Mexico independence

The independence of Mexico was the result of a political and social process resolved by way of weapons, which put an end to the domain Spanish in the territories of New Spain. The war for Mexican independence extended from the Grito de Dolores on September 16 , 1810, to the entrance of the Army to the City of Mexico, on 27 September 1821.

The Mexican independence movement has as its framework the illustration and the liberal in the latter part of the 18th century revolutions. At that time the enlightened elite began to think about Spain relations with its colonies. Changes in the social and political structure of the Bourbon reforms, which was joined by a deep economic crisis in New Spain, also generated discomfort among some segments of the population.

The French occupation of the city in 1808 triggered a political crisis that led to the armed movement in New Spain. That year, King Charles IV and Ferdinand VII abdicated in favour of Napoleón Bonaparte, who left the Crown of Spain to his brother Joseph Bonaparte. In response, the City Council of Mexico - with support of the viceroy José de Iturrigaray- claimed sovereignty in the absence of the legitimate King; the reaction led to a coup d ' état against the viceroy and carried to jail the ringleaders of the movement.

Despite the defeat of the Creoles in the city of Mexico in 1808, in other cities in New Spain small groups of conspirators that pretended to follow the steps of the Town Hall of Mexico met. Such was the case of the plot of Valladolid, discovered in 1809 and whose participants were put in prison. In 1810, the conspirators of Querétaro were about to suffer the same fate, but when discovered, chose to take up arms on 16 September in the company of the indigenous people and peasants from the town of Dolores(Guanajuato), summoned by the priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla.

From 1810, the independence movement passed through several stages, as the successive leaders were put in prison or executed by forces loyal to Spain. Initially claiming the sovereignty of Ferdinand VII on Spain and their colonies, but leaders later assumed more radical stances, including issues of social order such as the abolition of slavery. José María Morelos y Pavón summoned pro-independence provinces to form the Congress of Anáhuac, which endowed the insurgent movement of an own legal framework. After the defeat of Morelos, the movement was reduced to a guerrilla war. By 1820, there were only some rebel centres, especially in the sierra Madre del Sur and in Veracruz.

The rehabilitation of the Cádiz Constitution in 1820 encouraged the change of position of the Mexican elite, that before had supported the Spanish domain. Seeing their interests affected, the Creole monarchists decided to support the independence of new Spain, and sought to ally with the insurgent resistance. Agustín de Iturbide led the military arm of the conspirators, and in early 1821 , meet with Vicente Guerrero. Both proclaimed the Plan de Iguala, which called for the union of all insurgent factions and with the support of the aristocracy and the clergy of new Spain. Finally, the Mexico independence was consummated on September 27 , 1821.

After this, New Spain became the Mexican Empire, a short-lived Catholic monarchy that gave step to a federal Republic in 1823, between internal conflicts and the separation of Central América.

After a few attempts of reconquest, including the dispatch of Isidro Barradas in 1829, Spain recognized the independence of Mexico in 1836, after the death of King Fernando VII.

Economic and social situation of the Viceroyalty of new Spain

New Spain society was divided into several strata, whose position was conditioned by economic, cultural and political issues. One of them was his role with respect to the possession of economic goods. There were a very small group of people who controlled most of the wealth, while the large part of the population was poor. Indigenous peoples had to pay a tribute to the Government and were subject to a ambiguous regime of authority that caused numerous clashes between the Spanish Peninsular, Criollo and mestizo. Many of the clashes were related to agricultural issues, such as for example the land tenure and water control.² Over the three centuries of Spanish domain there were several social outbursts in New Spain, including the pericú revolt of 1734 to 1737 in Old California,³ the rebellion of 1761 of the Maya, led by Jacinto Canek⁴ and the rebellions of the seris and the pimas in Sonora along throughout the 18th century.⁵

As a corollary of the multiple origins of the population of new Spain the "caste" System arose. These groups were characterized by racial origin of its members, being on the cusp Spaniards, and among them, Europeans. The combination of Spanish, Indians and Africans resulted in a number of groups whose position was determined by the amount of Spanish blood possessed. System aspired to maintain the supremacy of Spanish blood, and although it never had legal basis, not being more than an accepted nomenclature, reflected the division and exclusion in the New Spain, where non-Spanish groups occupy a marginal place in the social system.⁶

The pillar of the colonial economy of new Spain was mining, particularly the exploitation of gold and silver. During the 18th century the mining production lived one of his best seasons. As a result, the production of gold and silver has tripled in the period from 1740 to 1803.⁷ The bonanza was so great, that the mine called The Valencian, in the State of Guanajuato, came to be considered the world largest silver mining operation. At the end of the 18th century, New Spain produced more than 2 500 000 Silver marks, and its main mining regions were Guanajuato, Zacatecas and North of the intendencia de Mexico.⁸ The importance of mining to the economy of new Spain was such that Charles III recognized the body of mining of new Spain in 1776; a little later, he allowed the establishment of the Royal Court of mining, as well as the College of mining.

The heyday of mining led to the development of other economic activities, particularly trade and agriculture. For example, the growing importance of Guadalajara and El Bajío was due to his relationship with the minerals of Zacatecas and Guanajuato. Given that the export of silver and gold constituted the node of the new Spain economy, a complex system that consolidated the Peninsular merchant group, but that also allowed the rise of a powerful Cuban group grew up around this activity. This group was concentrated in the consulates of Mexico and Guadalajara, which constituted the fundamental piece in the movement of capital in the novohispano territory . The economic power of the consulates endorsed its political representation, management and advocacy capacity.⁹

The new Spain economy went into crisis at the end of the 18th century, period that coincides with the Bourbon reforms taken by the Crown. The reforms were aimed at modernizing the administration of the colonies and make more profitable the exploitation of their resources, because there was a shortage of capital in circulation due to the silver monopoly exercised by traders and financial policy of the metropolis in New Spain.¹⁰ An important part of the income derived from the exploitation of the colonies did not reach the coffers of real, sharing between different corporations in accordance with ancient arrangements between the Crown and these groups.¹¹ Indeed, the reform affected the interests of the more privileged classes. With the establishment of further free trade between the colonies, grew up the economic and political power of the criollos (creoles) and the mestizos who started to deal also with more spaces in the colonial administration.¹²

In the last decades of the 18th century, New Spain was bankrupt because of the plundering of their finances by the metropolis.¹³ Paradoxically, were members of the economic elite - very stricken by the economic policy of the monarchy - who supported the coup d ' état against the viceroy José de Iturrigaray in 1808, when the Town Hall of Mexico tried to exercise sovereignty in the absence of the King of Spain.¹⁴

Creole patriotism in New Spain and expulsion of the Jesuits

The second half of the 18th century was the scene of a movement of patriotic vindication by the Creoles in New Spain.¹⁵ This phenomenon is a response to the peninsular domain in the life of the Viceroyalty, both in the economic field and in the political, social and cultural. The protagonists of this movement were members of the small group of people who had access to education. In the new Spain society this was possible only through the ecclesiastical establishments, because the Church was the only institution that provided this service. Therefore, this group was composed notably religious.

New Spain Creole nationalism extolled to the Viceroyalty against the claims of the peninsular which was intended to justify the Spanish domain on the American soil. The competing ideological between Spain and America was not new, it has its origin in the same conquest . Unlike those early contacts of the events that took place during the 18th century is that those who take the defense of the Earth which are native are Creole . To do so, claim a past that claim to be heirs by sharing space, although Mesoamerican civilization is not direct antecedent of the new Spain of the 18th company nor are they indigenous people defend it with pride their history and their ancestral territory.

Several of the representatives of the novohispanic Creole nationalism were members of the Society of Jesus. In the 18th century this congregation played an important role in the evangelization of the Indians of the Viceroyalty.¹⁶Alongside this work, produced a set of documents that tell of villages that are now extinct. The importance of the company in the life of new Spain was his great activity in favour of culture, both through education and the production and dissemination of knowledge.¹⁷ This activity allowed him to establish a network of relations involving the company in other areas, especially with members of the agricultural, mining and commercial elite.¹⁸

With the departure of the Jesuits, his pupils resumed the renewer momentum of the company. Among them you can point to the Antonio de León y range astrologer, physicist José Mariano Mociño, Benito Díaz de Gamarra philosopher and encyclopedist José Antonio Alzate.¹⁹ A significant number of people adhering to the Real Vascongada society of friends of the country were family members, students or members of the company sponsors. This Corporation is important in the story New Spain because it helped preserve the innovative spirit of the Jesuits and favored the spread of the enlightenment in New Spain. Through the members of this group, the Jesuits were able to maintain contact with the country of which they were banished and eventually could return when the colony acceded to its independence.²⁰ The style of work of the company of Jesus put on alert several European Governments, both for his support of the papacy by its intellectual activity and partnerships that had been established. The Jesuits were expelled from various territories during the second half of the 18th century, including Spanish domains by the Pragmatic sanction of 1767.²¹ This involved not only the output of foreign members of the Congregation, but the exile of numerous Creoles. Some authors argue that the expulsion of the Jesuits is the first Spanish monarchs affront to their Americans subjects .²²

Some of the exiled Jesuits had been central figures of the intellectual movement which claimed to new Spain front of his metropolis and came, even to propose the need to empower the colony. One of them was Francisco Xavier Clavijero, who had to publish his history of Mexico in Italy and in the language of that country. In this work headstock undertakes a broad defense of America against Europe, starting with the natural issues²³ and concluding with the reaffirmation of all Americans through the claim of the indigenous past.²⁴ In this movement, Clavijero as other Creole Precolumbian rejects that their statements are influenced by other "passion or interest [...]" "to love the truth and zeal for humanity" and resolutely assumes the defense of the Indians, which has no blood ties "or we can expect no reward of their misery".²⁵ The appearance of the history of Mexico put to intellectuals of new Spain before a so glorious past as the European antiquity that favored the entrenchment of patriotic sentiment and the demands of equal rights between Spanish Peninsular and Spanish American.²⁶

The consequences of the expulsion of the Jesuits not only attitudes to ideological issues. At various points in New Spain there were manifestations of rejection of this measure taken by the Crown. The viceroy Carlos Francisco de Croixsent José Gálvez with 500 soldiers to contain the opposition in cities such as Guanajuato, San Luis de la Paz, Patzcuaro, Uruapan, Valladolid and San Luis Potosí. In Guanajuato were beheaded the promoters of the opposition.²⁷