The Cristero War was fought in 1927 - 1929 between the Mexican Government and the rebels. The government wanted to abolish the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, while the rebels wanted to preserve it and their freedom to participate in it.
The wiki article claims a strength of about 100k soldiers for the government and about 50k for the rebels (in 1929). This shocked me. At first glance that would imply that the government was twice as popular?
Was the government just using mercenaries, or were the anti-church policies somehow more popular among the Mexican people?