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Congress of Chilpancingo
The Congress of Chilpancingo is inaugurated, José María Morelos y Pavón delivers the inaugural speech. -
Inquisition
The Inquisition declares Morelos a heretic and sentences him to life imprisonment in Africa, if he is not sentenced to the death penalty. -
Death of José María Morelos
Death of Jose Maria Morelos -
Plan of Iguala
The Spanish colonel Agustín de Iturbide and the insurgent leader Vicente Guerrero together issued the Plan of Iguala at a meeting in Iguala, under which Mexico was to become an independent, Catholic constitutional monarchy -
Plan of Iguala 2
Iturbide was proclaimed head of the Army of the Three Guarantees, with Guerrero fully supporting him and recognizing him as his leader. The plan was a rather vague document that sought the transition of the center of power in New Spain from Madrid to Mexico City. Essentially, the idea was to bring Ferdinand VII to Mexico City to rule. -
The Three Guarantees
Freedom(From Spain), Religion(with Romans Catholicism being the only accepted religion in the new country) and Union(with all inhabitants of Mexico to be regarded as equals). In that manner, he was paving the road to gaining the support of the most powerful factions: the insurgents, the clergy and the Spaniards. -
Iturbide
Iturbide ruled for less than one year. He was removed form power by Santa Anna, and was exiled to Britain. In 1824, Iturbide returned to Mexico but was arrested and shot. After a lot of turmoil, General Antonio López de Santa Anna was elected President of Mexico -
State of Texas
In 1845, the USA accepted the independent State of Texas into the Union, despite warnings from the Mexican government that to do so would mean war. The conflict began in 1846, when the US army began its march south toward Mexico City. -
Chapultepec
Once in the capital, the U.S. won a series of battles. The final battle was fought in Chapultepec Castle, where some young cadets defended the military academy. They carried on fighting bravely until they were all killed, and are still commemorated today as the "Niños Héroes". -
Loss of Mexican territory
In 1848, Santa Anna was forced to sign a treaty, selling for $15 million dollars more than a half of the Mexican territory, including part or all of present day Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Texas, New Mexico and California states, Santa Anna became very unpopular and lost power. Eventually he was forced into exile. -
La Reforma
La Reforma Period began with the issuance in 1854 of the Plan de Ayutla, a liberal pronouncement calling for the removal of the dictator Antonio López de Santa Anna. After Santa Anna's fall in 1855, Juárez and the liberals enacted the Ley Juárez, abolishing the fueros. -
The Ley Lerdo
The Ley Lerdo(1856) ordered the sale of all church lands not used for specifically religious purposes. In 1857 the congress, in which the moderate liberals held away, drafted a liberal, federalist constitution -
Constitution of 1857
In 1857, a new Constitution was written, establishing a Federal Republic, just as the Liberals wanted. In 1858, Benito Juárez, the bright son of Zapotec descendants from Oaxaca and a lawyer, became President, In the same year, a civil war called the War of Reforma broke out between the Liberals and the Conservatives. -
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War of Reform
The War of Reform in Mexico, during the Second Federal Republic of Mexico, was the three-year civil war(1857-1860) between members of the Liberal Party who had taken power in 1855 under the Plan of Ayutla, and members of the Conservative Party resisting the legitimacy of the government and its radical restructuring of Mexican Laws, know as La Reforma -
Laws of Reforma
By the Laws of Reforma(1859), church property, except for places of worship, was to be confiscated, without compensation, monasteries were suppressed, cemeteries nationalized, and civil marriage instituted
