Allende, Ignacio (1769–1811)

Ignacio Allende (b. 25 January 1769; d. 26 June 1811), Mexican independence leader and corevolutionary of Father Miguel Hidalgo. Born to a wealthy landowning family, Allende joined the militia of San Miguel el Grande as a lieutenant and was promoted in 1797 to captain. He participated in the meetings of creole societies that plotted for Mexican independence, favoring independence under King Ferdinand VII or some other member of the Spanish royal family. When the regime discovered the Querétaro conspiracy in September 1810, Allende went to the town of Dolores to assist Father Miguel Hidalgo, who later named him captain-general of the American armies.

Many historians point to Allende's military background, but it should be remembered that he was a militia officer who had not commanded significant forces. A creole, he experienced difficulties with a rebellion that exploded rapidly into a mass movement dominated by Indians and mestizos. During and after the bloody occupation of Guanajuato, Allende attempted to restore order and to halt atrocities against Spaniards, uncontrolled pillaging, and other excesses. At Valladolid, Morelia, he ordered his troops to use force against insurgent looters. On many occasions, he opposed Hidalgo's apparent willingness to sanction violence as a means to attract supporters to the revolutionary cause.

After the battle of Monte de las Cruces (30 October 1810), Hidalgo rejected Allende's belief that the capital should be occupied, and the insurgents began the peripatetic wanderings that led to the occupation of Guadalajara. Even before the disastrous rebel defeat at Aculco (7 November 1810), many Indians and mestizos abandoned the rebel army. Allende was present in Guanajuato, but he did not play a major role in the battle of 25 November 1810 that resulted in the second major rebel defeat. Following the royalist victory at the battle of Puente de Calderón on 17 January 1811, the insurgent chiefs replaced Hidalgo, naming Allende supreme commander. Retreating to the north, Allende decided to regroup the insurgent forces in the United States. However, on 21 March 1811, the senior rebel commanders were surprised by treachery and captured north of Saltillo. Allende was taken prisoner, tried by court-martial at Chihuahua, and executed by firing squad.

See alsoHidalgo y Costilla, Miguel; Mexico, Wars and Revolutions: War of Independence.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lucas Alamán, Historia de México desde los primeros movi-mientos que prepararon su independencia en el año de 1808 hasta la época presente, 5 vols. (1849–1852; repr. 1942).

Carlos María de Bustamante, Cuadro histórico de la Revolución Mexicana, 3 vols. (1961).

Hugh M. Hamill, The Hidalgo Revolt: Prelude to Mexican Independence (1966).

John Tutino, From Insurrection to Revolution in Mexico: Social Bases of Agrarian Violence, 1750–1940 (1986).

Additional Bibliography

Rodríguez Frausto, Jesús. Ignacio Allende y Unzaga, generalisimo de América. Guanajuato: Universidad de Guanajuato, 1969.

                                    Christon I. Archer