second republic.
An important case set a precedent for the independence of the Yucatán and the formation of a new republic. As Mexico had won its independence from Spain, several provinces on the periphery of New Spain had been subsumed into the new Mexican empire and its successor state, the Republic of Mexico, or the United States of Mexico. One of its northernmost territories, Texas, had been populated mostly by settlers from the United States. Mexican centralization conflicted with the ideas of the Anglo-Texans, who decided to seek US volunteers for their own independence. With that support, Texas attained independence and emerged as a republic. The first vice-president of the Republic of Texas was Lorenzo de Zavala, a Mexican born in Yucatán and Minister of Finance in the government of the second Mexican president Vicente Guerrero.
First Republic
Declaration of independence
The federal army of Yucatán, commanded by Captain Santiago Imán, took the city of Valladolid and on February 12, 1840 issued a report, which stated that federalism should be restored as a form of government to combat poverty in the country. The act required the reestablishment of the Mexican Constitution of 1824. Six days later, in the presence of troops of the garrison of Mérida (the Yucatán capital city) under the command of Anastasio Torrens, and many supporters, Captain Santiago Imán proclaimed the independence of the Yucatecan territory. On June 6, 1840, the city of Campeche surrendered to the Yucatecan Federalists after a military siege. The central government of Mexico declared war on the Yucatán.
On March 16, 1841 at the first City Council meeting in Mérida, a crowd led by Miguel Barbachano Terrazo (future governor of Yucatán) broke into the room calling for the independence of Yucatán. Some members of this group lowered the Mexican flag, without considering the consequences, raising in its place a flag called the Yucatecan. Officially a few days after the Mexican flag was removed from boats and buildings in favor of the Yucatecan flag.
On October 1, 1841, the local Chamber of Deputies adopted the Act of Independence of the Yucatán Peninsula. The first article stated: The people of Yucatán, in the full exercise of its sovereignty is becoming free and independent republic of the Mexican nation....
The Yucatán flag was hoisted first in the government building of the town of Yucatec on March 16, 1841, in protest at Santa Anna's centralization of Mexico. "The flag of Yucatán is divided into two fields: on the left, a field of green; and on the right, another divided in turn into three, red top and bottom, and white in the middle. The field of green features five stars standing for the five departments into which Yucatán was divided by a decree of November 30, 1840, namely: Mérida, Izamal, Valladolid, Campeche, and Tekax."Rodolfo Menéndez de la Peña, historian The colors of the flag of the Yucatán are identical to those of the Mexican flag, in contrast to the flag of the other republic to declare independence from Mexico, the Republic of Texas, which used the colors of the flag of the United States.
Yucatecan Constitution of 1841
The innovative 1841 Constitution of Yucatán was based on the Constitution of the State of Yucatán in 1825 but also contained a reform package drafted by the liberal lawyer Manuel Crescencio García Rejón. It was promulgated on March 31, 1841 and entered into force on May 16.
Important rights included individual rights as the fundamental rights of all citizens of the state either at home or abroad; the declaration of freedom of religion, in article 79: "none to be molested for his religious views, and those who come to settle in the country, as their descendants, have secured him the public and private exercise of their respective religions"; Article 69 established trial by a jury of peers. Article 73 abolished required civil or military service. Section I of Article 62 re-established the Amparo, the process of legal protection which is based on the idea of limiting the power of government authorities.
Santa Anna's coup and the Mexican rapprochement