Title: Reform War - Wikipedia
Headings: Reform War
Reform War
Contents
Liberals vs. Conservatives in post-Independence Mexico
Liberals take power in the 1850s
The Liberal Reform
Civil war
The Juárez government up to the French Intervention
See also
Notes
References

Content: This ascendancy came after the loss of about half of Mexico's national territory to the US in the Mexican–American War. Liberals believed that the entrenched power of the Roman Catholic Church and the military were the source of most of Mexico's problems. The Liberals' challenge to the Catholic Church's hegemony in Mexico came about in stages even before the 1850s. State-level measures adopted since the 1820s and the reform measures of during the regime of Valentín Gómez Farías led conservatives to defend Mexico's Catholic identity, including integration of Church and State. This included Catholic newspapers such as La Cruz and conservative groups that strongly attacked Liberal policies and ideology. This ideology had roots in the European Enlightenment, which sought to reduce the role of the Catholic Church in society. The Reforms began in the 1830s and 1840s coalesced into the principal laws of the Reform era, which were passed in two phases, from 1855–57 and then from 1858–60. The 1857 Constitution of Mexico was promulgated near the end of the first phase. More Reform laws were passed from 1861–63 and after 1867 when the Liberals emerged victorious after two civil wars with Conservative opponents. The Liberal Reform
Miguel Lerdo de Tejada drafted the law to disentail the lands of the Catholic Church and those of indigenous communities.