On this date in history in 1810, Miguel Hidalgo Costilla, a Catholic priest, launches Mexico’s War for Independence in the town of Dolores. His proclamation, aptly called the “Cry of Dolores,” called for independence from Spain. It also declared in favor of land reform for greater equality and legal equality for all Mexicans.
He picked an opportune moment—with Spain engulfed in the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, it was more difficult for Spanish forces to oppose the revolutionaries. Although loyalists captured and executed Miguel Hidalgo Costilla in 1811, the revolution he began eventually succeeded. After several twists and turns Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821.
Miguel Hidalgo Costilla’s Program
One thing I find very interesting about the beginning of Mexico’s revolution is the program laid out by Costilla. Besides the obvious call for independence, it contains two of the classic complaints of colonized people throughout history—land reform and legal equality. In a typical colonial situation, outsiders, in this case criollos from Spain, gain the best land, leaving native inhabitants to scrape a living from the rest.
Please Click Here to Subscribe to My History Blog!
Students of US history who read the blog post immediately preceding this one will note that these two demands are essentially the same as the demands of former slaves in the US after the Civil War. They also wanted access to land and legal equality. Most African Americans in the US got neither after the Civil War. It’s an important reason so many of them became impoverished for generations.
Without going into a lengthy exploration of Mexico’s history here, I can say that independence ultimately did not fulfill the desire for a more equal distribution of land for most Mexicans, either. Although Miguel Hidalgo Costilla began Mexico’s War for Independence with a mixed-race army of peasants, his revolution saw their goals only partially fulfilled.
While it would be a mistake to see Mexico’s at times tortured 19th century political history solely as a result of the failure of Costilla’s land reform proposals, economic inequality certainly did not help. This is one of the dangers of when those who begin a revolution are not around to direct its conclusion. In this case, the revolution arrived at a more conservative outcome than its initiators intended.
Please Subscribe!
If you enjoyed this blog, please consider signing up to follow it by scrolling down or clicking here, and recommending it to your friends. As always, I welcome constructive and polite discussion in the comments section. Thank you!