The Mexican War of Independence second phase
In 1813 the Mexican provincial congress, known as the Congress of Chilpancingo, convened by Jose Morelos, enacted the Solemn Act of the Declaration of Independence of Northern America. Following the defeat of several insurgent armies scattered across Mexico the independence movement fell into the hands of small guerrilla bands. The conflict between the Spanish and those seeking independence became noted for its ferocity. Being captured be either side was a certain prelude to torture in order to extract information, followed by execution.
Morelos was a Roman Catholic priest who assumed the leadership of the irregulars and militia which had followed Hidalgo. As had happened in France in their Revolution, poor Catholic peasants had been exploited by the aristocracy, and the Church elders had been supportive of the exploitation through the church. Priests such as Hidalgo and Morelos found fervid support against the representatives of the Church in mostly Catholic Mexico, and exhorted their followers to depose the hierarchy in the name of the true gospel. Lack of supplies, armaments, and military discipline led to a long series of military defeats suffered by the revolutionaries.
Beginning in 1813 Morelos positioned the men under his command to protect the provisional congress. After several defeats, he was escorting the congress to a safe location when he was attacked by Spanish forces at Tezmalaca. Outnumbered, his troops fled for their lives and Morelos was captured. As a Catholic priest, he was spared immediate execution and was sent to Mexico City for trial under the Inquisition. Among the charges he faced, which included treason, was the crime of sending his sons to be educated among the heathen in the United States, rather than receiving a Catholic education in Mexico or Spain.
Morelos, whose guilt was never really in question as far as treason was concerned, was convicted of all 23 charges against him and executed in 1815, though his excommunication from the Church was later rescinded. The revolution continued, with Vicente Guerrero assuming a leadership role among the peasantry. Spanish forces led by Agustin de Iturbide were dispatched by the Viceroy to finally crush the rebellion. Iturbide was a criollo who had been an aggressive leader in the destruction of the armies of Hidalgo and Morelos. As Iturbide pursued the rebels under Guerrero in Oaxaca, word arrived in Mexico of the acceptance of a constitutional monarchy in Spain, accepting the reforms of the Constitution.
Iturbide and Guerrero joined forces against the Spanish government in Mexico and from the town of Iguala issued the proclamation of Mexican independence from Spain, declared Ferdinand as King of Mexico (or another Bourbon prince, should Ferdinand decline), established full equality of the criollos, and allowed the Church to retain its full authority and privileges. Thus the revolution shifted to being a conservative movement for independence from the reform minded government of Spain. The combined armies became known as the Army of the Three Guarantees, supporting Iturbide’s fiat which was known as the Plan of Iguala.