Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón, usually known as Antonio López de Santa Anna (Spanish pronunciation: [anˈtonjo ˈlopes ðe sanˈtana]; 21 February 1794 – 21 June 1876),[1] or just Santa Anna,[2] was a Mexican soldier, politician, and caudillo[3] who served as the 8th president of Mexico multiple times between 1833 and 1855. He also served as Vice President of Mexico from 1837 to 1839. He was a controversial and pivotal figure in Mexican politics during the 19th century, to the point that he has been called an "uncrowned monarch",[4] and historians often refer to the three decades after Mexican independence as the "Age of Santa Anna".[5]
Santa Anna was in charge of the garrison at Veracruz at the time Mexico won independence in 1821. He would go on to play a notable role in the fall of the First Mexican Empire, the fall of the First Mexican Republic, the promulgation of the Constitution of 1835, the establishment of the Centralist Republic of Mexico, the Texas Revolution, the Pastry War, the promulgation of the Constitution of 1843, and the Mexican–American War. He became well known in the United States due to his role in the Texas Revolution and in the Mexican–American War.
Throughout his political career, Santa Anna was known for switching sides in the recurring conflict between the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party. He managed to play a prominent role in both discarding the liberal Constitution of 1824 in 1835 and in restoring it in 1847. He came to power as a liberal twice in 1832 and in 1847 respectively, both times sharing power with the liberal statesman Valentín Gómez Farías, and both times Santa Anna overthrew Gómez Farías after switching sides to the conservatives. Santa Anna was also known for his ostentatious and dictatorial style of rule, making use of the military to dissolve Congress multiple times and referring to himself by the honorific title of His Most Serene Highness.
His intermittent periods of rule, which lasted from 1832 to 1853, witnessed the loss of Texas, a series of military failures during the Mexican–American War, and the ensuing Mexican Cession. His leadership in the war and his willingness to fight to the bitter end prolonged that conflict: "more than any other single person it was Santa Anna who denied Polk's dream of a short war."[6] Even after the war was over, Santa Anna continued to cede national territory to the Americans through the Gadsden Purchase in 1853.
After he was overthrown and exiled in 1855 through the liberal Plan of Ayutla, Santa Anna began to fade into the background in Mexican politics even as the nation entered the decisive period of the Reform War, the Second French Intervention in Mexico, and the establishment of the Second Mexican Empire. An elderly Santa Anna was allowed to return to the nation by President Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada in 1874, and he died in relative obscurity in 1876.
Historians debate the exact number of his presidencies, as he would often share power and make use of puppet rulers; biographer Will Fowler gives the figure of six terms[7] while the Texas State Historical Association claims five.[1] Historian of Latin America, Alexander Dawson counts eleven times that Santa Anna assumed the presidency, often for short periods.[8] The University of Texas Libraries cites the same figure of eleven times, but adds Santa Anna was only president for six years due to short terms.[9]
Santa Anna's legacy has subsequently come to be viewed as profoundly negative, with historians and many Mexicans ranking him as "the principal inhabitant even today of Mexico's black pantheon of those who failed the nation".[10] He is considered one of the most unpopular and controversial Mexican presidents of the 19th century.
Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón was born in Xalapa, Veracruz, Nueva España (New Spain), on 21 February 1794 into a respected Spanish family. He was named after his father, licenciado Antonio López de Santa Anna y Pérez (born 1761), a university graduate and a lawyer; his mother was Manuela Pérez de Lebrón y Cortés (died 1814).[11]
Santa Anna's family prospered in Veracruz, where the merchant class dominated politics. His paternal uncle, Ángel López de Santa Anna, was a public clerk (escribano) and became aggrieved when the town council of Veracruz prevented him from moving to Mexico City to advance his career. Since the late 18th-century Bourbon Reforms, the Spanish crown had favored peninsular-born Spaniards over American-born; young Santa Anna's family was affected by the growing disgruntlement of creoles whose upward mobility was thwarted.[12][13]
Santa Anna's mother favored her son's choice of a military career, supporting his desire to join the Spanish Army, rather than be a shopkeeper as his father preferred. His mother's friendly relationship with the intendant (governor) of Veracruz secured Santa Anna's military appointment despite the fact that he was underage. His parents' marriage produced seven children, four sisters and two brothers, and Santa Anna was close to his sister Francisca and brother Manuel, who also joined the army.[14]
Santa Anna's origins on Mexico's eastern coast had important ramifications for his military career, as he had developed immunity from yellow fever, endemic to the region. The port of Veracruz and environs were known to be unhealthy for those not native to the region,[15][16] so he had a personal strategic advantage against military officers from elsewhere. Being an officer in a time of war was a way that a provincial, middle-class man could vault from obscurity to a position of leadership. Santa Anna distinguished himself in battle, a path that led him to a national political career.[17]
Santa Anna's provincial origins made him uncomfortable in the halls of power in Mexico City, which were dominated by cliques of elite men, and thus he frequently made retreats to his base in Veracruz. He cultivated contact with ordinary Mexican men and pursued entertainments such as cockfighting. Over his career, Santa Anna was a populist caudillo, a strongman wielding both military and political power, similar to others who emerged in the wake of Spanish American wars of independence.[18]
Santa Anna's early military career during the Mexican War of Independence, which entailed fighting the insurgency before switching sides against the crown, presaged his many shifts in allegiance during his later political career. In June 1810, the 16-year-old Santa Anna joined the Fijo de Veracruz infantry regiment.[19] In September of that year, secular cleric Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla sparked a spontaneous mass uprising in the Bajío, Mexico's rich agricultural area. Although some creole elites had chafed as their upward mobility had been thwarted by the Bourbon Reforms, the Hidalgo Revolt saw most creoles favoring continued crown rule. In particular, Santa Anna's family "saw themselves as aligned to the peninsular elite, whom they served, and were in turn recognized as belonging".[20]
Initially Santa Anna, like most creole military officers, fought for the crown against the mixed-raced insurgents for independence; his commanding officer was Colonel José Joaquín de Arredondo. In 1811 he was wounded in the left hand by an arrow while fighting in the town of Amoladeras, in the intendancy (administrative district) of San Luis Potosí. In 1813 he served in Texas against the Gutiérrez–Magee Expedition and at the Battle of Medina, in which he was cited for bravery. Santa Anna was promoted quickly; he became a second lieutenant in February 1812 and first lieutenant before the end of that year. During the initial rebellion, the young officer witnessed Arredondo's fierce counterinsurgency policy of mass executions. The early fighting against the rebels gave way to guerrilla warfare and a military stalemate.[21]
When royalist officer Agustín de Iturbide switched sides in 1821 and allied with insurgent Vicente Guerrero, fighting for independence under the Plan of Iguala, Santa Anna also joined the fight for independence. Political developments in Spain, where liberals had ousted King Ferdinand VII and began implementing the Spanish liberal constitution of 1812, made many elites in Mexico reconsider their options.[22]
Iturbide, now Emperor Augustin I, rewarded Santa Anna with the command of the vital port of Veracruz, the gateway from the Gulf of Mexico to the rest of the nation and site of a customs house. However, Iturbide subsequently removed Santa Anna from the post, prompting Santa Anna to rise in rebellion in December 1822 against Iturbide. He already had significant power in his home region of Veracruz, and "he was well along the path to becoming the regional caudillo."[23] Santa Anna claimed in his Plan of Veracruz that he rebelled because Iturbide had dissolved the Constituent Congress. He also promised to support free trade with Spain, an important principle for his home region of Veracruz.[24][25]
Although Santa Anna's initial rebellion was important, Iturbide had loyal military men who were able to hold their own against the rebels in Veracruz. However, former insurgent leaders Guerrero and Nicolás Bravo, who had supported Iturbide's Plan de Iguala, returned to their base in southern Mexico and raised a rebellion against Iturbide. The commander of imperial forces in Veracruz, who had fought against the rebels, changed sides and joined the rebels. The new coalition proclaimed the Plan of Casa Mata, which called for the end of the monarchy, restoration of the Constituent Congress, and creation of a republic and a federal system.[26]
No longer the main player in the movement against Iturbide or the creation of new political arrangements, Santa Anna sought to regain his position as a leader and marched forces to Tampico, then to San Luis Potosí, proclaiming his role as the "protector of the federation". Representatives from San Luis Potosí and other north-central regions, such as Michoacán, Querétaro, and Guanajuato, met to decide their own position towards the federation. Santa Anna pledged his military forces to the protection of these key areas. "He attempted, in other words, to co-opt the movement, the first of many examples in his long career where he placed himself as the head of a generalized movement so it would become an instrument of his advancement."[27]
In May 1823, following Iturbide's abdication as emperor in March, Santa Anna was sent to command in Yucatán. At the time, Yucatán's capital of Mérida and the port city of Campeche were in conflict. Yucatán's closest trade partner was Cuba, a Spanish colony. Santa Anna took it upon himself to plan a landing force from Yucatán in Cuba, which he envisioned would result in Cuban colonists welcoming their "liberators", most especially himself. One thousand Mexicans were already on ships to sail to Cuba when word came that the Spanish were reinfor