In his student days, he had won debates and honors; as a theologian he enjoyed considerable local renown. He was a visionary, resentful of authority and with a touch of the crusader about him. When first sent by Church authorities to Dolores, near Guanajuato, he took an avid interest in raising silkworms and cultivating grapes for wine, intending to provide self-supporting cottage industries for his Indian parishioners. With the same laudable intentions, he set up a pottery works and a leather-tanning shop beside his parish house.
As his fascination with politics grew, his interest in other projects waned. Still, he did not entirely forget his poorest parishioners. Instead, taking them into his confidence, he set potters and tanners to the secret military task of making lances, slings and wooden swords against the day when he and other rebels would move to overthrow their Royalist oppressors.
With a dashing military figure and Michelangelesque nose—broken during a village bullfight—he was a superb horseman, exemplary soldier, amateur matador, gambler and womanizer. In New Spain, the social rank of people born in Europe was considered higher than those of European descent who had been born in the New World, though intermarriage between these two groups was a common pattern in the colony.
Nevertheless, it was a pattern that created a bitter split in the social elite. The rift was doubly dangerous, since New Spain was already a divided society, in which Indians and persons of mixed blood outnumbered whites 10 to 1.
When the ruling class of New Spain—Creoles and Spaniards—planned to square off against one another in full view of the natives, they did so at their own peril. It was the established policy of the Spanish Crown to entrust the most powerful posts in the colonies to Spanish-born officials. Thus viceroys, treasurers, bishops and generals—who occupied the highest paying and most desirable posts—were sent out from Spain.
Immigrant Spaniards who benefited from the policy reinforced the myth that men born and reared in the tropical climate of the Americas lacked the physical and mental stamina of Europeans. As a consequence, the maligned Creoles often the sons of influential Spanish fathers had to seek careers in the lower ranks of the government, military and clergy. Creoles such as Captain Allende, yearning for advancement in an army top-heavy with Spanish brass, faced this frustration daily.
The feud had plagued the white upper class for years, but by , with the once-powerful Spanish monarch now a craven captive in a Bayonne jail, it had reached a flash point.
For the first time in three centuries, a power vacuum existed in New Spain, and ambitious, resentful Creole aristocrats meant to fill it. Upper-class Creoles would flock to join an openly anti-Spanish crusade. Hidalgo, however, imagined machete-wielding Indians overthrowing the Spaniards—blind to the fact that formation of such an Indian army would likely drive propertied Creoles straight into the arms of conservative Royalists. Gifted with a keen mind, a fighting spirit and an eloquent tongue, he was also an ardent advocate of ideas associated with the European Enlightenment and social reform.
The racial inequities in America disturbed him deeply. Working tirelessly for the economic and social advancement of the same poor Indians with whom Hidalgo sympathized, Quiepo routinely fired off letters to the viceroy in Mexico City and the king in Madrid, advising drastic changes in oppressive policies. He also expressed grave concern over the social breach between the two white camps and urged lifting the onerous tribute to the Crown that the Indians despised. As a result, Quiepo had early on tactfully persuaded Hidalgo to resign a position as college rector rather than arrange for him to be dismissed from the post , citing long-unpaid debts he owed the school.
Reassigned to a village curacy, Hidalgo was later exposed as living a scandalous life of partying, gambling and living openly with a mistress. In that same fateful month, Spanish-born Brig. A career officer, he had come to New Spain 20 years earlier after soldiering in North Africa and Gibraltar, then teaching nine years at a military college in Spain.
Appointed viceroy of New Spain, he felt his qualifications were ideal for the post—the army required a firm, experienced hand, for the colony had had no serious need for a military presence since the 16th century.
Calleja proved a dynamic and popular leader. He replaced the old brigade structure with regimental and corps units, like those employed by the French; pushed for reductions in the excessive number of generals; and supported the founding of military academies, like the one in Spain where he had taught.
Another Spaniard, General Manuel Flon, was his counterpart in the south. Both armies were well trained, but small. Along with provincial regiments, the Royalists numbered scarcely 30, men, but Calleja saw no cause for concern.
On the contrary, the colony was peaceful and prospering as never before. As for his own future, he had married into a prominent Creole family and was looking forward to enjoying a comfortable old age on his country estate. His awakening to the political realities in the fall of would be a rude one.
A close friend of Bishop Abad y Quiepo and of General Calleja, he had come to the Americas as a Spanish officer in the mids, and between and he had fought the British in Louisiana and Alabama as an ally of the North American colonists in their war for independence.
In the early morning hours of September 16, , a courier who had ridden all night brought Hidalgo and Allende the dismaying news that their planned revolt had become known. The messenger advised them to flee before the governor could order them hanged for treason. Father Hidalgo, so legend has it, then buckled on a sword and dramatically declared in ringing tones: All may seem lost, but in action, all can still be saved! We now have no choice but to go out and seize the Spaniards!
When his parishioners, mostly farmers and workers from the countryside around Dolores, gathered for the early Sunday Mass, Hidalgo addressed them. I cannot speak longer, for all is being done in great haste and I must go! Long live the Virgin of Guadalupe! Down with bad government! Now let us go and seize the Gauchupines! At the same time, his Indian factory workers came racing through the plaza bearing torches and brandishing machetes. Within minutes, the town regiment defected en masse to Captain Allende.
The jail was emptied of potential rebel recruits, and shops and businesses owned by Spaniards were broken into and plundered. Bewildered Spaniards were dragged from their beds as the mob rushed in to loot their homes.
They merely threatened to slit the throats of the or more Spanish hostages if city gates were not opened to him. Everywhere, Spaniards were jailed or taken hostage, their money and properties seized to fund the burgeoning rebel war chest.
In the process, Hidalgo dropped his false posture of loyalty to Ferdinand VII, instead declaring openly for an independent Mexico. Located in the center of town, the two-story rectangular structure was built, fortresslike, around a central patio with a water well. The exterior was plain, except for three horizontal rows of small square windows evenly spaced about three yards apart.
Each window marked the head of a grain bin, 50 of which opened off the lower and upper loggias in the courtyard. With food stores sent in and the convenient well, he hoped to withstand a lengthy siege.
I am prepared to resist as best I can because I am an honorable man. Mine owners lugged in heavy bars of silver, then hastily buried costly heirlooms, family jewels and silver service deep in the golden grain of the bins.
They refused because they felt their politics would reduce their power. He admired them because they were inspirations for his own people's fight for freedom. These three men helped ignite and win revolutions against Spain that created many democracies that still exist today. Free blacks also fell under this group. Their first step to independence was that Haiti's slaves exploded in revolt in The creoles refused to support hidalgo because they rejected Hidalgo's call for an end to slavery and his plea for reforms to improve conditions for Native Americans.
The Criollos singular: Criollo were a social class in the caste system of the overseas colonies established by Spain in the 16th century, especially in Latin America. The name was used for people of pure or mostly Spanish blood, but who were born in the colony. The term Creole was first used in the sixteenth century to identify descendants of French, Spanish , or Portuguese settlers living in the West Indies and Latin America.
There is general agreement that the term "Creole" derives from the Portuguese word crioulo, which means a slave born in the master's household.
Explanation: The term " mestizo " lit. In the social hierarchy, they ranked below full-blooded Europeans, but above full-blooded natives or slaves. The peninsulares were the group of people who came directly from the Iberian Peninsula in Spain to the colonies in the Americas.
The Iberian Peninsula is the geographical region comprised by Portugal and Spain. Peninsulares were Spaniards that immigrated to the so-called New World between the 16th and 18th century. But it is true that the creoles wanted to their independence from Spain and form their own nation.
They wanted more political and economical power. They believed the colonial system was unfair, as they were excluded from the political decision making process. Why did the Creoles lead the fight for independence essay?
Category: business and finance housing market. During the 18th and 19th centuries in Spanish America, Creoles would lead the fight for Latin American Independence due to the fear of social unrest, and the want for political and economic control from the Spanish peninsulares. This created fear among other Creoles who only wanted to better their social standings. What did the Creoles do?
What were the political leanings of Creoles and Peninsulares? What is the dual conflict Bolivar describes quizlet? Why did New Spain want independence? What is the dual conflict Bolivar describes? What was the difference between Creoles and Peninsulares? What started the Venezuelan revolution? When did the Creole Revolution start?
Why did Creoles not support Hidalgo? Who were the key revolutionaries that led the movements for independence in Latin America?
0コメント