Burkholder and Johnson, p. 155.
La Casa de Contratación
Casa de Oro
The Torre de Oro
(Tower of Gold) on
the Guadalquivir
River in Seville
Charles III (1759-1788)
Expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767
Cabildos
Causes of Latin America’s
Independence Movements
• Anger towards Bourbon reforms
– intendants
– monopolies
• Friction between Creoles and Peninsulares
• New ideas of the Enlightenment
– Rise of Nationalism
• Native militias
• U.S. Example
• Napoleonic invasion of Spain & Portugal
– Charles IV Ferdinand VII
– Napoleon’s brother, Joseph is place on
the Spanish throne.
Mexico’s Road to
Independence
• July 1808: news of Napoleon’s capture of
Charles IV and Ferdinand VI and his invasion of
Spain reached Mexico City and provoked intense
debates and maneuvers among Mexican elites to
take advantage of these dramatic events. Faced
with the prospect of an imminent collapse of
Spain, creoles and peninsulares alike prepared to
seize power and ensure that their group would
control New Spain, whatever the outcome of the
Spanish crisis.
• September 1808: A coup led by peninsular
merchants overthrows the creole-dominated
cabildo and Viceroy Iturrigaray.
•
•
•
•
•
September 16, 1810: Father Miguel Hidalgo called on the
people of his parish to rise against their Spanish rulers.
José María Morelos continues to fight. He brings the
rebel groups together in a congress that met in
Chilpancingo in 1813.
1814: The defeat of Napoleon and the return of the
reactionary Ferdinand VII to the throne of Span released
thousand of soldiers who could be send overseas to
suppress the Spanish-American revolts.
December 22, 1815: Morelos is executed by royal forces.
Vicente Guerrero become the most prominent rebel
leader.
Changes in Spain induce Changes in
Mexico
1820: A liberal revolt in Spain forced Ferdinand VII to
accept the constitution of 1812. The radical reforms of
the Cortes that followed, including the abolition of the
ecclesiastical and military fueros, antagonized
conservative landlords, clergy, army officers, and
merchants, whether creole or peninsular. Fearing the loss
of privileges, they schemed to separate Mexico from the
mother country and to establish independence under
conservative auspices. Their instrument was the croele
officer Agustín de Iturbide, who had waged implacable
war against the insurgents. Iturbide offered peace and
reconciliation to the principal leader, Vicente Guerrero.
His plan combined independence, monarchy, the
supremacy of the Roman Catholic church, and the civil
equality of creoles and peninsulares.
Guerrero was a sincere liberal and republican,
Iturbide an unprincipled opportunist who dreamed
of placing a crown on his own head. The united
forces of Iturbide and Guerrero swiftly overcame
scattered loyalist resistance. On September 28,
1821, Iturbide proclaimed Mexican independence,
and eight months later an elected congress
summoned by Iturbide confirmed him as Augstín I,
emperor of Mexico.
In 1821, Iturbide issued a call for
the three “guarantees”:
1.Religion (the Catholic faith to be
the official creed)
2.Independence (presumably
under a monarchy)
3.Union (fair treatment of creoles
and peninsulares alike)