When two different viewpoints are constantly going head to head, sometimes it seems like violence is the only answer. This was certainly true about the history of Mexico, as until a compromise was finally made, the newly independent nation saw many violent battles over power, especially from the political parties of the Centralists and the Federalists, and the later independent Republic of Texas with and without the support of the United States Army. The main issues that Mexico struggled to agree on were their views on slavery, the strength of the government, and the power of the Roman Catholic Church.
The path to an independent Mexico began on September 16, 1810, with Miguel Hidalgo and ended in the signing of the Treaty of Córdoba on August 24, 1821, by which Spain recognized Mexico as an independent empire. The first emperor was Agustin Iturbide, one of the men who were finally able to free the Mexicans from the control of Spain. His reign as emperor only lasted about a year though, as Guadalupe Victoria, not wanting Mexico to be an Empire, removed Iturbide from power and became the first president of a new Mexican Republic. With this, the Constitutive Act of the Federation was signed in as Mexico’s Constitution and shortly thereafter, slavery was abolished in Mexico. The abolition of slavery, however, caused retaliation by those settling in Texas (Tejas) as they needed their slaves for their cotton and sugar plantations. Victoria rode out his presidency until 1829, while the Texians continued to build up frustration and began to demand their independence.
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In 1833, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna took the presidency. While Santa Anna was first seen as a Federalist, he began to implement a Centralist way of government. The Centralists (conservatives) advocated keeping the Catholic Church as a strong power and having a centralized government. Alternatively, The Federalists (liberals) felt that the Catholic church inhibited the economic development of the nation and wanted to reduce the amount of power and influence it had. The Federalists also did not like how the church saw usury, the loaning of money with interest, as a sin. This contradicted Capitalism, which the Federalists sought to advocate in their new nation, along with a weaker central government. Despite what the Federalists wanted, in 1836, Santa Anna formed a new constitution with the backing of the Catholic Church, still granting it a large amount of power.
Meanwhile, the pressure building up in Texas over independence had begun to erupt and the settlers there were now revolting. This led to a series of gruesome battles, by which many Mexicans and Texians died. Although Texas declared its independence after defeating Santa Anna in 1836, Mexico did not recognize Texas as independent until the Mexican-American war came to an end in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Mexico was then forced to cede a large portion of territory to the United States which would later become the states of Texas, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Colorado.
After signing the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Santa Anna became largely unpopular. Additionally, as the Catholic Church still had considerable power over the Mexican government, tension against the Centralist viewpoint really began to surface. Many of the Federalists blamed the Centralists and the Catholic Church for the large sums of land that they lost and were ready to take back power from the Centralists. In 1855, Santa Anna was forced out of power, and in 1857, he was exiled from Mexico.
Once Santa Anna had stepped down, the Federalists finally won the election and appointed Benito Juarez as the head of the Mexican Supreme Court. With that power, Juarez began implementing reforms that fostered capitalism and weakened the power of the Catholic Church. They did this by taking away a large portion of the Church’s land and giving it back to the state. Because of this shift in power, Mexico had to adopt yet another new constitution, now enforcing Federalist policies. The Church, being upset about losing its power, responded to the implementation of the Federalist policies by stating that the cholera epidemic was a sign from God that the Federalist ways of governing were evil. This led to further backlash and tension between the Centralists and Federalists. In 1858, Juarez was elected president, and shortly after, the Mexican Civil War broke out. This war between the two parties lasted three years.
Even after the war, tensions between the Centralists and Federalists persisted and a compromise could not be formed until the Constitution of 1917. This new and final constitution was very nationalistic and focused on the people’s rights rather than the individual parties’ views. Being the constitution that Mexico still uses today, it took about 100 years of gruesome battles for power for the nation to finally compromise and create an acceptable means for running its government.
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