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| Plan of Tacubaya | |
|---|---|
| Name | Plan of Tacubaya |
| Date | 17 December 1857 |
| Place | Tacubaya, Mexico City |
| Participants | Félix Zuloaga; Miguel Miramón; Ignacio Comonfort; liberals; conservatives |
| Outcome | Suspension of 1857 Constitution; start of Reform War |
Plan of Tacubaya The Plan of Tacubaya was a conservative Mexican pronunciamiento proclaimed on 17 December 1857 in Tacubaya, Mexico City, that sought to suspend the liberal Constitution of 1857 and reorganize political authority, precipitating the Reform War (1858–1861). It involved leading figures of the Mexican Conservative Party, senior military officers, and political actors associated with the presidencies of Ignacio Comonfort and Antonio López de Santa Anna, drawing responses from prominent liberals and foreign observers including representatives from the United States and the French Second Empire. The declaration catalyzed a struggle among factions represented by states such as Jalisco, Puebla, and Veracruz and influenced the trajectories of the Second French Intervention in Mexico and the later establishment of the Second Mexican Empire.
Conservative reaction to the Constitution of 1857 combined clerical opposition from the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy with military discontent tied to reforms enacted during the presidencies of Benito Juárez, Ignacio Comonfort, and antecedent figures such as Valentín Gómez Farías and Antonio López de Santa Anna. The liberal program embodied in the constitution and in laws like the Juárez Law and the Lerdo Law provoked resistance among landed elites in regions including Guanajuato, Michoacán, and Chihuahua, while conservative politicians organized in salons and newspapers alongside generals such as Félix Zuloaga and Miguel Miramón. International economic pressures involving British and French creditors, diplomatic interests of the United States and the United Kingdom, and the memory of the Mexican–American War shaped elite calculations, with actors from the Army of the Republic and clerical networks coordinating plans to overturn liberal institutional changes.
The proclamation declared the nationwide suspension of the Constitution of 1857 and called for the convocation of a new constituent body to draft a conservative charter, echoing prior instruments like the Plan of Ayutla and dissident manifestos such as the Plan of Tacubaya (1857) contemporaries. It empowered military commanders and regional juntas in Veracruz City, Mexico City, and provincial capitals to enforce provisions, mirrored the language of earlier pronunciamientos associated with figures like Santa Anna and Nicolás Bravo, and proposed the formation of a provisional executive under conservative leadership. The document invoked the restoration of privileges for the Catholic Church in Mexico and protections for landed property held by families such as the Lecumberri and Iturbide lines, while rejecting specific liberal measures including the Church–State separation clauses embedded in the 1857 text.
Key conservative leaders included military officers Félix Zuloaga and Miguel Miramón, politicians from the Conservative Party and clergy allied with bishops from Puebla and Morelia, alongside moderates like Antonio de Haro y Tamariz. On the liberal side, supporters of the constitution rallied behind jurists and politicians such as Benito Juárez, Melchor Ocampo, Lucas Alamán (note: Alamán was conservative), and activists associated with newspapers edited by Ignacio Ramírez and Guillermo Prieto. Regional caudillos and units of the former Army of the Three Guarantees aligned variably: garrisons in Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, and Zacatecas saw skirmishes, while foreign legations including the British Legation in Mexico City and the United States Legation monitored troop movements and issued diplomatic protests.
Following the proclamation, conservative forces seized key points in Mexico City and provincial capitals, leading to armed confrontations between armies under Miguel Miramón and liberal generals loyal to Benito Juárez, culminating in the formal outbreak of the Reform War (1858–1861). The provisional conservative junta in Tacubaya moved to implement censorship measures affecting newspapers such as El Siglo Diez y Nueve and to replace liberal municipal authorities in cities like Toluca and Cuernavaca. Liberal leaders retreated to the port of Manzanillo and to enclaves in Guanajuato and Veracruz, where they reconstituted a constitutionalist government; contests at battlefields including engagements near Silao and Cerritos reflected the rapid militarization of the conflict.
Domestically, the plan polarized elites: conservative landowners and clerical authorities endorsed it, while urban liberal intellectuals and provincial merchants opposed it. Political journals and civic clubs in Mexico City and Guadalajara mobilized public opinion for both sides, with figures like Melchor Ocampo and José María Iglesias denouncing the suspension of the constitution. Internationally, the United States adopted a cautious stance amid the Monroe Doctrine environment, commercial actors from Great Britain and France protected financial interests, and European courts weighed recognition of rival Mexican authorities. Diplomatic pressure and creditor claims by firms and banks with ties to Liverpool and Paris complicated the conflict and later provided pretexts used by foreign governments during the intervention of the French Second Empire.
The proclamation contributed directly to the three-year Reform War that weakened Mexican institutions, paved the way for foreign intervention culminating in the Second French Intervention in Mexico and the installation of Maximilian I of Mexico, and reshaped the careers of leaders such as Benito Juárez, Miguel Miramón, and Félix Zuloaga. The conflict accelerated liberal codification efforts leading to the reaffirmation of constitutionalist principles and later laws upholding secularization linked to the Lerdo Law and the postwar consolidation under Juárez that influenced later republics and constitutional debates in Latin America involving figures like Rafael Carrera and Porfirio Díaz. Historiography by scholars associated with institutions like the National Autonomous University of Mexico and archival collections in Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico) continue to reassess the plan’s role in mid‑19th century Mexican state formation.
Category:1857 in Mexico Category:History of Mexico City Category:Mexican Reform War