Mexican War of Independence

In 1810 the Grito de Dolores launched an eleven-year war that ended Spanish rule in Mexico and opened the road to an independent nation.

Overview

Criollo resentment of peninsular privilege, Enlightenment ideas, and the Napoleonic invasion of Spain in 1808 created the opening. The priest Miguel Hidalgo called his parishioners to revolt on 16 September 1810 with the Grito de Dolores, and a mass movement of peasants and miners followed the banner of Guadalupe. Hidalgo was captured and executed in 1811, succeeded by Jose Maria Morelos, also executed in 1815. The conservative officer Agustin de Iturbide switched sides and negotiated independence under the Plan de Iguala in 1821, crowning himself emperor before republicanism won out in 1823. The war killed hundreds of thousands and left Mexico with caste and land conflicts that fed later revolutions.