Hidalgo and Morelos: Mexico's Revolution from Below

Mexico's independence struggle began as a mass uprising rather than an elite movement. On 16 September 1810, the creole priest Miguel Hidalgo called on parishioners in Dolores to rise, an appeal remembered as the Grito de Dolores. Tens of thousands of Indigenous and mestizo peasants joined, and his army sacked the city of Guanajuato, killing many Spaniards who had taken refuge in its granary. The violence frightened creole elites, who sided with Spain.

Hidalgo was captured and executed in 1811. Another priest, José María Morelos, led a more organized campaign, calling for independence, the abolition of slavery and of caste distinctions, in his Sentiments of the Nation (1813). He was executed in 1815. Compared with the American Revolution, Mexico's first phase resembled a social revolution, which helps explain why elites opposed it.