ce, is, that the revolution-except in its external symbolic independence of the king- was interesting and intelligible only to the Argentine cities, but foreign and unmeaning to the rural districts.Outside the cities, the revolution was problematical affair, and so far as shaking off the kings authority was shaking off the judicial authority, it was acceptable. The pastoral could only regard the question from this point of view" (Sarmiento, 56-7). "The contradiction that produced the explosion of revolutionary insurgence originated not from the base of society but from its summit: the schism between criollos and Spaniards. The inferior status of the criollos -in politics, the administration, and the military, not in the sphere of wealth - did not conform to the status of the kingdom of New Spain within the empire. New Spain was a kingdom like no other kingdoms, but the criollos were not treated as equal to their kinsmen born in Spain. This allied to the revolt of the landless peasants was the cause of the wars of independence" (Paz, 17) "In the economic sphere, Spain removed from Mexico more riches than she returned" " (Paz,17).Nationalism: "New Spain is a good example of this common place: from within the bosom of a vast philosophical, political, and religious universalism - imperial Spain- emerged the criollo sense of a distinct identity that evolved into Mexican nationalism." (Paz, 30)....
