Hidalgo's Revolt: The Road to Mexican Independence

The plot to rise against colonial rule was hatched in Querétaro, in meetings held at the house of the corregidor Miguel Domínguez and his wife, Josefa Ortiz, with Hidalgo and Ignacio Allende among the guests. The uprising was planned for 8 December 1810, but on 13 September a supporter betrayed the conspirators. Her husband locked Josefa in her room; by the traditional story she warned the warden below by stamping on the floor with her shoe. The leaders escaped, and Hidalgo acted earlier than planned.

Location precision: The sources say the meetings were held in the couple's house without giving an address; the pin marks Querétaro's historic centre.

In the early hours of 16 September 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo called his parishioners to rebel against the colonial government, in the name of their King, Ferdinand VII. Mass that morning drew about 300 people, and tradition says he rang the parish bell. This is the Grito de Dolores, the Cry of Dolores, delivered in front of the parish church. The town was later renamed Dolores Hidalgo, and its baroque parish church, with a 30-metre pink-stone facade, still faces the central square.

Location precision: The pin marks the town's main square, which the parish church faces.

Visitor guidance: Dolores Hidalgo's central square, in front of the parish church, is a popular place to visit.

Hidalgo and Allende left Dolores with about 800 men, half of them on horseback, and one of their first stops was the sanctuary at Atotonilco. There Hidalgo fixed an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe to a lance and made it his banner, with the slogan "Long live religion! Long live our most Holy Mother of Guadalupe! Long live America and death to bad government!" The sanctuary, an 18th-century church complex, is part of a World Heritage Site together with nearby San Miguel de Allende.

Visitor guidance: A church complex near San Miguel de Allende.

On 28 September 1810 about 300 loyalists took refuge in the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, a grain exchange built between 1798 and 1809, as roughly 20,000 insurgents approached. The insurgents burned the eastern door, a feat tradition credits to the miner El Pípila. Everyone inside was killed and the building was sacked, and Guanajuato was pillaged. The massacre helped persuade Hidalgo not to attack Mexico City. Since 1958 the building has been a museum, with murals painted by José Chávez Morado.

Visitor guidance: The Alhóndiga is now a museum, the Regional Museum of Guanajuato.

In October 1810 the insurgents reached the Sierra de las Cruces, the mountains that separate Toluca from Mexico City. Royalist troops under Torcuato Trujillo held strategic positions there, but Hidalgo won the battle, at high cost. His troops pushed on as far as Cuajimalpa, then turned back towards Guadalajara instead of attacking the capital. It was the furthest advance of the first rebel campaign. Today the battlefield lies in La Marquesa National Park, marked by monuments including bronze equestrian statues of Hidalgo, Allende and Jiménez.

Location precision: The battle was fought across the Sierra de las Cruces; the pin marks the battle area, several kilometres from the monuments in La Marquesa park.

Visitor guidance: The monuments stand in La Marquesa National Park, where food stands crowd around them.

In January 1811 the insurgent army, about 100,000 strong, took up a defensive position where the road crossed the Calderón River, some 60 km east of Guadalajara. Against them came Félix Calleja with between 5,000 and 8,000 better-equipped royalist soldiers. A royalist shell hit an insurgent ammunition wagon and it exploded, scattering much of the army. The defeat was a turning point and delayed independence by ten years. The bridge was declared a historical monument in 1932.

After Calderón the insurgents fled north, hoping to buy weapons in the United States. In March 1811 Ignacio Elizondo invited the leaders to meet at the Wells of Baján in Coahuila. On 21 March the first group arrived, with Allende, Aldama and Jiménez, and was welcomed and then ambushed and taken prisoner. Abasolo's group was captured next. Hidalgo came last, on horseback, and was apprehended by Elizondo himself. The prisoners were taken to Chihuahua.

Location precision: The sources name the Wells of Baján in Coahuila without a precise spot; the pin marks Acatita de Baján.

Hidalgo was shot on 30 July 1811 in the courtyard of the former Jesuit college in Chihuahua, on ground now occupied by the Government Palace. He thanked his jailers, two soldiers, for their humane treatment. His head, with those of Allende, Aldama and Jiménez, was displayed on the corners of the Alhóndiga de Granaditas for ten years, until independence; the heads now rest under the Angel of Independence. The palace holds an "Altar a la Patria" for Hidalgo and a museum of the independence war.

Visitor guidance: The Government Palace is open to visitors; its interior includes the Altar a la Patria.