30 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 
the great and good Mendoza, arrived in 1535 and for 
fifteen years the land prospered under his rule, which was 
benign without being weak. He was succeeded by Luis 
de Velasco, who emancipated many of the enslaved 
Indians. ‘The long line of viceroys continued until 1821 
when Spain was forced to relinquish her provinces in 
America. Among the greatest of the viceroys was 
Bucareli, the forty-sixth in line, who ruled Mexico from 
1771-1779 while the United States of America were just 
beginning to feel the pulse of life. 
During the viceregal period in Mexico the region to 
the south was ruled by the captain general of Guate- 
mala. The dominion was subdivided into five depart- 
ments corresponding to the modern republics of Guate- 
mala (which then included the Mexican state of Chi- 
apas), Honduras, Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. 
Panama was ruled from the South American province 
of New Granada. 
Weakened by Napoleonic wars and rent by internal 
dissensions, Spain found herself in the first two decades 
of the nineteenth century unable to maintain her wan- 
ing power in America. Bolivar and his brother patriots 
raised the standard of revolt in South America in 1810 
and in the same year war for independence broke out in 
the north. Hidalgo, the parish priest of Dolores, rang 
the liberty bell of Mexican freedom on the 16th of 
September, 1810. This beloved patriot was captured’ 
the year following, and shot, but the revolution once 
begun was continued under Morelos and other leaders. 
After 1815 the cause seemed hopeless, but in 1820 there 
was a new uprising and General Iturbide, who was sent 
to put it down, turned his army against the government 
and established himself as emperor. Central America 
was also included in this Mexican empire. The rule of 
Iturbide soon became unpopular and in 1823 he abdi- 
