The War of the Reform

The War of the Reform

November 22, 1855. Alvarez promulgated the Ley Juarez (Juarez Law), drafted by the lawyer Benito Juarez, secretary of justice. This abolished military and ecclesiastical dispensations and severely restricted special courts.

December 11, 1855. Alvarez resigned the provisional presidency and appointed General Ignacio Comonfort as his successor.

Comonfort defeated a rebellion of conservatives led by General Haro y Tamariz at Ocotlan, Puebla, on March 8, 1856.

June 25, 1856. The Lerdo Law, drafted by the lawyer Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, was promulgated. This alienated much of the real estate property belonging to the Church and civil institutions.

February 15. The new liberal Constitution was published.

September 14, 1857. The government closed the University.

December 17, 1857. There was a coup d'etat by the conservatives when they rose together with troops under General Fe1ix Zuloaga, who proclaimed the Tacubaya Plan, declaring the Constitution of 1857 null and void.

After being arrested for having opposed the conservative coup d'etat then freed, the lawyer Benito Juarez escaped to Guanajuato. On January 19, 1858 he assumed the Executive Power in accordance with the law and formed a new, liberal government. Comonfort was repudiated as president on January 21 and went into exile in the U.S.A.

General Zuloaga was elected president by the conservatives on January 23, 1858.

January 28, 1858. The new president, Zuloaga, declared the liberal Reform Laws null and void, and the War of the Reform began. In May, President Juarez established his government in Veracruz.

At Ayotla (now State of Mexico) on December 23 1858 another conservative general, Jose Echegaray, withdrew recognition of Zuloaga and General Miguel Miramon became president.

The McLane-Ocampo Treaty, signed by Melchor Ocampo, minister for foreign relations of the liberal government and McLane, the American plenipotentiary, was rejected by the senate of the Union on December 1, 1859.

March 6, 1860. General Miramon laid siege to Veracruz, but was driven back thanks to the help given to the Juarez government by the U.S.A.

December 4, 1860. The liberal government decreed freedom of worship.

December 22, 1860. Liberal troops under General Jesus Gonzalez Ortega crushed the conservative army at the battle of Calpulalpan (State of Mexico). Miramon sailed from Veracruz bound for Europe.

January 1, 1861. The liberal army led by General Jesus Gonzalez Ortega entered Mexico City.

January 11, 1861. President Benito Juarez entered Mexico City where he restored the powers of the Union.