Mexico has suffered multiple losses of territory throughout its history, at the time, Yucatán decided to separate from Mexican sovereignty as an independent State. A fact that lasted a few years due to a bloody armed conflict that occurred on the peninsula.
The 19th century was quite a complex one for Mexico, because in addition to multiple imperialist interventions, internally there was a constant change of government, the fight between conservatives and liberals, centralism and federalism, a dispute that had several consequences, among them, the temporary separation of the Yucatán Peninsula from the Mexican territory.
In 1841, Mexico was a centralist republic, a situation that gave the President the power to appoint governors, in this modality, the states were departments that responded to what the Mexican president ordered from the country’s capital.
This situation caused discomfort among the Yucatecans, so the State Congress decided to break relations and conditioned their permanence in Mexico after not having a federal system. In this way, on October 1, 1841, the local Chamber of Deputies approved the Act of Independence of the Peninsula.
😐Anastacio Bustamante, le declaró la guerra a Yucatán y envió tropas para restaurar el orden en la península, mientras en el hoy territorio independiente crecían los ánimos de un nuevo país y surgieron personajes como Manuel Barbachano que encabezó el poder en Yucatán. pic.twitter.com/M9EAQKsAa4
— DeMemoria (@DeMemoria) March 4, 2021
At that time, the territory of the Peninsula was noticeably larger than today, as it also included Campeche and Quintana Roo.
The response of the centralist government of the controversial Antonio López de Santa Anna was a reprimand since on the one hand a military advance was sent to punish any attempt at separatism, since 5 years ago the humiliating separation of Texas from Mexican sovereignty had occurred.
Before reaching a military conflict, diplomacy intervened, since his “Serene Highness” as López de Santa Anna liked to be told, signed on December 5, 1843, the agreements that granted Yucatán autonomy, with the condition that it be reintegrated into the national territory. This situation occurred after the blockade of Mexican and Yucatecan ports ended up affecting both sides.
However, in 1845 the Yucatecan separatists suppressed the agreements and on January 1, 1846, Yucatán was again separated from Mexican territory.
Short period of independence, then, the Yucatecan government had to face one of the bloodiest wars in the region: the Caste War.
