imprisoned for their parts as well. Soon after, the city of Quer�taro was taken by royalist forces and would stay that way for much of the war. The only fighting in the state were skirmishes fought in the mountain areas. The city of Quer�taro would be one of the last royalist bastions to fall.
After the war, Quer�taro was made a state with the 1824 Constitution . However, the city and state would lose the economic and cultural prominence it had during the colonial period. The political instability of the 19th century took its toll on commerce, which made the area�s economy suffer. The status of Quer�taro would change between state and department, depending on whether Liberals or Conservatives were in power nationally. Within the state, battles for power between the two groups would lead to the state having twenty five governors between 1824 and 1855.
During the century, the capital city was the scene of a number of important events. During the Mexican American War, the capital was moved from Mexico City to Quer�taro. At the end of that war, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed here. The 1857 Constitution was published in the city as well and a coalition of states including Quer�taro, Jalisco, Aguascalientes, Zacatecas, Guanajuato and Michoac�n formed a coalition to defend this constitution against the Plan of Tacubaya. During the short reign of Maximilian I, there were battles between Liberals and Conservatives (with the latter supporting the emperor) in Quer�taro. However, Maximilian lost the military support provided by Napoleon III, leaving only four states loyal to the emperor. Quer�taro was one of them. Maximilian still resisted Liberal forces which eventually surrounded him at Cerro de Campanas, then outside the city of Quer�taro. The emperor was caught and executed on 19 June 1867. Afterwards, the state wrote a new constitution based on Liberal principles. Another new state constitution would be written at the beginning of the Porfiriato
