A series of uninterrupted Mexican losses inflamed opposition against the government, and Paredes faced revolution, he resigned on July 28, choosing to return to the military to help with the war effort.

Salas now formed his cabinet out of liberals and Santa Anna supporters, including ex president Valentin Gomez Farias who now received the post of finance minister.

General Salas opened the session by lamenting the defeats that the military had faced, but expressed hope for the army of twenty thousand men that Santa Anna had gathered at San Luis Potosi.

[6] On January 7, 1847, a measure was introduced to congress endorsing the seizure of fifteen million pesos from the church by nationalizing and then selling its lands.

They released a manifesto excoriating the government for pursuing a divisive policy instead of uniting the country in the war effort and seeking a means of funding the military that was backed by national consensus.

He was at the town of Matehuala on the way from Angostura to San Luis Potosí City, when he received news that there had been a revolution against the government of Valentin Gomez Farias.

Various governors gathered at Queretaro and suggested various options to the government ranging from a continuation of the war to the surrender of the sparsely populated northern territories.

He expressed belief that Mexico simply did not have the ability to continue the war, and proclaimed that anyone who viewed such a stance as dishonorable was not worthy of being called honest.

The project was hampered by lack of funds, but by 1851, despite not being as extensive as originally planned, reasonable progress on the colonies had nonetheless been made, and three successful settlements were home to over two thousand individuals.

[18] It was ultimately the ongoing financial crisis which would lead to Arista's fall being used as a pretext by Conservatives who wished to see Santa Anna restored to the presidency.

[19] As the Blancarte revolt spread throughout the entire nation, Arista addressed the chambers on December 15, 1852, and eventually resigned on January 5[20] The restoration of Santa Anna was brought about by a Conservative Party faction led by Lucas Alaman, and including Governor Mugica of Puebla,[21] Teodosio Lares, and Jose Maria Tornel.

[22] The military was reorganized, being increased in its number of troops, the state militias being dissolved and absorbed into the national army,[23] and subject to an unprecedented conscription, which proved to be enormously unpopular.

[24]Santa Anna nonetheless aimed to modernize the army, hiring instructors from Europe, and improving fortresses armaments, and the ships of the Mexican Navy.

[24] The regime found new funds through the Gadsden Purchase, which nonetheless proved to be controversial for once again alienating national territory to the United States.

The dictatorship began to take on a regal atmosphere as Santa Anna moved his residence to Tacubaya to live in a lavishly decorated palace which also frequently hosted balls and soirees.

[25] He revived the noble Order of Guadalupe that had briefly existed during the First Mexican Empire, but upon the first public exposition of its members wearing their ceremonial decorations, they became subject to public ridicule throughout the country and were referred to by the pejorative ‘huehuenches.’[26] Notwithstanding, Santa Anna himself began to go under the honorific His Most Serene Highness[27] He impeded efforts to organize a congress for the purpose of drafting a new constitution and on December 16, 1853, passed a decree extending his personal dictatorship indefinitely.

[27] On March 1, 1854, the liberal Plan of Ayutla was proclaimed against Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, indicting him for the Gadsden Purchase and his suppression of democratic government.

The Alvarez administration made progress on some anti-clerical legislation, but amidst the controversy that was resulting he stepped down from the presidency in December 1855, passing down his office to the more moderate Comonfort.

Comonfort accepted the Plan of Tacubaya, and released a manifesto making the case that more moderate reforms were needed under the current circumstances.

Juarez narrowly escaped death but eventually found himself along with the Liberal cabinet ensconced in the strategic port of Veracruz while the Conservative government remained based in Mexico City.

The initial phase of the war resulted in repeated Conservative victories, but the Liberals remained entrenched in the peripheries of the nation, and controlled strategic ports that kept them supplied with vital customs revenues.

The Conservatives replaced Zuloaga with Miguel Miramon who had a record of victories but who repeatedly failed to capture the Liberal capital of Veracruz, which during the Battle of Antón Lizardo was protected by the United States Navy.

Meanwhile the Liberals passed even more sweeping anti-clerical reforms, nationalizing the remainder of Catholic Church properties in order to continue funding the war effort.

Slaves were declared free upon stepping on Mexican soil and contracts were automatically to be rendered null if they involved an undue loss of freedom.

[40] In 1858, the Society, in spite of an ongoing civil war, managed to raise funds for and maintain thirty three schools for poor children, attended by seven thousand students, teaching them reading and writing, grammar and arithmetic, art, religious instruction, and music.

[50] The Conservative writer José María Roa Bárcena began literary career during this time, publishing Leyendas mexicanas, Cuentos y baladas del norte de Europa, y algunos otro (Mexican Legends, Stories and Ballads of Northern Europe, and other Poetic Attempts), Diana, and other works.

On June 14, 1848, President Herrera passed a decree reforming the treasury department, reducing the budget for the civil service and the army, and presented a plan to congress for the consolidation of the national debt.

[59] Cotton, which had long been subject to tariff restrictions to protect the Mexican textile industry was given permission in 1858 to be imported through the port of Vera Cruz by paying a dollar and a half per hundred pounds.

[59] In March 1858, the governor of Tamaulipas declared the establishment of a free economic zone along the Rio Grande where foreign goods were exempted from duties.

[64] In that same year it was estimated that Mexican divers harvesting pearls, corals, oysters, sponges, and shells were producing $150,000 worth of goods annually.