80 MEXICO, CEXTEAL AMEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



last of the viceroys. This was in 1821, and two years later the republic was at 

 last proclaimed. 



The very term Guadahipes given to the insurgents in opposition to that of 

 Gachiqnnes, by which the Spaniards were known, is a proof of the influence exer- 

 cised by the clergy over the bulk of the Mexican population. The multitudes of 

 native rebels were regarded merely as devout pilgrims enrolled under the banner 

 of the Madonna of Guadalupe, whose worship had been confounded with that of 

 Toci or Tonantzin, the " Notre-Dame " of the Aztecs. 



But the priests, like the other whites, were themselves divided into factious 

 according to their origin, alliances, wealth or poverty. Hidalgo, who first raised 

 the standard of revolt, was a Creole priest with a mixture of Indian blood. Morelos, 

 another priest, was the chief hero of the war on the side of the national party. 

 Even a nun, Maria Quitana, was seen to leave the convent and take part in the 

 struggle. But bishops and the officers of the Inquisition had in the name of the 

 Pope hurled excommunications against the rebels, and it was in honour of the 

 Church that on Good Friday in 1814, Iturbide, at that time in the service of Spain, 

 caused several of these excommunicated patriots to be shot. 



Hence the clergy were unable to contribute towards fostering such a common 

 national sentiment as might have ensured internal peace. On the other hand the 

 political revolution was of no service in improving the condition of the native 

 peasantry, for it made no change in the system of land tenure. The soil still con- 

 tinued, as heretofore, to be monopolised by the great proprietors, whose power 

 was exercised over hundreds or thousands of the agricultural population. Doubt- 

 less an agrarian revolution seemed imminent at the very outset of the insurrection, 

 when the domains of the Spaniards were sequestrated in the name of the nation, 

 and were freely occupied by the Indians. But the whites forming part of the 

 rebel forces hastened to put a stop to these confiscations, which might have had 

 fatal consequences, and the elements of the social struggle were thus maintained on 

 the same lines as before. 



These profound inequalities, which largely coincide with racial distinctions, 

 sufficiently explain the state of chronic revolution which was the normal condition 

 of Mexico for the half-century following the proclamation of independence. The 

 nation sought without finding some new principle of economic equilibrium. By a 

 curious parallelism each civil war corresponded to a fresh outbreak both in Spain 

 itself and in her other revolted colonies, as if the dismembered branches of the old 

 empire were still connected by a common social life. 



In Mexico the accomplishment of national unity is all the more difficult that a 

 considerable section of the Indians are associated with the civilised populations 

 only in terms of official documents. None of the natives still grouped in tribes 

 living apart in remote provinces, speaking the old languages, and practising the old 

 customs, can be regarded as yet forming part of the Mexican nation. But they 

 become assimilated in increasing numbers fi om year to year, thanks to the develop- 

 ment of education, industrial centres and highways traversing their territoiw. 

 Even the Indians of the Californian peninsula who are most removed from the 



