Mexican Wars of Independence (military history)
The Mexican Wars of Independence were a series of military struggles that ultimately led to Mexico's independence from Spanish colonial rule, beginning in 1810. The conflict was sparked by a combination of local discontent and the political upheaval in Spain following Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion. This situation inspired figures such as Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, who called for rebellion against Spanish authorities in September 1810, rallying a diverse group of the population, including indigenous peoples and creoles.
Hidalgo's initial campaign led to significant violence and instability, resulting in his capture and execution in 1811. Leadership then passed to José María Morelos, who managed to organize a more structured revolutionary effort, advocating for equality among all social classes, but was also ultimately defeated and executed in 1815. After years of intermittent conflict, a shift occurred when Colonel Agustín de Iturbide, initially a royalist, allied with rebel factions and issued the Plan de Iguala, which promised independence and unity.
This agreement garnered widespread support, leading to the formal declaration of independence on September 28, 1821. However, Iturbide's attempt to establish himself as emperor led to his downfall, and after his execution in 1824, Mexico adopted a constitutional government similar to that of the United States. The new government faced ongoing challenges, particularly in addressing the rights and status of the indigenous population.
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Mexican Wars of Independence (military history)
At issue: Mexico’s independence from the Spanish crown
Date: 1810–1823
Location: Mexico
Combatants: Mexican revolutionaries vs. Spanish armed forces
Principal commanders:Mexican, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (1753–1811), Ignacio Allende (d. 1811), José María Morelos y Pavón (1765–1815), Agustín de Iturbide (1783–1824); Spanish, Félix María Calleja del Rey (1755?-1828)
Principal battles: Guanajuato, Calderón, Valladolid
Result: The campaigns waged by Hidalgo, Allende, and Morelos led eventually to the establishment of Mexico as an independent republic. Iturbide successfully appealed to the major elements of Mexican society to accept his leadership in a declaration of independence from the Spanish crown.
Background
In 1808, Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Spain, deposed its ruler, the Bourbon king Ferdinand VII, and installed his brother Joseph as king. The centuries-old domination of Spanish Latin America by the Spanish crown ended with Ferdinand’s exile from the mother country.
The Spanish liberals refused to accept Joseph as Spain’s ruler and organized a resistance movement against the French. They formed the Cortes of Seville in 1812 in opposition to the invaders. The liberals invited representatives of the Spanish colonies in the Americas to join them and to participate in the movement.
The Spaniards of the mother country refused, however, to provide equal representation by the colonists in the interim government. This denial led to the development of separate wars of independence throughout Spanish America. Mexico, the mother country’s richest colony, began such a battle in 1810.
Action
Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the curate of Dolores, a small village in Mexico’s state of Guanajuato, joined a plot with a number of other creoles (Spaniards born in America) to spread discontent with Spanish rule and to overthrow Spain’s viceroy in Mexico City. When the Spanish authorities discovered the plot, Hidalgo felt that he had no other choice but to call for an outright rebellion against the government.
On September 16, 1810, he rang the bell of the Dolores church to summon the general population. From the steps of the church, Hidalgo appealed to the masses—the Indians, the mestizos, the mulattos, the deprived and impoverished who made up more than 70 percent of the colony’s population. He led this ill-equipped and untrained mob against the city of Guanajuato, the center of Mexico’s silver mining and one of the richest communities in New Spain, as Mexico was called at that time. After capturing the city, the invaders slaughtered all the Spanish residents as well as some of the creoles who had taken shelter in the city’s granary with them.
The ferocity of the attack and the resulting deaths of the city’s most prominent residents terrified the colony’s white population, those from Spain as well as the Americans. A royalist army, under the command of General Félix María Calleja del Rey, formed to combat Hidalgo’s horde. On January 11, 1811, the two armies met at Calderón, near the city of Guadalajara. Calleja and his troops routed the revolutionaries. Hidalgo, Ignacio Allende (his second in command), and their subordinates were captured while retreating in northern Mexico; from there they were taken to Chihuahua and, after a brief trial, executed.
After the death of Hidalgo, the mantle of leadership of the independent movement fell to another priest, José María Morelos y Pavón. A much more capable military leader than his predecessor, he fought the Spanish armies successfully for almost five years. Morelos established a formal revolutionary government and also sought the support of the creole group, pointing out to them that they, too, had been exploited by the peninsular Spaniards. At the same time, he promised equality for all the Indians, mestizos, mulattos, and other minorities that made up his army.
The indefatigable Calleja, now named viceroy by the restored Spanish king Ferdinand, pursued a campaign of all-out war against Morelos. In December of 1813, Calleja caught up with the rebel leader and defeated him in a pitched battle at Valladolid. Both Morelos and the nascent Mexican congress formed to rule the revolutionary government took to the road. Royalist forces captured Morelos and executed him at Mexico City on December 22, 1815.
With the death of Morelos, the revolutionary movement lost its central direction and became a series of local conflicts between Spanish military commanders and guerrilla rebels. It appeared that the movement had been defeated. In the mother country, after Napoleon’s defeat, the restored King Ferdinand VII sought to reestablish absolutist rule throughout the Spanish empire. Sent to wipe out a group of recalcitrant guerrillas, a royalist colonel, Agustín de Iturbide, bargained with the rebels instead. He released and published a proclamation, called the Plan de Iguala, containing three guarantees—of union, of religion, and of independence. While vague in nature, the plan attracted the support of the majority of Mexicans, rich and poor alike.
On September 28, 1821, a junta composed of the country’s most prominent citizens signed Mexico’s declaration of independence. Iturbide pressed his luck, however. He contrived to have himself named Mexico’s emperor, and this undemocratic move resulted in his ultimate downfall. He found it expedient to leave the country. On July 1, 1823, Iturbide attempted to return from exile. After he landed in Tamaulipas, local authorities captured him. He was tried and executed.
Aftermath
Following Iturbide’s deposition, Mexico’s political leaders adopted a governmental structure very much like that of its neighbor to the north, the United States. They established a constitutional government providing for a popularly elected president, a senate, and a chamber of deputies. President Vicente Guerrero suppressed slavery on September 15, 1829. The provision of an equal social, political, and economic status for the country’s large Indian population proved to be a much more difficult task.
Bibliography
Fuentes, Carlos. The Buried Mirror: Reflections on Spain and the New World. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992.
Lynch, John. The Spanish American Revolutions 1808–1826. 2d ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1986.
Robertson, William Spence. Rise of the Spanish American Republics. New York: Free Press, 1946.