Question

Why did the Aztec population decline? The Maya are known to have developed a calendar that accurately
represented a year with 365 days. They also had a writing system for
their language, but the Maya had declined in population and power by
the time the Spanish explorers arrived in 1519. The Aztec, however, were
at the height of their power when Hernán Cortés and his 600 soldiers
arrived in Mexico from Spain. Cortés and his men found a fantastic city,
Tenochtitlán, with floating gardens, lakes, and beautiful pyramids. The
Aztec and the Spanish fought, and within a few years, the Aztec leader
Montezuma and other leaders were dead. The Aztec population declined
dramatically because of smallpox and severe lack of food.
Mexico had many resources that made it an attractive colony
for Spain. There was gold and silver to be mined. Farmland was
available for crops and cattle. Missionaries were sent by the Roman Catholic Church to convert the natives to Christianity and to
minister to the colonists. Through the 17th and 18th centuries,
Mexico was the center of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, or
Nueva España. Mexico was ruled by a viceroy who was
chosen by the monarch of Spain. This arrangement,
which lasted 300 years, did not allow for much
citizen participation. The Spanish were able to
mine gold and silver in abundance, and the metals brought great wealth to the Spanish crown.
Colonial-era buildings such as cathedrals, forts,
and missions demonstrate the wealth of New
Spain. The American and French Revolutions,
however, were known to the people in Mexico.
Many of them began to believe it was not right
for a small group of Spanish nobles to rule everyone. But how could independence be won?

Answer 1

Good question. Mexican independence was won through a mix of long-term causes (economic, social, and intellectual), a decade of armed rebellion, and a late alliance between insurgent leaders and conservative Creole elites who preferred autonomy to rule from a weakened Spain.

Brief outline

- Root causes
- Social and racial inequality (peninsulares vs. criollos, mestizos, indigenous people) and resentment of colonial restrictions on trade, land, and officeholding.
- Economic grievances from Bourbon reforms, heavy taxes, and restrictions that benefited peninsulares and the Spanish crown.
- Intellectual influence of the American and French revolutions and Enlightenment ideas.
- The Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon’s 1808 invasion of Spain and the capture of the Spanish king created a legitimacy crisis in the empire that encouraged independence movements in the colonies.

- Key phases and leaders
- 1810: Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla issues the Grito de Dolores and launches a popular uprising of peasants, mestizos, and indigenous people. Hidalgo’s forces won some early victories but he was captured and executed in 1811.
- 1811–1815: Leadership passes to José María Morelos, who organized the insurgency politically and militarily and called for social reforms and independence; he was captured and executed in 1815.
- 1815–1820: The war becomes more fragmented into guerrilla warfare led by regional leaders (e.g., Vicente Guerrero in the south). The insurgency survives despite defeats and executions.
- 1820–1821: A turning point: political upheaval in Spain (a liberal revolution restoring the constitution of 1812) alarmed conservative criollos and clergy in New Spain, who feared loss of their privileges. Agustín de Iturbide, a royalist officer, switched sides and joined with Guerrero.
- 1821: The Plan of Iguala (Iturbide) united three guarantees — religion (Catholicism), independence, and equality for peninsulares and criollos — and created the Army of the Three Guarantees. The Treaty of Córdoba (August 1821) effectively recognized Mexican independence. Spanish forces withdrew and Mexico became independent.

- Why Spain couldn’t stop it
- Spain was militarily and politically weakened by the Napoleonic Wars and later internal crises.
- The insurgency, though sometimes militarily defeated, was politically resilient and widespread.
- Crucially, many local elites (criollos) eventually preferred an independent Mexico that preserved their status to a Spain pushing liberal reforms from which they might suffer — so they allied with insurgents and with opportunistic royalist officers like Iturbide.

- Outcome
- 1821: Independence achieved; the First Mexican Empire under Iturbide was proclaimed (short-lived).
- 1823 onward: Iturbide was deposed and Mexico became a republic after continued political struggle.

In short: independence was won by combining popular armed rebellion with shifting elite loyalties at a moment when Spain was weakened — not by a single battlefield victory but by political deals, insurgent persistence, and international circumstances.