Knowra Reform War Reform War The Reform War was a Mexican civil war fought from 1857 to 1861 between Liberals and Conservatives over constitutional government and the separation of church and state.
Plan of Tacubaya : A 1857 Conservative pronouncement rejecting Mexico’s new constitution and calling for its replacement. Its launch against the Constitution of 1857 triggered the conflict and split the government.
La Reforma : A period of Mexican liberal reform that sought to reduce the political and economic power of the Catholic Church and the military. Its reform agenda supplied the war’s central political program.
Miguel Miramón : A Mexican Conservative general who served as president of the rival Conservative government during the Reform War. His military leadership made him the most consequential Conservative counterpart to Juárez.
Reform Laws : Mexican laws that transferred Church property to private ownership and established civil control over marriage, cemeteries, and religious institutions. Juárez’s government enacted these measures during and after the war to institutionalize Liberal aims.
Pastry War : A French intervention in Mexico from 1838 to 1839, prompted by French claims for compensation and debt repayment. Unlike this foreign conflict, the Reform War was fought principally between rival Mexican governments.
Constitution of 1857 : Mexico’s liberal constitution, promulgated in 1857, that curtailed ecclesiastical and military privileges. Conservative opposition to this constitution helped turn the political crisis into civil war.
Lerdo Law : A Mexican law of 1856 requiring corporate bodies, including the Church, to sell much of their landed property. It foreshadowed the land and property disputes intensified by the constitutional crisis.
Santos Degollado : A Mexican Liberal general who commanded forces for the constitutional government during the Reform War. His campaigns helped sustain the Liberal war effort.
French intervention in Mexico : A French invasion and occupation of Mexico from 1862 to 1867, which installed Emperor Maximilian I. The war’s financial and political aftermath helped create conditions for the intervention.
Mexican Revolution : A major armed conflict beginning in 1910 that ended the long rule of Porfirio Díaz and reshaped Mexico’s political order. It challenged a later Mexican state, rather than the church–state settlement contested in the Reform War.
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