Ferdinand VII

Ferdinand VII was the Spanish king whose capture and restoration made the constitutional crisis in Spain reverberate across its American colonies. In the account of Mexico’s independence, his political reversals helped transform a dispute over legitimate authority into a choice between constitutional reform and separation from Spain.

Capture and the Constitutional Crisis

In 1808, Napoleon Bonaparte’s French armies invaded Spain and took Madrid. By September, Ferdinand had been captured and had abdicated. The Junta Central assumed leadership of the resistance to France, eventually retreating to Cádiz, where it formed the Cortes. In 1812, the Cortes produced a constitution proposing a constitutional monarchy founded on popular sovereignty, equality before the law, and an end to special privileges.

Those principles collided with the interests of colonial elites in the Americas, whose power rested in an institutional order shaped by forced labor and extensive privileges. The collapse of Spanish authority also raised the question of whether the colonies should recognize the Junta Central. As Latin Americans formed their own juntas, the possibility of independence grew.

Return to Power and Rejection

In 1815, as Napoleon’s European empire collapsed, Ferdinand returned to power and the Cádiz Constitution was abrogated. The Spanish Crown then sought to reclaim its American colonies; Mexico remained loyal at this point. The constitutional settlement had been reversed, but the conflict over its principles had not disappeared.

That conflict sharpened in 1820. A Spanish army assembled in Cádiz to sail to the Americas and restore royal authority mutinied against Ferdinand. Other army units joined the revolt, forcing him to restore the Cádiz Constitution and recall the Cortes. The revived Cortes proposed abolishing all forms of labor coercion and challenged special privileges, including the military’s right to try its members in its own courts.

Mexico’s Break with the Crown

For Mexican elites, Ferdinand’s compelled restoration of the constitution changed the balance of calculation. They had already viewed the document with deep skepticism because it opened the way to popular political participation. The earlier Hidalgo Revolt had reinforced their opposition: after Hidalgo’s forces sacked Guanajuato in 1810, violence against colonial officials and white residents united local elites against a movement they associated with class or ethnic conflict. Independence, if it brought popular participation, threatened their position as well as Spanish rule.

Faced in 1820 with a more radical Cortes and the prospect of its reforms applying in Mexico, the elites chose to go alone and declare independence. The movement was led by Agustín de Iturbide, a former Spanish army officer. His Plan de Iguala, published on February 24, 1821, proposed an independent constitutional monarchy with a Mexican emperor while removing provisions of the Cádiz Constitution that threatened elite status and privilege. It gained immediate support. Ferdinand’s return and reversals thus formed part of the chain of events through which a struggle to restore Spanish authority instead hastened Mexico’s separation from it.