A Brief History of Mexican
War for Independence
Hello
all, and today we shall journey to the past once again, this time in order to
learn about the birth of the Mexican War for Independence, in honor of its 204th
anniversary.
Once
again, we start with 1492 and Christopher Columbus’ voyage from Spain to
journey west to find a new route to India. He inadvertently found a “New World”
which changed the course of the world. By 1521, Hernán Cortés had conquered the
Aztecs with the help of his superior technology, and through the help of
various other indigenous tribes that were enemies of the Aztec empire. One
notable woman, known most commonly as La
Malinche, was his translator in order to accomplish this. La Malinche became Cortés’ lover, and
gave birth to his first illegitimate son, Martín Cortés. Martín would be
considered by many one of the first Mestizos
of the New Spain, and would be nicknamed by some as El Mestizo. Martín would be the first to lead the first rebellion
against the Spanish colonial government, along with his half-brothers, to
attempt to change the laws that prevented Spanish conquistadores from inheriting their encomiendas. This attempt to change the social order would be one
of the underlying factors that contributed to the the Mexican War for Independence.
Most
Latin American countries gained independence from Spanish control in the 1810s
because during that time, Spain’s control was weakened because of Napoleon
Bonaparte taking over Europe, and placing his brother, Joseph Bonaparte.
Because Spain was weakened from fighting Bonaparte, most Latin American
countries decided to begin their rebellion. This situation, added with the
political issues caused by the casta
system would lead Mexico to rebel against Spain.
As I’ve
previously the social hierarchy for New Spain would basically have the white
Spanish-born Spanish citizens at the top, followed by the Criollos, or the Spanish born in the New World, then Mestizos, the mix of Spanish and
indigenous, and lastly would be the indigenous and whatever few black slaves
there were in New Spain at the time. Because of the casta order, many Criollos
felt that they deserved to be treated the same as Spanish born Spaniards. This
sparked a revolution. In 1810, the Conspiracy of Querétaro, a clandestine movement
born in the city of Santiago de Querétaro. It is usually taken as the immediate
background of the War of Independence of Mexico, since it was this group that
started the armed struggle for the emancipation of New Spain with respect to
the Crown Spanish. The primary objective of the Conspiracy of Querétaro was be
a Governing Board, which took power in the name of Ferdinand VII. Members of
the Conspiracy included major leaders in the war, such as: Father Miguel
Hidalgo y Costilla, Ignacio Allende, Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez, Mariano
Abasolo, and others. ON September 9, 1810 the Conspiracy was discovered by
Spanish soldiers, and the plan for independence had to be moved up. Many
conspirators were captured and imprisoned, either by confessing to being
members of the Conspiracy or not. Because of this, on September 15, Ignacio
Perez, mayor of Querétaro sent word to San Miguel, contacting Juan Almada, who
went immediately to the town of Dolores in the state of Guanajuato to alert
Hidalgo y Costilla, arriving in Dolores on the 16th at dawn.
Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla after the Grito de Dolores
Hidalgo
y Costilla went to the town church and rang the church bell to alert the
townspeople of an important announcement. Now, this event is known as the Grito de Dolores, or the Cry of Dolores,
where Hidalgo y Costilla essentially called for a revolution against Spanish
control. While the original words used in the cry have been lost to history,
many historians can agree that Hidalgo y Costilla spoke of “long live our holy
mother Guadalupe, viva Fernando VII, and death to bad government” demonstrating
that they were not necessarily fighting against the Spanish, but rather the bad
government caused by the Spanish that should be fixed. The Cry is repeated
every year on the 16th of September in remembrance of Miguel Hidalgo
y Costilla, whom many consider to be the Father of Mexico because of his part
in the War for Independence. This tradition was started in 1825 and is
performed by the current president of Mexico at the time.
Now back
onto the history of the war. After the Cry, many Criollos and Mestizos
formed the bulk of the Mexican Army for the war. A few days after the Cry, without
resistance entered San Miguel el Grande and Celaya, where he got even more
money and soldiers to fight. He then entered the town of Atotonilco in Prairie
Shoal where he took a banner of the Virgen of Guadalupe, and used it in his
battles. Hidalgo y Costilla used the banner because the Virgin of Guadalupe,
after her appearance on the Tepeyac in the 16th century helped unify
New Spain under the common Catholic religion, since the Virgin appeared as an
indigenous woman, and chose to appear to a common indigenous man, Juan Diego,
and this symbol would unify the newly formed army to fight together for a
common goal. The banner would be Hidalgo y Costilla’s standard, present at
every battle until its capture at the Battle of the Bridge of Calderón and
taken to Spain as a trophy. On September 24, Allende took Salamanca, where
Hidalgo was proclaimed Captain General of the Armies of America and Allende
lieutenant general. In this city there was resistance and an attempt to
plunder, suffocated by Aldama. On leaving Salamanca, Hidalgo and had fifty
thousand men to fight. The Spanish response to this was immediate. The bishop
of Michoacán, Manuel Abad y Queipo, excommunicated all insurgents, including
Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla and others that were priests on September 27.
Hidalgo sent Mariano Jiménez, a miner without military training, as an emissary. He asked Allende permission to enter
the troops; Allende refused, but Hidalgo
y Costilla sent Jiménez on a special mission: to intimidate Juan Antonio Riaño,
mayor of the city of Guanajuato, and request the surrender of the city of
Guanajuato without violence. Riaño, though a friend of Hidalgo y Costilla,
refused because he was a soldier of the Spanish crown, and could not surrender
the city. Allende, Almada, and Jiménez divided to take the city. Initially there
was little resistance to them taking the city, with many people either joining
the army or giving them money and other supplies; however at around eight in
the morning shots were fired near the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, the grain
storage for the city. During the fight, Riaño told Lieutenant Barceló to climb
to the roof to face the possible invasion. Riaño fought in the front lines,
which Barceló was against. One of the insurgents saw and recognized Riaño as
the mayor of the city, and Riaño was killed trying to defend himself. Barceló,
as the second in command, was given command of the Royalist forces, and when it
was suggested to him by Riaño’s advisor that surrendering would be a smart
decision, he refused saying that first and foremost, he was a soldier and that
wars are not won by surrendering. The advisor decided to act, by tying a white handkerchief
to a rifle from a fallen solder and waving this flag to show that the Royalist
forces would surrender.
Hidalgo
y Costilla, seeing this act, ordered a ceasefire and ordered Allende to go meet
with the leader of the Royalist forces in order to negotiate; however, Barceló
saw what the advisor was doing and killed the advisor, ordering his forces to
continue the attack. Hidalgo y Costilla realized he had been deceived and
ordered his men to attack once again. During this time it was difficult for the
insurgent forces to enter the Alhondiga and attack the Spanish, so a man by the
name of Juan Jose de los Reyes Martinez, a miner known for his strength and by
his nickname El Pípila, asked Hidalgo
y Costilla for permission to burn the door of the Alhondiga. Hidalgo y Costilla
allowed him to do so, and so El Pípila tied
a rock to his back and grabbed a torch in order to burn the door. (My mother
has always told me that El Pípila was
my great great great uncle, more or less)
A statue of El Pípila in Guanajuato, Guanajuato
The act
of burning the door allowed the insurgents to enter the Alhondiga, the insurgents stormed it and killed those that were in
it, whether they were civilians or soldiers. They looted and slaughtered those
inside, and within days the looting spread to other parts of the city of
Guanajuato. Hidalgo y Costilla attempted to keep his men in line, preventing
them from dishonoring Riaño’s body and from looting the city anymore. It was because
of this event that Hidalgo y Costilla stayed away from most major cities during
his time in the war, something that would eventually lead to his downfall.
So now
that we have this basic background for the War for Independence, let’s
fast-forward a bit. Allende and Hidalgo y Costilla always had their differences
when it came to which city to attack or what route to take, something that came
to a head near February 1811. After Hidalgo and Allende agree with Aldama, Abasolo and
Rayon, to strip the military in Hacienda lodge, Aguascalientes, on 25 February. At the
time the insurgents were preparing to flee to the United States to buy weapons and continue the struggle. Allende received communication from Ignacio
Elizondo, an old military revolutionary leader, turned Royalist spy. Elizondo invited the leaders of the
insurrection to go to Acatita of Baján , located on the border of
Coahuila and Texas , then part of the
Viceroyalty of New Spain. This would turn out to be a trap, with Abasolo’s contingent
being the first to be captured. Soon afterwards, Allende, his son Indalecio, and Aldama y Jiménez were captured as
well, after being offered food. The insurgents refused to be captured and only
allowed themselves to be captured after Elizondo killed Allende’s son. After
this happened, Hidalgo y Costilla appeared, escorted by a few men, though he
was captured as well. These leaders were sent to Chihuahua to await trial, and
Elizondo was promoted to colonel in the Royalist Army.
Allende,
Almada, and Jimenez were accused and found guilty of high treason and were
executed in May of 1811. Hidalgo y Costilla had two trials, an ecclesiastic
trail and a military trial. He was also sentenced to death, and stories say
that when he was to be executed by firing squad, he refused to be blindfolded
and shot in the back, as was tradition for executing traitors. Instead he took
his right hand and pointed to his heart, telling the soldiers to aim for his
hand which was over his heart. He was executed July 30, 1811. After the
executions of the leaders of the rebellion, their heads were cut from their bodies
and hung from the four corners of the Alhondiga
in Guanajuato, where the first major looting happened during the war.
After
the death of the major leaders of the rebellion, the rebellion almost ended,
but Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon took lead of the remaining rebel soldiers. He would
lead the troops for about 4 years, until 1815 when he was also captured and
executed. During his time as leader; however, there was a major improvement in
creating a legislative and governing body for the new country that was forming.
This was instrumental in creating the basis for the Mexican government after
the War for Independence ended. After Morelos y Pavon’s death, there were
approximately only 200,000 insurgent soldiers, and most were isolated from each
other due to geography. It was because of this that the war changed, from being
a confrontation between two armies, to a series of guerilla wars fought using
the geography of Mexico to their advantage. During this time, there were many
leaders, each with approximately 300 to 4000 men, depending on where the
insurgents were fighting. It took six more years after Morelos y Pavon’s death
to achieve independence in 1821.
This has
been the ending to another adventure through history, though because of the
amount of history we went through today, I had to remove some information and
condense it. If you are interested at all in learning more, don’t hesitate to
read up. As always, I have some final words to you readers, whomever you may
be. First off, don’t be afraid to stand up for what you believe in, because you
may not be the only one. Don’t settle for less than what you can have. Always
put 100% in what you are doing, and never forget that on this planet inhabited
by 7.1 billion people, there is only one of you, only one person that thinks,
speaks, and acts like you. Never give up your individuality for anything.
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