Spanish born peninsulars and Creoles, born in Mexico with European ancestry, controlled all the wealth. They placed taxes on the mestizos (mixed Indian and Spanish), the Indians and the Negroes. There very quickly became a widening gap between the rich and the poor and this was almost solely based on race (Miller 1985, p. 138). .
In 1810 the natives staged an uprising against the Spanish stronghold that they saw had misgoverned them for so long. It was lead by a parish priest, Hidalgo, who urged the native people to take revenge on the Spanish who stole their land (Miller 1985, pp. 182, 183). In 1811 Hidalgo was executed but the uprising continued until by 1813 it had cut off the capital, Mexico City, making it impossible for the Spanish to send in armies to help defend it (Miller 1985, p. 188). That same year Mexico formed a declaration of independence but was opposed by the Royalists who retaliated by forcing the rebels to become inactive. Four years later the Catholic Church in Spain was under attack. The Royalists, previously against the idea of independence, now saw it as the only way to protect their religion and culture (Miller 1985, p. 191). In 1821, Mexico City was taken over, and the "Three Guarantees- were formed, independence, religion and equality, these were to be the basis of Mexico's new independent nation (Miller 1985, p. 192). Installing a government was never going to prove easy for the new nation however. Constant rebellions from the different economic and social groups threw the country into turmoil. "For half a century the one political certainty in Mexico was that any government regardless of party or announced purpose, would be overthrown."" (Tennenbaum 1965, p. 81). All these factors in the early history of Mexico contributed to the segregation of the country, which prevented it from becoming economically stable. .
The people of the United States, in contrast to Mexico, have always been unified.
