Indigenous participation in New Spain’s wars of independence. War and politics in the Huastecas

Abstract

The analysis of the second decade of the Nineteenth Century, the time when there were wars of independence in New Spain and the beginning of the proliferation of ayuntamientos in rural areas because of the Gaditan Constitution, marked the Mexican historical narratives as if they were different processes. Nevertheless, both influenced republican Mexico. The purpose of this article is to observe how the creationof ayuntamientos in some town in the Huastecas didn’t respond to a political or social fact but to a military geography well known by the royal commanders so they could men, food, and territorial control. All those aspects also helped to the creat ion of the indigenous ayuntamientos where the territorial jurisdictions and local administrative policies were reshaped and the indigenous governments reduced.