Mexican War of Independence Begins
The Mexican War of Independence was a decade of insurrection, civil conflict, and political maneuvering that ended Spanish rule in New Spain and produced the independent Mexican nation. It began in September 1810 when a parish priest, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, called his congregation in the town of Dolores to take up arms, an appeal remembered as the Grito de Dolores. The war ended in 1821, and its legacy still shapes Mexican national identity, with Independence Day celebrated each September.
The background lay in both imperial crisis and local grievance. Colonial society was sharply stratified: peninsulares, born in Spain, held the highest offices, while criollos, American-born people of Spanish descent, were often shut out of top positions. Indigenous peoples, mestizos, and people of African descent faced tribute, poverty, and discrimination. Bourbon reforms in the eighteenth century had increased taxation and tightened royal control. Then in 1808 Napoleon's invasion of Spain removed King Ferdinand VII from the throne, leaving the question of who legitimately governed the colonies. Criollo conspiracies, including one in Querétaro that Hidalgo joined, grew out of this uncertainty.
When the Querétaro plot was discovered, Hidalgo acted. The exact words of his call at Dolores are not reliably recorded, and historians debate what he said, including how far he sought full independence at the outset. His appeal drew an enormous following of rural workers, villagers, and miners, who marched toward central Mexico. The movement captured Guanajuato amid heavy violence and approached Mexico City, but turned back. Royalist forces defeated it in early 1811, and Hidalgo was captured and executed that year.
The struggle continued under other leaders. José María Morelos, also a priest, organized a more disciplined army, convened a congress at Chilpancingo, and supported a declaration of independence in 1813, along with ideas such as the abolition of slavery and caste distinctions. He was captured and executed in 1815. Afterward the war shrank into guerrilla fighting, with leaders such as Vicente Guerrero and Guadalupe Victoria holding out in the mountains of the south.
The decisive turn came from events in Spain. A liberal revolt in 1820 restored a constitution that alarmed conservative elites in New Spain, who began to see independence as a way to preserve their position. Agustín de Iturbide, a royalist officer, negotiated an alliance with Guerrero and proclaimed the Plan of Iguala in 1821, promising independence, the primacy of the Catholic Church, and union between Spaniards and Americans. His Army of the Three Guarantees entered Mexico City in September 1821.
Independence did not bring stability. Mexico briefly became an empire under Iturbide, then a republic, and endured political turmoil for decades. The war also left economic damage and a lasting memory of Hidalgo and Morelos as founding heroes.