Don Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla Gallaga Mandarte y Villaseñor, commonly known as Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla or Miguel Hidalgo, was a Catholic priest, leader of the Mexican War of Independence and recognized as the Father of the Nation.
The Cry of Dolores occurred in Dolores, Mexico, on 16 September 1810, when Roman Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla rang his church bell and gave the call to arms that triggered the Mexican War of Independence. The Cry of Dolores is most commonly known by the locals as "El Grito de Independencia".
José María Teclo Morelos Pérez y Pavón was a Mexican Catholic priest, statesman and military leader who led the Mexican War of Independence movement, assuming its leadership after the execution of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla in 1811.
The Mexican War of Independence was an armed conflict and political process resulting in Mexico's independence from the Spanish Empire. It was not a single, coherent event, but local and regional struggles that occurred within the same period, and can be considered a revolutionary civil war. It culminated with the drafting of the Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire in Mexico City on September 28, 1821, following the collapse of royal government and the military triumph of forces for independence.
Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos was a Spanish neoclassical statesman, author, philosopher and a major figure of the Age of Enlightenment in Spain.
In Hispanic America, criollo is a term used originally to describe people of full Spanish descent born in the viceroyalties. In different Latin American countries, the word has come to have different meanings, mostly referring to the local-born majority. Historically, they have been misportrayed as a social class in the hierarchy of the overseas colonies established by Spain beginning in the 16th century, especially in Hispanic America. They were locally-born people–almost always of Spanish ancestry, but also sometimes of other European ethnic backgrounds.
José Joaquín Vicente de Iturrigaray y Aróstegui, KOS was a Spanish military officer and viceroy of New Spain, from 4 January 1803 to 16 September 1808, during Napoleon's invasion of Spain and the establishment of a Bonapartist regime in Spain. His plans to form a provisional autonomous government led to his arrest and deposition.
Don Miguel Ramos Arizpe was a Mexican priest and politician, and known as "the father of Mexican federalism."
Before the 1910 Mexican Revolution, most land in post-independence Mexico was owned by wealthy Mexicans and foreigners, with small holders and indigenous communities possessing little productive land. During the colonial era, the Spanish crown protected holdings of indigenous communities that were mostly engaged in subsistence agriculture to countervail the encomienda and repartimiento systems. In the 19th century, Mexican elites consolidated large landed estates (haciendas) in many parts of the country while small holders, many of whom were mixed-race mestizos, engaged with the commercial economy.
María Ignacia Rodríguez de Velasco y Osorio Barba, known as La Güera Rodríguez was a wealthy Mexican-born Spanish woman and a proponent of Mexican independence, today considered a heroine of independence. She was a longtime friend of Agustín de Iturbide, a royal army officer who later led the movement in New Spain for independence. In the 1840s she became friends with Fanny Calderón de la Barca, whose published observations of Mexico helped fuel interest in Rodríguez's story.
Afro-Mexicans played an important role in the Mexican War of Independence, most prominently with insurgent leader Vicente Guerrero, who became commander in chief of the insurgency. The initial movement for independence was led by the American-born Spaniard priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla in central Mexico. White Mexicans quickly abandoned the movement for independence which had become more of a social revolution, with Indians, Blacks, mixed-race castas, and other plebeians seeking social equality. The movement for independence remained active on the Gulf Coast and the Pacific Coast, where there were large concentrations of Afro-Mexicans. The royal army and the insurgent forces had reached a stalemate militarily, but the equation changed in 1820. American-born Spaniard and royalist officer Agustin de Iturbide sought an alliance with the insurgents led by Guerrero. Iturbide and the white creoles sought independence, but expected that racial hierarchies would continue in the post-independence period. Guerrero and other Afro-Mexicans demanded that they would be equal citizens and not until Iturbide acceded to that demand did the Afro-Mexican forces sign on to the Plan of Iguala which laid out the terms for the insurgency movement.
The Battle of Calderón Bridge was a decisive battle in the Mexican War of Independence. It was fought in January 1811 on the banks of the Calderón River 60 km (37 mi) east of Guadalajara in present-day Zapotlanejo, Jalisco.
Hidalgo: la historia jamás contada is a 2010 Mexican film directed by Antonio Serrano. The film focuses on Mexican Independence leader Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla and his involvement in the Mexican War of Independence. It premiered in Mexico City on September 16, 2010.
The Battle of Zacatecas was a military action of the Mexican War of Independence fought on 15 April 1811 at Zacatecas. The battle was fought between the royalist forces loyal to the Spanish crown and the Mexican rebels fighting for independence from the Spanish Empire. The Mexican insurgents were commanded by General Ignacio López Rayón and the Spanish by José Manuel de Ochoa. The battle resulted in a victory for rebel forces.
The Battle of Zitácuaro took place during the War of Mexican Independence on 2 January 1812 in the area around Zitácuaro, Michoacán. The battle was fought between the royalist forces loyal to the Spanish crown and the Mexican rebels fighting for independence from the Spanish Empire. The Mexican insurgents were commanded by General Ignacio López Rayón and the Spanish by Félix María Calleja. The battle resulted in a victory for the Spanish Royalists even in the face of overwhelming odds.
The following is a partial timeline (1810–1812) of the Mexican War of Independence (1810–1821), its antecedents and its aftermath. The war pitted the royalists, supporting the continued adherence of Mexico to Spain, versus the insurgents advocating Mexican independence from Spain. After of struggle of more than 10 years the insurgents prevailed.
David Anthony Brading FRHistS, FBA, was a British historian and Professor Emeritus of Mexican History at the University of Cambridge, where was an Emeritus Fellow of Clare Hall and an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College. His work has been recognized with multiple awards including the Bolton Prize in 1972, the Order of the Aztec Eagle, and the Medalla 1808—both of which were awarded by the Mexican government—and the Medal of Congress from the Peruvian government in 2011.
The ideas of the Spanish Enlightenment, which emphasized reason, science, practicality, clarity rather than obscurantism, and secularism, were transmitted from France to the New World in the eighteenth century, following the establishment of the Bourbon monarchy in Spain. In Spanish America, the ideas of the Enlightenment affected educated elites in major urban centers, especially Mexico City, Lima, and Guatemala, where there were universities founded in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In these centers of learning, American-born Spanish intellectuals were already participants in intellectual and scientific discourse, with Spanish American universities increasingly anti-scholastic and opposed to “untested authority” even before the Spanish Bourbons came to power. The best studied is the University of San Carlos Guatemala, founded in 1676.
Zinapécuaro de Figueroa is a town and the seat of the municipality of Zinapécuaro, in the central Mexican state of Michoacán.
The Capture of Alhóndiga de Granaditas was a military action carried out in Guanajuato, viceroyalty of New Spain, on September 28, 1810, between the royalist soldiers of the province and the insurgents commanded by Miguel Hidalgo and Ignacio Allende. The fear unleashed in the social circles of the provincial capital made the intendant, Juan Antonio Riaño, ask the population to barrack in the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, a granary built in 1800, and in whose construction Miguel Hidalgo had participated as an advisor to his old friend Riaño. After several hours of combat, Riaño was killed and the Spaniards who had taken refuge there wished to surrender. The military in the viceroy's service continued the fight, until the insurgents managed to enter and then massacred not only the few guards that defended it, but also the numerous families of civilians who had taken refuge there. Many historians consider this confrontation more like a mutiny or massacre of civilians than a battle, since there were no conditions of military equality between the two sides.
