Juan Álvarez in the context of "Second French intervention in Mexico"

In the history of Mexico, La Reforma (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 overthrew the dictatorship of 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. These 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 Catholic Church and Indigenous communities from collectively holding land. The liberal government sought the revenues from the disentailment of church property, which could fund the civil war against Mexican conservatives and to broaden the base of property ownership in Mexico and encouraging private enterprise. Several of them 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.

The Juárez Law reduced the power that military and ecclesiastical courts held. The Lerdo Law forced land 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 Indigenous communities' collective ownership of land.

The Plan of Ayutla was the 1854 written plan aimed at removing conservative, centralist President Antonio López de Santa Anna from control of Mexico during the Second Federal Republic of Mexico period. Initially, it seemed little different from other political plans of the era, but it is considered to be the first act of the Liberal Reform in Mexico. It was the catalyst for revolts in many parts of Mexico, which led to the resignation of Santa Anna from the presidency, never to vie for office again. The next Presidents of Mexico were the liberals, Juan Álvarez, Ignacio Comonfort, and Benito Juárez. The new regime would then proclaim the 1857 Mexican Constitution, which implemented a variety of liberal reforms.

Ignacio Gregorio Comonfort de los Ríos (Spanish pronunciation: [iɣˈnasjo komoɱˈfoɾ ðe los ˈri.os]; 12 March 1812 – 13 November 1863), also known as Ignacio Comonfort, was a Mexican politician and soldier who was also president during La Reforma.

He played a leading role in the liberal movement under the Plan of Ayutla to overthrow the dictatorship of Santa Anna in 1855; he then served in the cabinet of the new president, Juan Álvarez. Comonfort was a moderate liberal and assumed the presidency when Álvarez stepped down after only a few months. The Constitution of 1857 was drafted during his presidency, incorporating changes enacted in individual laws of the Liberal Reform. The constitution was met with opposition from conservatives as its forceful anticlerical provisions undermined the economic power and privileged status of the Catholic Church as an institution. Most notably the Lerdo law stripped the Church's ability to hold property. The law also forced the breakup of communal land holdings of indigenous communities, which enabled them to resist integration economically and culturally. The 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 between either keeping their jobs or being excommunicated.