Second Federal Republic of Mexico

United Mexican States Estados Unidos Mexicanos
1846–1863
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: La Patria es Primero The Fatherland comes first
Anthem: "Himno Nacional Mexicano" (English: "National Anthem of Mexico")
Mexico in 1852, prior to the Gadsden Purchase, and after the Mexican Cession
Capital	Mexico City
Common languages	Spanish (official), Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya, Mixtecan languages, Zapotec languages
Religion	Roman Catholicism (official religion until 1857)
Government	Federal presidential republic
President
• 1846	José Mariano Salas
• 1846–1847	Valentín Gómez Farías
• 1847	Antonio López de Santa Anna
• 1847	Pedro María Anaya
• 1847–1848	Manuel de la Peña y Peña
• 1848–1851	José Joaquín de Herrera
• 1851–1853	Mariano Arista
• 1853–1855	Antonio López de Santa Anna
• 1855	Juan Álvarez
• 1855–1857	Ignacio Comonfort
• 1857–1863	Benito Juárez (Juárez continues as president into the era of the Second Mexican Empire)
History
• 1824 Constitution restored	22 August 1846
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo	2 February 1848
• Santa Anna's last dictatorship	1853–1855
• Constitution of 1857 promulgated	12 February 1857
• Reform War	1857–1860
• Second French Intervention begins	8 December 1861
• French troops capture Mexico City	10 June 1863
• Assembly of Notables proclaims the Second Mexican Empire	10 July 1863
Population
• 1852[1]	7,661,919
Currency	Mexican real
Preceded by Succeeded by Centralist Republic of Mexico Republic of Yucatán Republic of Sonora Second Mexican Empire Mexican Cession Republic of Baja California Gadsden Purchase
Today part of	Mexico United States

The Second Federal Republic of Mexico (Spanish: Segunda República Federal de México) refers to the period of Mexican history involving a second attempt to establish a federal government in Mexico after the fall of the unitary Centralist Republic of Mexico in 1846 at the start of the Mexican-American War. It would last up until the Second French Intervention in Mexico led to the proclamation of the Second Mexican Empire in 1863.

The period of the Second Federal Republic prove to be one of the most eventful periods in Mexican history, experiencing two foreign invasions, the loss of half of the national territory, constitutional change, and a civil war. It was also a period of Mexican political evolution experiencing the downfall of the Conservative Party that had predominated during the Centralist Republic, and marking the rise of a Liberal Party hegemony which would consolidate itself throughout the rest of the century.

The Second Federal Republic was born in the first months of the Mexican-American War in 1846, with the restoration of the Constitution of 1824. The war ended in 1848 with Mexico being forced to cede half of its territory to the United States. The period immediately following the war would nonetheless be followed by a period of stable, moderate governments.

A Conservative coup then overthrew the government in 1852, bringing Santa Anna back for what would be his final dictatorship.

The Liberal revolt which in turn overthrew him in 1853, would inaugurate what would come to be known as La Reforma, a series of substantial unprecedented reforms in Mexican constitutional history, most notably the separation of church and state and the nationalization of Catholic Church lands. A new constitution implementing such measures was promulgated in 1857, upon which the Conservative Party opposition took up arms, inaugurating three years of what would come to be known as the Reform War.

The Liberal government led by president Benito Juarez would emerge triumphant in 1860, but a financial crisis led the government to postpone its external debts, a measure that was used as a pretext by the Second French Empire to launch an invasion of Mexico with the aim of turning it into a client state led by Maximilian of Habsburg. The Second French Intervention in Mexico began in 1861, but was subsequently delayed by a year due to the French loss in the Battle of Puebla. French reinforcements arrived and President Benito Juarez was forced to evacuate the capital which the French occupied by June, 1863. French troops subsequently arranged a Mexican Assembly of Notables to declare the establishment of the Second Mexican Empire in July 1863, putting an end to the era of the Second Federal Republic of Mexico.