Mexican Independence

by Ramón Talavera Franco

Mexico’s struggle for independence from Spain can be divided into four periods:

The story begins in 1808 when troops of Napoleon Bonapart invaded Spain taking King Ferdinand VII prisoner and forcing him to abdicate the throne. Napoleon’s brother, Joseph, was then named “King of Spain and the Indies”.

Meanwhile, in Spanish colonial Mexico, royal ruling parties called upon the Spanish viceroy to set up a temporary government with the mandate to rule until Ferdinand was restored to power. At the same time, those native-born Mexicans of Spanish descent (criollos), who had long endured second class status in their own homeland, began to see an opening to create an independent Mexico and a definitive separation from Spanish rule.

The ideological planning stage lasted for two years while, across Mexico, criollos came together in clandestine groups to discuss revolutionary solutions to the problems wrought by centuries of dependence on Spain. The city of Querétaro was one such site where a group of prominent criollos often met, including such luminaries as Juan Aldama, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, and Ignacio Allende. Unfortunately, their meetings were soon discovered, forcing the launch of a precipitous and, as yet, undefined course for revolution.

At dawn on the morning of September 16^th, the priest Miguel Hidalgo summoned the townspeople of Dolores in central Mexico where he declared the beginning of the revolution and calling for an end to bad government. He opened the jails, emprisoned the local Spanish authorities, and thus, began the general call to arms.

With the uprising in Dolores, the movement for independence was transformed. A sudden outpouring of the long oppressed, suffering, and miserable masses resulted in a situation of explosive near-anarchy.

As throngs of revolutionaries moved through the countryside and approached the town of San Miguel, neighboring laborers, peasants, and Indians joined the movement. Armed with clubs, slingshots, and machetes, they followed the illustrious priest who throughout the course of the movement, called for an end to their crushing taxation, an elimination of the “caste” system, and (for the first time in the Americas) the abolition of slavery.

In a few days, the forces of the “Generalísimo Hidalgo,” as he was named by his followers, numbered almost 100,000. Soon after, important cities such as Celaya, Guanajuato, and Valladolid, were among the other areas of the country which had joined the cause for independence.

This dynamic formative period culminated in 1811 with the death of Father Hidalgo and with other important events in the armed revolt.

The second stage of this history, known as the Morelos period, represented a time of organization and definition for the independence movement.

José María Morelos y Pavón was a revolutionary leader responsible for victories in the South and Central area of the country. During this time, the goals of the independence movement were more clearly defined. A document of the period entitled, “Will of a Nation” best reflects the social and political ideology of Morelos and enunciates, for the first time, a formal declaration of independence from Spain.

Many provincial areas of the country joined the revolutionary cause during this phase, and the independence movement took on a national image.

The third period, from 1815 to 1821, is identified with revolutionary heroes, Vicente Guerrero and Javier Mina. This stage saw a gradual decline in the forces of the revolution and its struggle was focused in the southern provinces where Vicente Guerrero had managed to keep alive the cause of independence, albeit with scarce success. The period was marked by the outstanding deeds of Francisco Javier Mina, a Spanish liberal who fought valiantly for the cause of independence and died in 1817.  

The fourth and last period of the revolution finally saw the triumph of the independence movement. After eleven long years of struggle, criollos and the general Mexican populace had begun to feel their cause was lost. At this time, a faction of Spaniards and criollos, who had formerly opposed the cause of independence, chose to join the movement bringing it new strength. José de Iturbide was one such leader who, through diplomatic skill, managed to forge strategic agreements which led to the ultimate guarantees outlined in the “Plan of Iguala”. The Plan of Iguala called for a single national religion, a union of all social classes, and the independence of Mexico from Spain. Once signed, Mexican independence was a reality.

On September 28, 1821, José de Iturbide made a triumphant entrance into Mexico City accompanied by a tattered revolutionary army -- an event which officially marked Mexico’s independence from Spain.

This is a broad-strokes narrative of the story of Mexican independence -- the story of a people who fought to be free and of a nation characterized by strength, determination, and patriotism.