Millennium on the Northern Marches

The Mad Messiah of Durango and Popular Rebellion in Mexico, 1800-1815

Bibliographic Data

ID2107585
AuthorsEric Van Young (University of California San Diego, corresponding author)
Year1986
Volume28
Issue3
Pages385-413
Publication date1986-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueComparative Studies in Society and History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0010-4175 • E-ISSN: 1475-2999
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0010417500013992
OpenAlexW2040829651
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited46

In September of 1810, with a sudden flash of violent rebellion (preceded by months and years of salon conspiracies), the white native-born provincial elite of New Spain began the protracted and painful process of winning political independence from Spain. Although by about 1816 much of the country had been pacified by royal arms, pockets of rebellion continued to smolder and flare throughout the following years. The birth of modern Mexico itself finally occurred in 1821, owing as much to fortuitous political circumstances in Spain as to the military and political manipulations of Agustin Iturbide, the Creole adventurer who consummated the country's independence and briefly became its emperor. Programmatic pronouncements by the Creole and mestizo leadership of the independence movement abound in the form of pamphlets, constitutions, decrees, short-lived newspapers, captured correspondence, etcetera, and provide us with a reasonably clear view into the complex ideologi- cal process of political separatism from Spain. At least in the early years of the independence struggle, however, the insurrectionary armies were manned not primarily by Mexican-born whites or racially mixed groups, but by Indian peasants from rural villages all over the central parts of the country

Adventure · Ancient history · Art history · Creole language · Democracy · Economic history · Elite · Emperor · Geography · Independence (probability theory) · Political science · Politics · Salon · Historical Studies in Latin America · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law · Politics and Society in Latin America