Postage stamps and postal history of Mexico known businessmen or politicians. Towards the end of the 19th century, larger cities employed postmen to deliver the mail. Mexico declared independence from Spain on September 16, 1810. This resulted in the long Mexican War of Independence which ended in 1821, and which eventually led to the creation of the short-lived First Mexican Empire. Agustín de Iturbide was the first and only emperor. Two years later, he was deposed by the republican forces. In 1824, a republican constitution was adopted, creating the United Mexican States with Guadalupe Victoria as its first President. In the 1820s both the British and French
Mexican War of Independence rule until the Hidalgo revolt of 1810. Elites in Mexico City in the seventeenth century did force the removal of a reformist viceroy, the Marqués de Gelves, following an urban riot in 1624 fomented by those elites. He attempted to eliminate corrupt practices by creole elites as well as rein in the opulent displays of the clergy's power, but ecclesiastical authorities in conjunction with creole elites mobilized urban plebeians to oust the viceroy. The crowd was reported to shout, "Long live the King! Love live Christ! Death to bad government! Death to the heretic Lutheran [Viceroy Gelves]! Arrest the viceroy!"