The Grito de Dolores begins Mexico's independence war

In the early hours of September 16, 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a creole priest, rang the church bell in the town of Dolores (now Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato) and called on the people to rise. Ignacio Allende and Juan Aldama, army officers, had joined a conspiracy in Queretaro that was uncovered days earlier, forcing them to act. Hidalgo's army swelled to tens of thousands as it marched, mostly indigenous and mestizo villagers and miners who carried tools and slings. His banner showed the Virgin of Guadalupe.¹²

The uprising grew from the crisis of 1808, when Napoleon removed the Spanish king and creoles argued about who should rule New Spain. It also fed on grievances: high taxes, crop failures, and a rigid hierarchy that placed Spain-born peninsulares above American-born creoles and everyone else. Hidalgo's first rallying cries were in the name of Ferdinand VII and against bad government, but his movement soon turned into a social revolt. In December 1810 he decreed the abolition of slavery.²³

The rebels took Guanajuato on September 28, where a bloody attack on the Alhondiga granary killed many Spaniards, and defeated a royalist force in October. Instead of attacking Mexico City, Hidalgo turned back, and he was beaten at the Bridge of Calderon in January 1811. He was captured in March and executed on July 30, 1811. The priest Jose Maria Morelos carried on the war, and the independence cause survived in guerrilla form until 1821. September 16 is now Mexico's national day.²³