Background
Miguel Hidalgo was born on May 8, 1753 in Corralejos, near Guanajuato.
Miguel Hidalgo was born on May 8, 1753 in Corralejos, near Guanajuato.
He was educated in Valladolid and Mexico City.
He was ordained in 1778.
He improved the culture of the vine, established pottery and brick works, and is said to have reintroduced the silkworm into Mexico.
This displeased the Spanish authorities, who discouraged the emancipation of the natives, and the vines were destroyed.
But Spanish defeats at the hands of Napoleon in 1808 aroused widespread agitation for independence in Mexico, and revolutionary societies in the provinces made preparations for a revolt.
Hidalgo, however, escaped arrest and, arousing his parishioners at Dolores to revolt, he seized the prison and arrested the Spanish male population.
Following the capture of Guanajuato, Valladolid, and several small towns, Hidalgo was proclaimed generalissimo and advanced with 80, 000 men against Mexico City in October.
But here the superior government forces under FélixFelix Calleja obliged him to retreat and he suffered a critical defeat at Aculco.
His army was again routed on January 17, 1811, at the bridge of Calderón, Calderon, near Guadalajara.
The leaders of the insurgents then decided to seek aid in the United States, but on the way Hidalgo was captured and taken to Chihuahua, where he was degraded from the priesthood and executed July 31 or August 1, 1811.