Mexicans of European descent officially in force through the rest of the colonial period. Criollo resentment of the privileges afforded to the "Peninsulares" was the main reason behind the Mexican War of Independence. When the war ended in 1821, the new Mexican government expelled the peninsulares (approximately 10,000 – 20,000 people) in the 1820s and 1830s which at a degree, kept the European ethnicity from growing as a percentage; this expulsion however, did not lead to any permanent ban on European immigrants, even from Spain. Independence did not do away with economic and social privilege based on race as the Criollos took over those
Afro-Mexicans in the Mexican War of Independence Afro-Mexicans in the Mexican War of Independence The history of Africans in Mexico has not been well documented or recognized by the government and society. The Spanish relied upon slavery to expand their empire and to increase their wealth, and during the 16th and 17th centuries, African slaves were brought to Mexico to toil in sugar fields and work in underground mines. Estimates vary, but somewhere between 200,000 and 500,000 slaves were brought to Mexico during the colonial expansion. Over the years this bloodline has been absorbed into the population and the contribution of Afro-Mexicans has largely been forgotten. During