ABSTRACT
Creoles in New Spain initially responded to Spain's 1808 collapse in much the same manner as creoles in the South American viceroyalties, by peaceful pressure for home rule through self-governing juntas modeled on those of Spain. However, the resemblance did not last for long. After Spaniards in Mexico City seized control of the viceregency by coup d'etat in late 1808, creole dissidents were forced underground, where they continued to conspire until, in September 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo and his co-conspirators raised provincial rebellion against the authorities in Mexico City. Their intention was to intimidate the government into surrender by seizing control of provincial centers of government and setting up a junta, which would exercise sovereignty in the king's absence. But plans for a relatively smooth transition were soon subsumed by a popular mobilization that was of far greater scale and violence than they had anticipated, and quite different from the movements against the crown that occurred in other regions of Spanish America.
