El Plan Calleja y las reformas militares de la Nueva España en los inicios de la Independencia de México

Zusammenfassung

Félix María Calleja del Rey was born in Medina del Campo in 1753. As a young man he took part in several campaigns and held different positions, until he moved to New Spain with the Conde de Revillagigedo in 1789. Some time later he was entrusted the reformation of several bodies of the “milicias” in the “Provincias Internas”. His good doing in this role meant him a promotion and the commission, in 1796, to organize and instruct the “milicias” formed shortly before in San Luis Potosí. He launched the provincial Dragons regiments of San Luis and San Carlos. Training these military forces. Little by little he got to be recognized as a character of great power and prestige. At the beginning of the Mexican war of independence, Calleja took several measures to protect the area. He also enlisted and trained volunteers with whom he forms new military forces. These new forces were formed with the humblest layers of native society, with creole officiality. Calleja’s military force was the first one that managed to defeat the insurgents. He had enlisted more or less three thousand soldiers and trained them for no more than a month. Despite the existing shortcomings, he managed to confront and emerge victorious in those early moments of the Mexican Independence War, constituting out of nowhere a force that was the germ of the post-novoihspano army