Revolution of Ayutla in the context of "Centralist"

The Reform War (17 December 1857 – 11 January 1861) or War of Reform (Spanish: Guerra de Reforma), also known as the Three Years' War (Spanish: Guerra de los Tres Años), and the Mexican Civil War, was a complex civil conflict in Mexico fought between Mexican liberals and conservatives with regional variations over the promulgation of Constitution of 1857. It has been called the "worst civil war to hit Mexico between the War of Independence of 1810–21 and the Revolution of 1910–20". Following the liberals' overthrow of the dictatorship of conservative Antonio López de Santa Anna, liberals passed a series of laws codifying their political program. These laws were incorporated into the new constitution. It aimed to limit the political power of the executive branch, as well as the political, economic, and cultural power of the Catholic Church. Specific measures were the expropriation of Church property; separation of church and state; reduction of the power of the Mexican Army by elimination of their special privileges; strengthening the secular state through public education; and measures to develop the nation economically.

The constitution had been promulgated on 5 February 1857 was to come into force on 16 September 1857. There was intense opposition from Conservatives and the Catholic Church over its anti-clerical provisions, but there were also moderate liberals, including President Ignacio Comonfort, who considered the constitution too radical and likely to trigger a civil war. The Lerdo Law forced the sale of most of the Church's rural properties. The measure was not exclusively aimed at the Catholic Church, but also Mexico's indigenous peoples, which were forced to sell sizeable portions of their communal lands. Controversy was further inflamed when the Catholic Church decreed the excommunication of civil servants who took a government-mandated oath upholding the new constitution, which left Catholic civil servants with the choice of losing their jobs or being excommunicated.

José Santiago Vidaurri Valdez (July 24, 1809 – July 8, 1867) was a controversial and powerful governor of the northern Mexican states of Nuevo León and Coahuila between 1855 and 1864. He was an advocate of federalism.

In 1855, he supported the liberal Revolution of Ayutla, which overthrew the dictatorship of Antonio López de Santa Anna, the military strongman who dominated Mexican politics in the 1830s until his overthrow in 1855. Vidaurri stood by the liberal president Benito Juárez during the subsequent War of the Reform, a bloody civil war following Mexican conservatives' repudiation of the liberal government and the Constitution of 1857. During the war, Vidaurri commanded the liberal armies of the north. During the American Civil War (1861–65), Southern slave states had seceded from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America. Vidaurri sought advantageous trade relationships with the CSA, which bordered northern Mexico.

Miguel Lerdo de Tejada (July 6, 1812 – March 22, 1861) was a Mexican statesman, a leader of the Revolution of Ayutla, and author of the Lerdo Law, extinguishing the right of corporations, including the Roman Catholic Church and indigenous communities, from holding land.

Born in the port of Veracruz, Veracruz, both he and his younger brother, Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, became leaders of Mexico's Liberal Party. As the president of the ayuntamiento (city council) of Mexico City in 1852, Miguel Lerdo de Tejada proposed initiatives on public education, transportation, public health, and budgetary reforms. Lerdo served Antonio López de Santa Anna in his final term as president (1853–55) and then as the Treasury Secretary under liberal president Ignacio Comonfort following the successful implementation of the Plan de Ayutla. In 1856, Miguel Lerdo de Tejada initiated the Ley de Desamortización de Fincas Rústicas y Urbanas (Disentailment of Rural and Urban Properties Law), commonly known as the Ley Lerdo, which called for the forced sale of most properties held by the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico, common lands of indigenous communities, and by municipal and state governments. The Church could retain only the buildings it used for its operations (churches, monasteries, seminary buildings); governments could keep only government offices, jails, and school buildings. Other property, which had been used to generate income for the Church and for local governments, was to be sold with the proceeds going into the national treasury. Because of the disruptions of the War of Reform (1858 - 1861) and the French Intervention (1862 - 1867) that wracked Mexico, few properties were actually sold as a direct result of the Ley Lerdo. Most of the "disruptions" attributed to that law actually occurred later, under legislation passed during the regime of Porfirio Díaz (1876 - 1911), but took their legal foundation in the Ley Lerdo.

José Santos Degollado Sánchez (born November 1, 1811, in Hacienda de Robles, Guanajuato, Viceroyalty of New Spain – died June 15, 1861, in Llanos de Salazar, State of Mexico) was a Mexican Liberal politician and military leader. He was raised by a priest in Michoacán and worked twenty years in the cathedral in Morelia. He became a Federalist in 1836 and entered politics in 1845 when he was elected to the Michoacán legislature in 1845. He replaced his close associate Melchor Ocampo as governor of Michoacán 27 March - 6 July 1848. He joined the Revolution of Ayutla. He became governor of Jalisco when the liberals successfully ousted Antonio López de Santa Anna. As with a number of rising Liberals, Degollado was not formally trained as a soldier, but gained military experience in the Revolution of Ayutla. He later fought for Benito Juárez's government. During Benito Juárez's presidency he served as Secretary of War and Navy and as Secretary of External Affairs. Degollado was a close friend of Guillermo Prieto and of Melchor Ocampo and fought by his side in many battles. Degollado was a resilient military leader, experiencing defeat after defeat in the Reform War that pitted the constitutional liberal government of Juárez against the conservatives. The army fielded by the conservatives was larger and better trained than the liberals' forces, but the liberals managed to achieve a stalemate for over two years and in the end triumphed. The liberal victory was not achieved by Degollado, who was in disgrace at the end of the war. Degollado was known as the "hero of defeats" for his ability to raise yet another army after yet another defeat. An experienced general who joined the liberal cause, General López Uraga, gave President Juárez a scathing assessment of the liberal army and Degollados's command of it. He had given everything he could to achieve a liberal victory, but his record of defeats meant his men were demoralized although continued to be loyal to him.

Degollado broke with Juárez in late 1859, as another liberal commander, Santiago Vidaurri, wished to be commander in chief of liberal forces, as did Degollado. Juárez sought an alternative to these two and appointed Manuel Doblado as commander. Vidaurri also broke with Juárez, who then tasked Degollado with dealing with Vidaurri. Degollado declared Vidaurri an outlaw and forced him over the border with Texas. Juárez strengthened his role as president by removing liberal rivals from military command. Degollado sought to end the military stalemate and rashly seized a mule-train with nearly a million-pesos' worth of British-owned silver, in order to finance the liberal cause. He immediately regretted the action, since it could have been the cause of an active British intervention in the war, undermining the Juárez government. The British had already recognized the rival conservative government of General Miguel Miramón. Degollado returned half of the seized silver to the British. A British diplomat, George Mathew, took Degollado's huge blunder and attempt to undo it as an opportunity to turn Degollado into an advocate of British foreign policy to bring about the end of the Reform War through mediation. Juárez viewed Degollado's advocacy of mediation as a betrayal of the liberal cause and the Constitution of 1857, since it entailed the resignation of Juárez as constitutional president. "Juárez warned Degollado of his total disapproval of his actions, which he would use all his powers to oppose."