In the early years after the region achieved independence from Spain, Honduras was a constituent of the United Provinces of Central America, but its cohesion was undermined by friction between liberals and conservatives.
Morazán enacted many reforms, including freedom of speech, the press, and religion; trial by jury; and others intended to improve equality of socioeconomic status.
The reforms were objected to by conservative elements of society, while the separation of Church and State, which allowed for secular marriage, divorce, and an end to government-enforced tithing, made many of the clergy enemies of Morazán and the liberals.
Independent Honduras was initially under the control of conservative leaders, this dominance lasting until the liberal Marco Aurelio Soto assumed the presidency on 27 August 1876.
Various liberals held the presidency through to 1903, namely Luis Bográn (1883-1891), Ponciano Leiva (1891-1893), José Policarpo Bonilla Vásquez (1895-1899) and Terencio Esteban Sierra Romero (1899-1903).