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
Mexican War of Independence square, the zócalo, with the pealing of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City's bells. In the 1880s, government officials attempted to move the bell that Hidalgo rang in 1810 to gather parishioners in Dolores for what became his famous "grito". Initially the pueblo's officials said the bell no longer existed, but in 1896, the bell, known as the Bell of San José, was taken to the capital. It was renamed the "Bell of Independence" and ritually rung by Díaz. It is now an integral part of Independence Day festivities. Mexican War of Independence The Mexican War of Independence () was