Republic of Yucatán

The Republic of Yucatan was the sovereign Yucatecan state of the nineteenth century, and the name usually means the second republic of 1841 to 1848. The first republic, founded 29 May 1823, had joined the Mexican federation as a federated republic that December, less than seven months later. The second began in 1841 with a declaration of independence from the Centralist Republic of Mexico, and it stood alone for seven years over the lands of present Yucatan, Campeche and Quintana Roo. It was ruled by the Constitution of 1841, which guaranteed individual rights and religious freedom and introduced the new legal form of amparo. The province had long been administered as a captaincy general of New Spain from 1617, and an intendancy from 1786 with the same bounds. The Caste War of 1847 broke the republic: the Maya rose against the creole elite, and Yucatan asked Mexico for troops, which Mexico gave on condition that the republic rejoin the federation.