Republic of Yucatán

The Republic of Yucatán was a separate republic that existed briefly on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula during the 1840s.

History

In February 1821, with the conclusion of its War of Independence, Mexico achieved independence from Spain. On 2 November of that year, Yucatán became part of independent Mexico, originally as part of Iturbide's short-lived Empire and later as one of the United Mexican States when a federal, republican system of government was adopted. The state of Yucatán under the newly enacted 1824 Constitution at that time included the territory of what are now the states of Campeche and Quintana Roo as well.

In 1835, a conservative unitary system of government was instituted (a centralized dictatorship unconstitutionally brought forth and held by the then-President Santa Anna). The federal system was abandoned, Yucatán became a department, and authority was imposed from the center. Discontent increased and an insurrection erupted in Tizimín in May 1838, advocating Yucatecan independence. In 1840, the local Congress approved a declaration of independence. At first, Governor Santiago Méndez blocked it, saying that Yucatán would again recognize the rule of the central government in Mexico City if the federal constitution of 1824 were reinstated. Andrés Quintana Roo, sent to Mérida in 1841 by President Antonio López de Santa Anna, succeeded in settling the differences and signed a treaty with the local government. But when Santa Anna later ignored the provisions of this treaty, hostilities resumed, and Governor Méndez ordered all Mexican flags removed from Yucatecan buildings and shipping in favor of the flag of the "sovereign nation of the Republic of Yucatán", two red and one white stripe, with a quincunx of stars in a green field. The Yucatecan Constitution was modeled in part on the 1824 Mexican Constitution and the Yucatán state constitution of 1825.

Santa Anna refused to recognize Yucatán's independence, and he barred Yucatecan ships and commerce in Mexico and ordered Yucatán's ports blockaded. He sent an army to invade Yucatán in 1843. The Yucatecans defeated the Mexican force, but the loss of economic ties to Mexico deeply hurt Yucatecan commerce. Yucatán's governor Miguel Barbachano decided to use the victory as a time to negotiate with Santa Anna's government from a position of strength. It was agreed that Yucatán would rejoin Mexico so long as various assurances of right to self-rule and adherence to the 1824 Constitution within the Peninsula were observed by Mexico City. The treaty reincorporating Yucatán into Mexico was signed in December 1843.

Once more, the central government rescinded earlier concessions and in 1845 Yucatán again renounced the Mexican government, declaring independence effective 1 January 1846. When the Mexican-American War broke out, Yucatán declared its neutrality.

In 1847 the so-called "Caste War" ("Guerra de Castas") broke out, a major revolt of the Maya people against the Hispanic population in political and economic control. At one point in 1848, this revolt was successful to the point of driving all Hispanic Yucatecans out of almost the entire peninsula other than the walled cities of Mérida and Campeche.

The government in Mérida appealed for foreign help in suppressing the revolt, with Governor Méndez taking the extraordinary step of sending identical letters to Britain, Spain, and the United States, offering sovereignty over Yucatán to whatever nation first provided sufficient aid to quash the Maya revolt. The proposal received serious attention in Washington, D.C.: the Yucatecan ambassador was received by US President James K. Polk and the matter was debated in the Congress; ultimately, however, no action was taken other than an invocation of the Monroe Doctrine to warn off any European power from interfering in the peninsula. The Yucatan government attempted to recruit American veterans of the Mexican American War to put down the rebellion. [http://www.ibiblio.org/uncpress/chapters/may_manifest.html]

After the end of the Mexican-American War, Governor Barbachano appealed to Mexican President José Joaquín de Herrera for help in suppressing the revolt, and in exchange Yucatán again recognized the central government's authority. Yucatán was again reunited with Mexico on 17 August 1848.

Notes

Bibliography

*"Diccionario Quintana Roo Enciclopedia Regional", Héctor Campillo Cuautli, Fernández Editores, México, 1988. (pp. 18-19)
*Enciclopedia "Yucatán en el tiempo", TOMO III, 1998
*Cordourier, Alfonso y otros, "Historia y Geografía de Yucatán", EPSA, México 1997 ISBN 968-417-347-4
*"Miguel Barbachano al Exmo. Sr. Ministro de Relaciones de la República", Mérida, 17 de abril de 1848. Archivo General de la Nación, Gobernación, sin sección, vol. 356, exp. 5.

Electronic sources
* [http://www.yucatan.com.mx/especiales/banderadeyucatan/14090001.asp 160th Anniversary of the Yucatán Flag (www.yucatan.com.mx)]
* [http://redescolar.ilce.edu.mx:2000/redescolar/efemerides/agosto/conme17.htm August 17th, 1848. - Yucatán is annexed to the Mexican Republic. (redescolar.ilce.edu.mx:2000)]
* [http://www.sobrino.net/Dzidzantun/la_historia_de_la_rep_yuc.htm History of the Republic of Yucatán]
* [http://omega.ilce.edu.mx:3000/sites/1847/patria/textos/sec_17.html#ID2120 "All prior disgraces should not be remembered"]
* [http://omega.ilce.edu.mx:3000/sites/1847/patria/sec/sec_117.html Map of Mexico in 1847]
* [http://www.inep.org/content/view/479/106/ Yucatán in XIX Century]