The eleven-year period of civil war that marks the Mexican wars of independence is largely a byproduct of the crisis and breakdown of Spanish royal political authority throughout the American colonies.

A successful independence movement in the United States has demonstrated the feasibility of a republican alternative to the European crown.

For most politically articulate criollos, however, a strong cultural affinity with the mother country, a preference for stability and continuity, and alienation from Mexico's native and poor mestizo populations are significant disincentives to a radical break with the established order.

Dissatisfaction with peninsular administrative practices and anti-criollo discrimination at many levels of the colonial government and society are important foci of discontent, but beyond small pockets of radical conspirators, these grievances have not yet spawned a pronounced wave of pro-independence criollo sentiment at the beginning of the nineteenth century.