page_title: José María Morelos
section_title: Insurrection against Spain
hierarchical_section_title: José María Morelos / Insurrection against Spain
caption_attribution_description: Español: Murales en el Museo Casa de Morelos This is a photo of a monument in Mexico, identified by ID 00041
context_page_description: José María Teclo Morelos Pérez y Pavón was a Mexican Roman Catholic priest and revolutionary rebel leader who led the Mexican War of Independence movement, assuming its leadership after the execution of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla in 1811. Morelos and Ignacio López Rayón are credited with organizing the war of independence. Under Morelos the Congress of Anáhuac was installed on September 13, 1813, and in November 6 of the same year congress declared the country's independence. On October 22, 1814, a constitution, Decreto Constitucional para la Libertad de la América Mexicana, was drafted by the Congress which declared that Mexico would be a Republic.
  After a series of defeats he was captured by the Spanish royalist military, tried by the Inquisition, defrocked as a cleric, and executed by civil authorities for treason in 1815. Morelos is a national hero in Mexico and is considered a very successful military leader despite the fact that he never took a military career and was instead a priest.
context_section_description: The former rector of the Colegio de San Nicolás Obispo (where Morelos attended seminary), Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was planning with others for the independence of New Spain from the Spanish empire. About 6:00 a.m. on September 16, 1810, Hidalgo then the parish priest of Dolores, Guanajuato (since renamed Dolores Hidalgo in his honor), hastily ordered the church bells to be rung, and gathered his congregation. Flanked by Ignacio Allende and Juan Aldama, Hidalgo addressed the people in front of his church, urging them to take up arms, with the Cry of Independence (El Grito de Dolores, now celebrated every year on September 15 at 11:00 p.m.) that called for armed revolt after the Spanish colonial authorities had discovered the Conspiracy of Querétaro, a clandestine movement seeking Mexican independence. Like Allende and Aldama, Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, popularly known as La Corregidora, was one of the famous initial supporters of the revolt. Miguel Hidalgo and his followers rose in open rebellion against the Spanish colonial authorities launching what became the Mexican War of Independence.
  With the imperial government taken by surprise, operatives took important cities of the Bajío region without an organized response. The insurgency proclaimed Hidalgo captain general of Mexico in Celaya on September 21. Hidalgo y Costilla advanced as far as Guanajuato; and on September 28, the rebels captured the Alhóndiga de Granaditas in battle, killing at least 500 Spaniards who had taken shelter there. Among the dead was the crown's highest official in Guanajuato, Intendant Juan Antonio Riaño, an old friend of Hidalgo y Costilla.
  The bishop of Michoacán, Manuel Abad y Queipo, excommunicated the insurgents.  Hidalgo y Costilla and his army marched on to Valladolid, where the locals feared that the slaughter of Guanajuato would be repeated, prompting many people to abandon the region, particularly elites. Valladolid was taken peacefully on October 17, 1810.
  In Tacámbaro Hidalgo y Costilla was proclaimed general, and Allende captain general. Hidalgo ordered a rest for his troops in Indaparapeo, where a few minutes before their departure, Morelos, who had read about his excommunication and his triumphs, found him.
  Morelos had heard of the revolt in October 1810 and determined to join it. Hidalgo asked his former student to recruit troops in the south of the colony and capture the port of Acapulco, the west coast port for the Pacific trade to the Philippines, also a Spanish colony. Unlike Hidalgo, who was a poor tactician leading a huge and undisciplined following, Morelos quickly demonstrated military skills, gathering and training a small core of fighters. He sought allies in the region, and obtained cannon and other war materiel.
  Morelos's hopes for the rebellion called for the creation of a republican government that “all Mexican people would participate, the abolition of slavery, and the elimination of divisions between races and ethnicities.” Morelos saw the suffering of the poor at the ends of the Church and the elites, and believed that these things must be changed in order to achieve the full participation of the people in the new government. Morelos also called for the end of the Church's special privileges and the redistribution of large estates among the people. These principles demonstrated the rebellion's desire to achieve both independence and justice for the poor.
caption: Hidalgo and Morelos, mural in Museo Casa de Morelos
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A470", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2010:10:17 10:45:39", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "196", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5108", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4794", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/30", "EXIF FNumber": "3", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "250", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:10:17 10:45:39", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:10:17 10:45:39", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "157/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "101/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "101/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "63/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3072", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2304", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "3072", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2304", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "3178", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "96000/7", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "96000/7", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}