For God and Revolution: Priest, Peasant, and Agrarian Socialism in the Mexican Huasteca

4: War, Foreign Invasion, and Revolution, 1856–1876

51 Chapter 4 War, Foreign invasion, and Revolution, 1856–1876 . /In the aftermath of the U.S. war with Mexico, the nation entered a period of sustained political and economic crisis that culminated in the French invasion. Just as they had done in the partisan struggle they waged against the U.S. Army, but on an even larger scale, Huastecan guerrillas once again forged an alliance with the Mexican Army and waged war against another foreign occupation. For the Huasteca Potosina, the political conflicts , ensuing foreign occupation, and guerrilla struggle serve as a critical link between the earlier agrarian rebellions and those of the late 1870s. In the decade following the French expulsion in 1867, the Huastecos were increasingly drawn into national politics, as General Porfirio Díaz launched and enlisted their aid in the 1876 Tuxtepec rebellion and successfully overthrew President Sebastían Lerdo de Tejada. The fighting during the French intervention and the Tuxtepec rebellion spread over much of the Huasteca Potosina. Believing that Porfirio Díaz would honor his pledge of support for peasant land rights, the Huastecan peasants once again armed themselves and fought as Porfiristas. Later, when the Huastecos realized that Díaz had betrayed them, they allied themselves with agrarian anarchist and socialist revolutionaries to launch their peasant war (1879–1884). The origins of the social crises that wracked Mexico during the 1850s originated in the political struggles between the Conservative and Liberal parties. Conservative politicians advocated a strong centralized executive to offset the chaos of postindependence partisan violence. Conservative thought advocated a corporate and a hierarchical class structure, a prominent role for the Church and the military in civil society, the retention of 52 Chapter 4 colonial-era fueros that allowed members of the Church and the military to be tried by their own members in separate courts, a provision for corporate monopolies over key economic sectors, and a concession that would allow the Church to hold tax-free great estates in the countryside.1 In contrast, Mexican liberalism rejected Spanish authoritarianism and supported an end to economic monopolies, which it regarded as vestiges of colonialism, a reduction of the public roles of the Church and the military, an end to fuero privileges, an agrarian system based on private landholders, and laissez-faire economic principles.2 Liberalism rested its social base on four important elements: creole elites, middle-class professionals, the urban intelligentsia in the cities, and an alliance of lawyers and landowners in the countryside . Prominent Liberal politicians at the national level included Benito Juárez, Melchor Ocampo, and Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, while in San Luis Potosí and the Huasteca they were led by General Mariano Escobedo and Colonel Carlos Salazar, Manuel Barragán, Don Justo Corressee, and José Martín Rascón. All of them favored the privatization of rural community properties. In 1855 the Liberals successfully overthrew the Conservative government and initiated a series of reforms whose objectives were to transform Mexican society. The first of these reforms, the Ley Juárez, abolished the military and ecclesiastical fueros that protected the Church and the military. The second of the major reforms, the Ley Lerdo, prohibited the Church and municipalities from owning or administering property not directly used in the day-to-day operations of the Church. The Ley Lerdo directly threatened the economic foundation of not only the Church but the Indian pueblos. The Liberal government incorporated these laws into the 1857 constitution, which formed the judicial basis of the Liberal state.3 Between 1858 and 1861 a wave of severe civil strife known as the Wars of the Reforma engulfed Mexico. General Félix Zuloaga launched a Conservative revolt that threatened to topple the Liberal government and reverse its policies. Despite a series of setbacks, the Liberals gained the upper hand and finally turned the tide against the Conservatives. On New Year’s Day 1861 the triumphant Liberal armies entered Mexico City, but the euphoria following the military victory proved short lived. The financial strain of years of civil war and economic upheaval had left the Mexican treasury bankrupt. Juárez, facing financial insolvency, declared a two-year moratorium on the payment of Mexico’s foreign debt. By the fall of 1861 Britain, France, and Spain had all agreed on a joint occupation of Veracruz and the seizure of its customs houses in order to collect their claims. The French, 53 War, Foreign Invasion, and Revolution...