Chapter 15 The Wars for Independence PDF

Printed by: quinn.smid!@avc:.edu. Printing is for pcil80D8l, privare uso only. No part of1his book may bci npn,dua,d or tnmsmitb:d without pabliahcr'a prior permisaion. VIOl.a1ms will be proeec:uted. CHAPTER 15...

Printed by: quinn.smid!@avc:.edu. Printing is for pcil80D8l, privare uso only. No part of1his book may bci npn,dua,d or tnmsmitb:d without pabliahcr'a prior permisaion. VIOl.a1ms will be proeec:uted. CHAPTER 15 THE WARS FOR INDEPENDENCE HIDALGO AND EARLY SUCCESS Born in 1753 to a moderately well-to-do aiollo rarmJ/, Migue.l Hidalgo y Costilla spent his first 12 yea,s on the Hacienda de San Diego Corralejo in Guanajuato, where his father 5erved the owner as ,na,-ordcmw (resident manager). Encouraged by his father; the boy moved with his older brother; Jose Joaquin, to Valladolid (today Morelia) and matriculated at the Jesuit Colegio of San Prandsco Javier. The brot.h'ers had been at their studies only two-years when shocking news reached the city: King Oiar:les lII of Spain had banished th'e Jesuits from Spain and all Spanish po$$4:SSi°?':n the New World. l.cft without teachas. the boys had to interrupt their schooling, but within a year they had enrolled in the diocesan Colegio of San Nicolas Obispo. also in Valladolid and one of the nineteen colegios and seminaries in Mexico that prepared students for degrees evemually to be awa~ed·by I.he Royal and Pontifi- cal Urtivenity in Mexico City. Young Miguel Hidalgo steeped"hiJnselfin metoric. Latin, and theology and found time to study Indian languages. Upon receiving his bachelor's in 1774, he immediate\); began preparations for the priesthood;IIhe bishop celebrated his sacrament ofordinarlon in the fall of 1778. Emhusiasticand self-assured, !he rwenty-eigh~year-old priest returned to Valladolid to teach at the, Colegio of San Nicolas Obispo, where,Jie eventually became rector. But he was scarcely exemplary from the church's pointofview#ore the tum of the century the Holy Office of the 1lquisition had been apprised, by rurqpr and fact, of a curate whose orthodoxy was suspect, who questioned priestly celibacy, wl,o~read prohibited books, who indulged in gambling and enjoyed dancing. who challenged the infallibility of the Pope who doubted the veracity of the virgin binh, who dared to.suggest that forrtication out of wedlock was not a sin, who referred to tbe Spanish king as a tyrant. and who had mistresses witb whom he fathered several children. Hidalgo was hailed before the Inquisition in 1800, but nothing could be proved. Hidalgo's furore fortunes and rrtisfommes we.re cast when, in 1803, he accepted the curacy of the small parish of Dolores, in present-day Guanajuato. Devoting minimal time to the spiritual needs of his parishioners, Father Hidalgo concerned himself primarily with improving their econorrtic potential. He introduced new industries in Dolores: tile making, 224 Printed by: [email protected]. Printing is for pmcma1, priva&e me only. No part of1his book may be reprodnced or transmitted without publisher's prior permisaii>n. Violatvn will be prosec:utcd.  11-.e \Vars for hldependenu 225 tanning. carpentry, wool weaving. beekeeping, silk growing. and wine making. He preferred to spend his spare time reading and engaging his fellow aiollos in informed debate. A few years after his anival in Dolores, Hidalgo's path 005sed that of Ignacio Allende, a thiny-five- year-old firebrand and a aiptain in the Queen's Cavalry Regiment in nearby Guanajuato. Allende took the priest into his confidence and inuoduccd him to a coterie of friends among whom were Juan de Aldama, also a military man; Miguel Dominguez, a former conegidor of Queretaro; and his wife, Doiia Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez, remembered in Mexican history as La Comgidora.. The mOSt celebrat.ed female of the ind~dence m,,igg!es. Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez was certainly not the o nly woman who played a role. Many others participated in planning activities and carried messages between rebels, and some were imprisoned for their activities. La Corregidora herself spent several years in jail. And countless women of all classes would provide food and supplies for combatants in the wars to come. The group had organized a 'lherary dub, as had others in cities throughout New Spain. In their meetingi;, they discussed ideas coming from Europe. esj:>ecially those related to im- proving loail economies. The dub of Hidalgo and Allende attraaed individuals across the Bajfo, a region that covers the modern-day states of p_ueretaro, Cuanajuato, and pan of Michoacan and San Luis Potosi. Agriculture. rnining;-fod incipient industry had expanded exponentially in the eighteenth cenwry. However, a prolonged drought at the end of th first deaide of the nineteenth cenlllry had slowed agrirultural growth.. High inllation had dnwn up prices since 1780 with no corresponding increase in wages, creating a laq,e oppressed indigenous and casta labor force. For many progressive tltlnkers m the Bajio, reform alone would not be.sufficient to fix the problems. They began to plouhe separation of New Spain from the mother counuy and set the date of December 8, I 810 for an uprising. Although th-e conspirators were all admonished to hold their tongues, Marino Calvan, a postal derk, leaked the news to r - Miguel Hidalgo y CostiUo (1753- 1811). One of lhe most r,. nowned lndMdu.us in ninIKfaca invited Iturbide, by then a colonel, 10 discuss plans for a new offensil'e against Vicente Guerrero. I1Urbide was placed In charge of 2,500 men and le-ft Mexico City tor the s'outh in late November. After a few in~etjs,~e skirmishe;;, he asked Guerrero 10 a meeun~during which he proposed 10 make pe'!C~ no1 war. llurbide's pr,ce for the treason he- was contemplating was to diaare. the. h!nns of independence. But Guer- rero was not 1;_,1sily convincL-d of either hurbide's sincrn,w or his ideas for.10 independent Mexico. A seri of conferences had 10 be held belbrr the 8"errilla warrior and the new con- vert CQuld..issu e, on February 24, 1821, their Plan de lguala.2 To attract conserva tive suppon, it pr.11'l