What did Miguel Hidalgo struggle for and how?

Answer 1

Miguel Hidalgo was the father of the Independence movement in Mexico. He was a clergy who was already in deep water with the Catholic Church because of his rebellious comments on the gospel. He conspired with Jose Maria Morelos for an Independence movement because they were both local clergy of criollo and mestizo descent (Criollo: Spaniard born in Mexico, Mestizo: person of mixed European and Native heritage). The local clergy were not able to achieve as much success as higher clergy belonging to the king because of the new Bourbon reforms, moreover their criollo and mestizo status also alienated them from moving up the Church hierarchy because these reforms also favored peninsulares (Spaniards born in Spain). His insurgency was found out by the royal government and was about to be stopped when Hidalgo gave his grito de Dolores to the people in his town. He then led these men, mostly natives and poor mestizos conquering many major cities and increasing his troop size. The only problem with his method was that the mestizo and native people were unaware that the problem was the peninsulares and not the criollos who were also being oppressed but because they were both europeans it was easy for the mobs to cut down all people of light skin in every city. This inability to incorporate the criollos into the movement led to the downfall of Hidalgo and his eventual execution.