Colonial and Early Independence Period

The relationship between religion and politics has been a central aspect of Mexican history. The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (1519-21) was an imperial venture with economic and political objectives, but found its official sanction in the desire to establish the Catholic Church throughout this vast territory. Over the next two centuries, the Church acted as the primary provider of social services and also amassed enormous power and wealth as the single largest landholder in Mexico. Its dominant position in Spain’s wealthiest colony brought Church-State relations to the center of the political struggles that shook Mexico during and after independence. Liberals, inspired by the ideals of the French and American Revolutions, were generally anti-clerical, while Conservatives defended Church prerogatives and privileges. Liberals and Conservatives alternated in power during the period from the War of Independence (1810-21) to the disastrous Mexican-American War (1846-48). A Liberal constitution was promulgated in 1857, which guaranteed basic freedoms, deprived ecclesiastical orders of the right to own land, and secularized education. In response, Conservative forces launched a coup that devolved into a civil war and finally to a clergy-supported occupation by French forces under Maximilian I (1864-67). The expulsion of the French led to the reaffirmation of Liberal principles, though now marked by greater tolerance for Conservatives. The final decades of the 19th century were marked by the autocratic rule of Porfirio Díaz, who presided over a period of sustained but unequal growth. He allowed the Church and clergy to expand their temporal powers despite the restrictions imposed by the 1857 constitution.