Mexican Independence: Popular Revolt or Global Revolution?

Between 1776 and 1824, every major nation in the Americas except for Cuba declared independence from their colonial masters. European wars weakened the imperial system while great leaders in the Americas grasped the opportunity to win self-determination and (limited) democracy for their new nations. With good reason, historians have labeled it “the age of revolution.” But was Mexico’s long struggle for revolution from 1810 to 1821 a response to the European crisis, or did it have more domestic origins? Should we think of it as part of the global movement for independence or as a thinly veiled caste war? What did Mexican hope to gain from independence from Spain anyway? This seminar will investigate Mexico’s protracted battle for independence both from the global and the local perspectives. We will investigate its origins and course, while paying special attention to what the independence movement can tell us about the sorts of stresses that Mexico endured in its first, troubled years as a sovereign nation.

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