Treaty of Córdoba

Impact

Although the Treaty of Córdoba established Mexican independence and allowed for a peaceful transition of power at the war's end, it did not ensure lasting changes in Mexico. Socioculturally, even though the sistema de castas had been abolished, the social hierarchy, in fact, remained. Race and color still determined one's place in society, with those of European descent at the top and those of Indian and African ancestry at the bottom. Widespread change that brought greater equality came during the mid-nineteenth-century period known as La Reforma (the Reform), under the leadership of the Zapotec Indian Benito Pablo Juárez, who sought to ensure that social equality and equality under the law would be enforced and would become part of the greater Mexican culture.

In economic terms, haciendas (plantations) were still the basis of much of the economy and remained in the hands of the elite. Politically, the constitutional monarchy that the treaty established did not last. Iturbide was overthrown within a year, and the Mexican Empire was no more. Over the course of the next century, the government of Mexico would undergo many changes, including becoming a federal republic, a centralist republic, and a dictatorship. The Mexican Revolution of 1910 eventually established the modern state of Mexico.

Throughout the period from the establishment of the Mexican Empire through the formation of the modern state of Mexico, the second of the three guarantees affirmed by the Treaty of Córdoba, namely, the establishment of Catholicism as the state religion, remained important in Mexican politics and culture. Culturally, Catholicism remained (and still remains) the dominant religion of Mexico. The Catholic Church maintained much political power in Mexico after independence because of its status as a state religion. It also retained a voice in politics in Mexico, and its clergy maintained many of the rights and privileges that they had enjoyed in the colonial era. For example, members of the clergy were exempt from having to stand trial in civil courts, even if charged with a violation of civil law. Instead, they were tried in an ecclesiastical court. The special privileges of the clergy were not contested until thirty years later, during La Reforma. The influence of the Catholic Church in politics was largely brought to an end one hundred years later, during the Mexican Revolution of 1910.