HISTORY OF MEXICO: The first constitution, October 3, 1824

In early 1821, after an eleven-year fight for independence, "the Mexican nation" declared itself sovereign and independent of Spain. This ended a 300-year rule of the Spanish crown, which began with the arrival of Hernan Cortez in 1519 and his conquest of the Aztec empire.

The transition to this new state following independence was not easy because two factions were competing for power: the Republicans, who wanted a nation modeled on democratic paradigms, and the Conservatives, who believed that monarchy was the best way forward. The conservatives won the first round because on May 19, 1822, Agustin Iturbide was proclaimed Emperor with the regnal name Agustin I.

This first Mexican Empire lasted less than a year because Iturbide was ousted and exiled in March of 1823. He returned from Europe in 1824, unaware that a death sentence had been imposed if he showed up in Mexico again. He was promptly arrested and executed. The great 19th-century intellectual of Mexico, Ignacio Ramirez, El Nigromante, explained the reason for his downfall: “Iturbide did not understand that Mexico was tired of [having] in its vocabulary or memory, the nefarious words: emperors, monarchs, dictators, viceroys or highnesses.”

Iturbide is executed by firing squad

Following the first trial of a monarchy, the Mexican people chose a federal republic promoted by liberals. They elected as their first president Guadalupe Victoria, one of the insurgents fighting for sovereignty during the War of Independence. It was during his presidency that the first constitution was drafted on October 4, 1824.

The Mexican Magna Carta was based on several international documents, including the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, a product of the French Revolution. This introduced the modern concept of a constitution, which establishes that for a country to have one, it must recognize the liberties and rights of citizens, and have an institutional architecture, that is, the division of powers.

This document established foundations for organizing a federal, republican government, with 7 titles and 171 articles based on a mix of Spanish and American ideals. Its structure was similar to the 1812 liberal Spanish Constitution of Cádiz in Spain, but it also modeled itself on the 1787 Constitution of the United States.

The Mexican Constitution was a blend of three models—Spanish, colonial, and American, and resulted in a unique system. It combined guidelines derived from the liberal Spanish Constitution and the United States Federal Charter, approved in Philadelphia in 1787. Some of the most important concepts established were: national sovereignty, human rights, federalism, separation of powers, and representative democracy.

The most important concepts are found in the first six articles, which declare the United Mexican States a free and independent country. It also established the scope of its territory, it defined the different states of the Republic, and the division of the three federal powers: legislative, executive, and judicial branches. What the Constitution did not do was separate Church from State, because in 1824, Catholicism was declared the only permitted faith. It would take 33 years, and many changes in government, before that was ratified in 1857 during the presidency of Benito Juarez and the strong advocacy for a secular state by Ignacio Ramirez.

The significance of the first constitution was the establishment of Mexico as a Republic, which meant that sovereignty would be in the hands of the population, moving away from the idea of ​​legitimacy by divine right. For the first time, Mexico, now an independent and sovereign country, would not depend on a foreign power to define how the legal and political community would be organized. It established what the Mexican people’s identity would be, and it gave a basis for establishing a unique nation.  Over the centuries, the model has gone through a series of adjustments, and several other constitutions. But the document drafted in 1824 was the first step toward a democratic system of government.  The separation of powers was another extremely important addition, creating a setting for balance of power.

Although the constitution of 1824 was a step in the right direction, it fell short on many levels, creating battle lines between conservatives and liberals for the next four decades. The protection of individual rights, for example, was partial. There was an establishment of equality before the law and property rights, but it did not include a comprehensive catalog of individual rights, which is an essential part of any modern constitution. And it did not address specific groups who would continue to be discriminated against for many years: the indigenous population and women. It also fell short in that it did not eliminate military and ecclesiastical privileges, which granted special entitlements to these groups, at the expense of other groups who were exploited by this class. The 1824 Constitution presented a duality because it sought to be liberal and progressive in some aspects, but it also maintained traditional power structures that limited the full extension of individual rights in practice. The privileges of the Army and the Church and the continued existence of slavery were obvious anomalies within a liberal regime and would be a source of future conflicts.

The early 19^th century was a period filled with new ideas for how people could organize themselves socially, politically, and legally. Mexico was no exception. In particular, the legitimacy of divine right was called into question, and this affected America as well, because even though there had been no monarchy here, as a colony they depended on one.

After the fall of Agustín de Iturbide as emperor, the debate focused on whether Mexico should be a centralist or a federalist republic. The 1824 Constitution ultimately opted for a federal system inspired by the United States, but with its own nuances.

Mexican federalism had several flaws typical of a recently formed country that had endured a long war. The main issue was the division of the country into two opposing ways of looking at government. The federalists, acknowledging the diversity in society, sought a federal government with autonomous states and municipalities that would have their own constitutions and authorities. They called for equality for each of those sections and focused on achieving equality and freedom for the majority of people. The centralists, on the other hand, preferred for power to be concentrated in a central government, with states mere departments with less autonomy. The centralists became the political antagonists of the federalists, and this led to many struggles, coups d'état, incarceration of opponents, and executions during the struggles of the next many years.