Source Database: Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture

Independence Wars

By 1800 many Mexicans had grown restless with colonial rule and formed groups dedicated to discussing material progress and eventual self-government. They grew so emboldened that upon hearing the news in 1808 of the forced abdication of the monarchs in Spain in favor of Joseph Bonaparte, they were ready to seize power from the pro-Creole viceroy José de Iturrigaray, perhaps with his support. Word of their plans leaked out, however, and the Spaniards staged a preemptive coup and replaced the viceroy with one they could control.

Independence wars soon followed, triggered by another betrayal of creole conspirators. On 16 September 1810, a parish priest in the town of Dolores, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, proclaimed the famed Grito de Dolores, usually recorded as "Viva la independencia y mueran los gachupines" (Long live independence and death to the Spaniards) despite the fact that it was never written down. According to Juan Aldama, present at discussions prior to the grito, Hidalgo meant to rally a fighting force under the banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe pledging loyalty to Ferdinand Vii and vowing to protect New Spain from the French usurpers of the Spanish crown, sentiments akin to those of the Tupac Amaru II rebellion in Peru ("Death to Bad Government"), for example. Secondarily, Hidalgo was seeking to avoid arrest for treason and certain execution. When his coconspirator, Colonel Ignacio Allende, was unable to mobilize local units of the colonial army on such short notice, Hidalgo was forced to rely on a large and unorganized army of rebellious agricultural workers seeking to redress centuries-old grievances that had grown worse in the eighteenth century. This fighting force would become an important factor in the development of the Mexican state as it struggled to defend its sovereignty against a string of foreign invaders.

After Hidalgo's followers had pillaged San Miguel and Celaya, they approached the silver-rich town of Guanajuato. Its intendant, Juan Antonio de Riaño, refused to surrender the city, and Spanish-born residents took up positions at the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, the public granary. The city soon fell, and for the next day and a half Guanajuato was terrorized by looters and those eager for revenge. During the following month, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, and Valladolid (now Morelia) surrendered in terror before the insurgent forces. Hidalgo's forces had just reached Toluca on 29 October when they faced 2,500 royalist troops under the command of Colonel Torcuato Trujillo at the Battle of Monte de las Cruces. Although they won the battle, the insurgents suffered severe losses and retreated on 3 November. By this time most Mexicans, including Indians living in indigenous communities, had refused to support Hidalgo. Subsequently Spanish forces under General Félix Calleja defeated the insurgents at Puente de Calderón on the Lerma River, some thirty-five miles east of Guadalajara. Following this defeat, the mass of troops deserted, and on 21 March 1811, royalists captured Hidalgo and Allende at Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Baján and marched them in chains to Chihuahua, where both were executed and their heads hung on public display until 1821.

Creoles still maintained their hopes for eventual self-government despite their revulsion at Hidalgo's tactics. Their optimism was bolstered by the Spanish struggle for independence from the oppressive rule of Napoleonic France. Liberals in the peninsula called a cortes in Cádiz in 1810; from June through August 1810, Mexicans from Yucatán to Santa Fe held popular elections for the first time to select their delegates. The Cortes of Cádiz, which remained in session from 24 September 1810 until 20 September 1813, divided New Spain into seven provincial deputations and established the constitutional Cabildo. Both Viceroy Francisco Javier Venegas and his successor, Félix Calleja, reacted to these changes with repression and the imprisonment of creole leaders. The insurgency continued under the leadership of Ignacio Rayón, who tried to make peace with Calleja, and then José María Morelos y Pavón. Morelos, a parish priest from southern Mexico, carefully maneuvered his small, well-disciplined army toward an encirclement of Mexico City. In the spring of 1813, in order to cope with the reaction to the Constitution of 1812, he called an eight-man Constitutional Congress in Chilpancingo (in present-day Guerrero). General Calleja and his troops broke through the encirclement of Mexico City and captured areas to the south and west, forcing the delegates to flee to Apatzingán, where they approved their constitution on 22 October 1814. Meanwhile, Ferdinand VII was restored to the Spanish throne and promptly nullified the Constitution of 1812 on 4 May 1814. Between 1811 and 1815, 15,000 Spanish troops had arrived in New Spain to restore peace to the colony. In the autumn of 1815, Colonel Agustín de Iturbide captured Morelos, who was executed in December.

Historians previously believed that nothing much occurred in the independence struggle from 1815 to 1820, but further research has produced a complex picture of guerrilla struggle "led" by Vicente Guerrero and Guadalupe Victoria, among others, and Spanish defense in a hostile environment with troops frequently changing sides. This was a difficult period for Mexicans, who were forced to live under a repressive state of siege with some creoles continuing to appear loyal to the crown while supplying aid to the insurgents. A liberal revolution in Spain in 1820 reignited hope, however, with the constitution restored and the Cortes convened once more with delegates from New Spain in attendance. Provincial deputations and constitutional cabildos appeared while Mexicans at the Cortes proposed autonomy for New World colonies.

The Spanish Cortes was unable to accept even autonomy, so creoles seized their opportunity, profiting from regional rage against Mexico City and devised a compromise for independence. They convinced General Agustín de Iturbide to put forward what would become known as the Plan De Iguala, promising a constitutional monarchy, Roman Catholicism as the state religion, and the equality of creoles and Spaniards. Iturbide then persuaded Guerrero, on 24 February 1821, to create a united force, the Army of the Three Guarantees, under Iturbide's command. By 24 August 1821, Viceroy Juan o'Donojú signed the Treaty of Córdoba, recognizing Mexican sovereignty.

For the independence period, see Hugh M. Hamill, Jr., The Hidalgo Revolt (1966); Virginia Guedea, En busca de un gobierno alterno: Los Guadalupes de México (1992); and Nettie Lee Benson, La diputación provincial y el federalismo mexicano (1955). A good summary can be found in Colin M. Mac Lachlan and Jaime E. Rodríguez O., The Forging of the Cosmic Race (1990), chap. 10.