Burkholder and Johnson, p. 155.

La Casa de Contratación Casa de OroCasa 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.

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)

In 1821, Iturbide issued a call for the three “guarantees”: