In the history of Mexico, (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 had overthrown the dictatorship of Antonio López de 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. The 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 the church and the Indigenous communities to hold land collectively.
The liberal government sought the revenues from the disentailment of church property to fund the civil war against Mexican conservatives and to broaden the base of property ownership in Mexico and encouraging private enterprise. Several of the laws 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.Brian Hamnett, "Reform Laws" in Encyclopedia of Mexico, vol. 2, pp. 1239-1241. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997.
The Juárez Law reduced the power that military and ecclesiastical courts held. The Lerdo Law forced land that was 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 the Indigenous communities' collective ownership of land.
Both 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 gave 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 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, French Emperor Napoleon III used Juárez's suspension of foreign debts as a pretext to invade Mexico in 1862 and sought local help in setting up a client state. Seeing that as an opportunity to undo the Reform, conservative generals and statesmen joined the French and invited Habsburg Archduke Maximilian to become Emperor of Mexico. Maximilian, however, proved to be ideologically a liberal as emperor and actually ratified the Reform Laws. Regardless, Juárez's government resisted and fought the French and Imperial Mexican forces with the material and financial aid of the United States.
The French withdrew, which caused 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. It caused the Constitution to be replaced by the Constitution of 1917, which remains in force to this day.
Background Similar government reforms to those that would 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. The time of great anti-clerical agitation was led by men such as Lorenzo de Zavala and José Luis Mora. The measure to assume the patronato, the right to make appointments to the Catholic Church, was actually passed over the opposition of Gómez Farías.
Opposition to Gómez Farías's anticlerical measures and other policies resulted in a series of rebellions, and his own vice-president, Antonio López de Santa Anna, would join the rebels. In April 1835, Gómez Farías fell from power by a military coup, like many of his predecessors in the tumultuous era of the First Republic. The question of nationalizing church properties then remained mostly dormant until La Reforma.
On 1 March 1854, the Plan of Ayutla was proclaimed against Santa Anna's dictatorship, which indicted him for selling the Mesilla Valley to the United States, the Gadsden Purchase; acting as a repressive dictator, and eliminating democratic institutions.Robert J. Knowlton, "Plan of Ayala", vol. 4, p. 420, Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1996. The revolution was led by colonel Florencio Villarreal, Juan Álvarez, and Ignacio Comonfort. It spread to many parts of the country and succeeded in October 1855.
Álvarez assumed the presidency on an interim basis and convened a congress. An important aspect of Juan Álvarez was the including in his cabinet of young liberals, which was important for the history of Mexico, since Melchor Ocampo, Benito Juárez, Guillermo Prieto and Ignacio Comonfort were men who had the opportunity of active political participatation. In his administration, Álvarez was dedicated to make laws that keep the country under the ideals of liberalism, as the Juárez Law, and the provision of Ocampo depriving the right to vote by the clergy. For personal reasons, Álvarez resigned in December 1855, which made Comonfort become the country's president.
Álvarez presidency
Santa Anna's conservative dictatorship of the early 1850s was overthrown by a liberal insurgency, whose principles were laid out in the Plan of Ayutla. The plan had a provision for drafting a new constitution. A government led by the liberal Juan Álvarez assumed power in November 1855. His cabinet was radical and included prominent liberals Benito Juárez, Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, Melchor Ocampo, and Guillermo Prieto, as well as the more moderate Ignacio Comonfort. Clashes in the cabinet led to the resignation of the radical Ocampo, but the administration was passed significant reforms.
Ley Juárez, or the Law on Administration of Justice and the Courts Organic Nation District and Territories, was issued by Juárez on 23 November 1855. It was rejected by the archbishops of Mexico since it restricted ecclesiastical privileges (fueros).D.F. Stevens, "Ley Juárez" vol. 3, p. 409. Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1996. Ley Lafragua, or the Law on the Freedom of the Press, allowed freedom of expression in print media and entered into force on December 28, 1855. It was promulgated by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and the Interior, José María Lafragua.
Juárez Law On 23 November 1855, the , named after Justice Minister Benito Juárez, abolished the jurisdiction that military and ecclesiastical courts had over purely civil cases. Liberals criticized the existence of both courts for being biased towards their defendants. In the case of the ecclesiastical courts, their jurisdiction extended even to tenants living on extensive church-owned land, and creditors could not sue such tenants in civil court.Null, Arthur Howard. (1903). From Empire to Republic,182 Conservatives accused the government of hypocrisy for acting on the pretext of establishing legal equality for all but maintaining the legal immunity that existed for members of the government.
Further dissension within liberal ranks led to Álvarez resigning in December 1855, and handing the presidency over to the more moderate Comonfort, who chose a new cabinet.
Comonfort presidency
A constituent congress first met on 14 February 1856. A motion to reestablish the Constitution of 1824 was defeated by a single vote, and a committee was formed towards the end of February to revise the constitution. The Juárez Law was ratified in April. A provisional constitution, borrowing many principles from the Constitution of the United States, was promulgated in June.
The decree that abolished civil coercion of religious vows was promulgated on April 26, 1856. The decree that suppressed the Society of Jesus in Mexico was promulgated on June 5, 1856. The Lerdo law, or the Law of Confiscation of Property Plots and Urban Civil and Ecclesiastical Corporations, forced the civil, such as Indigenous communities, and ecclesiastical corporations to sell houses and land to private individuals. It was drafted by Miguel Lerdo de Tejada (brother of Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada) and was promulgated on June 25, 1856. It is considered the most controversial of all the Reform laws, but it was part of a process that had been initiated during Spanish rule in the eighteenth century.Brian R. Hamnett, "Reform Laws" in Encyclopedia of Mexico, vol. 2, p. 1239. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997. The Lafragua Law, or the Civil Registration Act, established the Civil Registry for births, marriages, and deaths and removed it from the Roman Catholic Church, which had kept records of baptism, matrimony, and death. It was issued on January 27, 1857. The Constitution of 1857 was promulgated on February 5, 1857. The republican and federalist liberal Valentín Gómez Farías fought for those ideals throughout his life during the Cortes of Cádiz, the Independence of Mexico, and the Constitution of 1824, which had been repealed by the centralist regime of Antonio López de Santa Anna. The Iglesias law, or Rights Act, and parochial perquisites banned the collection of fees, parochial perquisites, and tithes to the poor classes. It was drafted by José María Iglesias and promulgated on April 11, 1857. One of Comonfort's supporters, Juan José Baz, considered the law a provocation of the lower clergy, which depended on such fees.Hamnett, "Reform Laws" p. 1240.
Lerdo Law
In June 1856, another major controversy emerged over the promulgation of the Ley Lerdo, named after the secretary of the treasury, Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, brother of fellow Liberal, and future President of Mexico, Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada. The law was aimed at the collective or corporate ownership of real estate. It forced 'civil or ecclesiastical institutions' to sell any land that they owned, with the tenants getting priority and generous terms for buying the land on which they lived. It was aimed not only at the Catholic Church, which held considerable real estate, but also at Mexico's Indigenous communities that were forced to sell their communally-held lands, the ejidos.