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 The military element was now very strong and in conjunction with it there developed that of capitalistic owners of large estates, which had been started by sale of church lands in 1856. These estates, however, were still worked by the labor of peons whose status was practically the same as before the revolution. More and more, the ownership of lands, mines, factories, and means of transportation came under the control of foreign investors.

The constitution of 1857 was in the main modelled after that of 1824 which had been the standard liberal document of Mexico up to 1857. They both divided authority betwen the federal government and the states and provided machinery quite similar to that of the United States. The outstanding difference between the constitution of the United States and the Mexican constitution of 1824 was the latter's provision that the Roman Catholic religion should be forever established to the exclusion of all others.

The constitution of 1857, with the Reform Laws of 1859, which were incorporated as amendments in 1874, made the following important changes and additions:—church and state to be independent (Amendment 1); marriage made a civil contract (Amendment 2); private law and special courts for civil offenses forbidden (Art. 13); religious institutions forbidden to acquire real estate (Amendment 3); slavery and imprisonment for debt prohibited (Art. 2 and 18); everyone declared free to engage in any honorable calling suited to him and to avail himself of its products (Art. 4); no one to be compelled to render personal service without just compensation, contracts to the contrary and