Breaking New Spain, 1808–21

Abstract

In 1800, New Spain was the richest region of the Americas, socially diverse, deeply unequal, stabilized by a regime of judicial mediation. The Iguala movement, led by Agustín de Iturbide, in 1821 severed the tie between Spain and New Spain, the bond that had long sustained the power of the Spanish Empire. But the Mexico proclaimed in 1821 came out of years of revolution. The break began when Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808, setting off debates about sovereignty in Mexico City, leading to military a coup that kept silver flowing to Spain. Two years of political debates and social predations led to the 1810 Hidalgo revolt. Attacks on property and trade broke silver capitalism by 1812, when the Cádiz Constitution promised liberal rights to back armed powers in Spain and New Spain. Insurgents fought on, making new communities and breaking oligarchic families while women challenged patriarchy. New Spain was gone in 1821, when military commanders and struggling oligarchs claimed independence. This essay offers a synthesis of the pivotal transformations—underway from 1808—that made the break with Spain possible, perhaps inevitable—and made the construction of the Mexico envisioned in Iguala impossible.