Kinlore
16 September 1810 – 27 September 1821

The War of Independence

Father Miguel Hidalgo's "Grito de Dolores" launches a mass uprising; after eleven years of war, Mexico wins independence from Spain in 1821.

  • The Other Rebellion: Popular Violence, Ideology, and the Mexican Struggle for Independence, 1810–1821 — Eric Van Young, Stanford University Press (2001)
  • The Course of Mexican History — Michael C. Meyer, William L. Sherman and Susan M. Deeds, Oxford University Press (2014)
  • Mexico: Biography of Power. A History of Modern Mexico, 1810–1996 — Enrique Krauze, HarperCollins (1997)

Well established independencestatehoodreligionidentity

In 1808 Napoleon invaded Spain and deposed its king, throwing the empire into crisis. In New Spain, criollos, American-born Spaniards resentful of the privileges of the Spanish-born, began to plot. One circle met in Querétaro, and when it was discovered, Father Miguel Hidalgo, the parish priest of Dolores, acted first. Before dawn on 16 September 1810 he rang his church bell and called his parishioners to rise, in the name of the Virgin of Guadalupe and against “bad government”.

  • The Course of Mexican History — Michael C. Meyer, William L. Sherman and Susan M. Deeds, Oxford University Press (2014)
  • Mexico: Biography of Power. A History of Modern Mexico, 1810–1996 — Enrique Krauze, HarperCollins (1997)

The uprising

Tens of thousands of peasants, miners and Indigenous villagers joined him. At Guanajuato in September 1810 his followers stormed the granary where Spaniards and wealthy criollos had taken refuge and massacred many inside. The violence frightened the criollo elite into siding with the colonial government. Hidalgo’s army reached the edge of Mexico City but turned back, was defeated at the Bridge of Calderón in January 1811, and Hidalgo was captured and shot in July 1811. His head was hung in a cage on the very granary in Guanajuato for ten years.

  • The Other Rebellion: Popular Violence, Ideology, and the Mexican Struggle for Independence, 1810–1821 — Eric Van Young, Stanford University Press (2001)
  • The Course of Mexican History — Michael C. Meyer, William L. Sherman and Susan M. Deeds, Oxford University Press (2014)

Morelos

Another priest, José María Morelos, a mestizo of humble origins, led a better-organised guerrilla war in the south. In 1813 he called the Congress of Chilpancingo, which declared independence, and his Sentimientos de la Nación called for abolishing slavery and caste distinctions. He was captured and executed in December 1815.

  • The Course of Mexican History — Michael C. Meyer, William L. Sherman and Susan M. Deeds, Oxford University Press (2014)
  • Mexico: Biography of Power. A History of Modern Mexico, 1810–1996 — Enrique Krauze, HarperCollins (1997)

How it was won

By 1820 only scattered guerrilla bands, such as Vicente Guerrero’s in the southern mountains, kept the cause alive. Then a liberal revolution in Spain alarmed Mexico’s conservatives, and a royalist officer, Agustín de Iturbide, switched sides. In February 1821 he and Guerrero agreed the Plan of Iguala, with three guarantees: independence, the Catholic religion, and union between Spaniards and Americans, the three colours of the Mexican flag. The Army of the Three Guarantees entered Mexico City on 27 September 1821.

  • The Course of Mexican History — Michael C. Meyer, William L. Sherman and Susan M. Deeds, Oxford University Press (2014)

A fragile start

Iturbide crowned himself Emperor Agustín I in 1822 and was overthrown within a year; Mexico became a federal republic in 1824. Guerrero, of Afro-Mexican and Indigenous descent, became president in 1829 and abolished slavery. But the new country was bankrupt and divided, and in its first decades it went through dozens of changes of government, a weakness that left it exposed to Spain’s attempted reconquest in 1829, France’s “Pastry War” in 1838 and, most disastrously, the United States.

  • The Course of Mexican History — Michael C. Meyer, William L. Sherman and Susan M. Deeds, Oxford University Press (2014)
  • México frente a Estados Unidos: un ensayo histórico, 1776–2000 — Josefina Zoraida Vázquez and Lorenzo Meyer, Fondo de Cultura Económica (2001)
Historians estimate that the war of independence cost hundreds of thousands of lives, though precise figures are uncertain.
  • The Other Rebellion: Popular Violence, Ideology, and the Mexican Struggle for Independence, 1810–1821 — Eric Van Young, Stanford University Press (2001)

How it's seen
National story

The Mexican people, led by heroic priests Hidalgo and Morelos, rose against three centuries of Spanish oppression; their sacrifice made the nation.

  • Mexico: Biography of Power. A History of Modern Mexico, 1810–1996 — Enrique Krauze, HarperCollins (1997)

Historians

Independence came from many rebellions with different aims: villagers often fought for local land, religion or the king himself, as Eric Van Young shows. In the end it was won by conservative criollo officers like Agustín de Iturbide, who changed sides partly to escape liberal reforms in Spain.

  • The Other Rebellion: Popular Violence, Ideology, and the Mexican Struggle for Independence, 1810–1821 — Eric Van Young, Stanford University Press (2001)
  • The Course of Mexican History — Michael C. Meyer, William L. Sherman and Susan M. Deeds, Oxford University Press (2014)

Why it matters today

Mexico

Independence is the biggest civic celebration of the year. On the night of 15 September the president, and mayors in every town square, ring a bell and lead the crowd in the Grito: "¡Viva México!" Hidalgo and José María Morelos are the founding fathers, and the struggle's mix of priests, peasants and criollo officers foreshadows the country's later divides.