CHILPANCINGO, CONGRESS OF

(September-November 1813), meeting held at Chilpancingo, in present Guerrero state, Mex., that declared the independence of Mexico from Spain and drafted a constitution, which received final approval (Oct. 22, 1814) at the Congress of Apatzingn. Jos Mara Morelos y Pavn, who called the congress at Chilpancingo, had assumed leadership of the Mexican independence movement after the execution of its initiator, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, in July 1811. The constitution provided for, among other things, a republican form of government and the abolition of slavery and of social and legal disabilities imposed on the lower classes. Before the new government could take effect, however, the royalist forces crushed the revolutionaries; Morelos was tried and shot on Dec. 22, 1815. Five years later, independence was achieved, but social inequities and monarchy (the latter only until 1823) were preserved by the so-called Plan of Iguala, the blueprint for the new government issued by Agustn de Iturbide in 1821.