Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America

By 1830, liberalism had waned, and conservatism was the predominant ideology in Latin America. The Industrial Revolution was progressing rapidly in Europe and the United States, and these nations began looking to open markets abroad. With increased interest in foreign investment and development, the elite of Latin America looked to profit from it. By 1850 conservatism began giving ground to liberalism in the name of Progress. The general public still supported caudillos, and economic interests still created friction, but the general trend was toward increasingly liberal ideas. Railroads were becoming increasingly ubiquitous, and, in 1874, a telegraph cable connected Brazil to Europe. The Catholic Church was once again another point of contestation between liberals and conservatives.

The Catholic Church was never grander in Latin America than in Mexico. By 1850, the Church owned approximately half of the farmland. Furthermore, Mexico still used laws for the clergy leftover from colonial times called the fuero. During this period, a form of ecclesiastical conservatism spread throughout Catholic-dominant lands around the world. It was called ultramontane conservatism, meaning from beyond the Alps (i.e., Rome). This conservatism led to the Catholic Church being strictly against any government involvement in Catholic affairs.