Download Mexican Revolt of 1810

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Imperialism
Mexican Revolt of 1810
The Mexican Revolt of 1810 represented the first stage in a three-part war of independence from
Spain that ended in 1821. The first phase involved a rebellion of the castas, those categorized as
mixed blood or American Indian by the Spanish authorities. The second phase involved a
disorganized but popular guerrilla war against the colonial authorities. The final and ultimately
successful phase of the revolt pitted conservative creoles (full-blooded Spaniards born in
America) against a temporarily liberal Spanish government.
The initial call for independence came from the small town of Morelos, where the progressive
parish priest, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, helped to organize a movement devoted to Mexican
liberation. After being discovered by authorities, Hidalgo issued his famous call for
independence, the "Grito de Dolores" on September 16, 1810. His call to arms attracted large
numbers from the castas, who attacked local authorities and sacked many large towns and cities.
The movement appeared on the verge of success when its disorganized troops suffered defeat at
the hands of smaller but more disciplined armies of creoles and Spaniards. After the Inquisition
condemned Hidalgo to death, another parish priest, José María Morelos, unsuccessfully carried
on the struggle in the name of Mexico's downtrodden masses. After his 1815 capture, colonial
authorities executed Morelos for treason.
After the deaths of Hidalgo and Morelos, the independence war settled into a protracted guerrilla
struggle where neither the authorities nor the rebels proved strong enough to gain an upper hand.
The rebel leader Guadalupe Victoria commanded a force of 2,000 troops in Puebla and Veracruz,
while Vicente Guerrero directed another 2,000 in Oaxaca. Despite ongoing guerrilla warfare, the
Spanish viceroy felt secure enough in his position by 1819 to write Spain that he would need no
new reinforcements for the foreseeable future.
In 1820, a rebellion of troops in Spain led to an unexpected change of events, as the mutineers
demanded that King Ferdinand VII honor the liberal Constitution of 1812. Conservative Mexican
creoles looked at those events with horror and mobilized to maintain the traditional social and
political system that had benefited them since conquest. Augustín Iturbide, a creole officer who
had fought against both Hidalgo and Morelos, switched his allegiance to the independence
movement rather than accept a liberal government in Spain. In consultation with Guerrero, he
issued the Plan de Iguala, which declared Mexico an independent constitutional monarchy, gave
Catholicism a monopoly on religion, and guaranteed equal treatment for creoles and Spaniards.
The plan succeeded in winning conservative creoles over to the independence movement, and by
1821, the last Spanish viceroy, Juan de O'Donojú had accepted the inevitability of defeat.
Iturbide's September 1821 victory march through Mexico City signaled the end of the prolonged
war of independence that had begun as a radical lower-class movement and ended in a highly
conservative declaration of independence.
"Mexican Revolt of 1810." World History: The Modern Era. 2009. ABC-CLIO. 22 Feb. 2009 <http://www.worldhistory.abc-clio.com>.