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LATIN AMERICA after INDEPENDENCE (2 of 5)

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
in middle age

In 1820, following the liberal uprising that drove Ferdinand VII from power in Spain, conservatives in Mexico broke with Spanish authority and moved toward independence. Their leader was a Criollo military officer, Agustín de Iturbide, who, on February 24, 1821, launched the Plan of Iguala. Under this plan, the Criollos and resident Spaniards in Mexico (the Gauchupines) were to be equal in rights and Mexico was to be a constitutional monarchy; Mexico was to be officially Roman Catholic and the Church was to maintain its traditional powers; Mexicans were to have freedom to worship as they pleased; and military commanders were to order no capital punishment against "an accused person."

An attempt was made to establish a broadly based independence, and so the two most prominent revolutionaries, viewed as leaders of common folk, were invited to join as subordinates. The two outstanding revolutionist leaders still surviving were the Criollo Guadalupe Victoria (whose real name was Manuel Félix Fernández), who had been holding out in a cave near Puebla, and Vicente Guerrero, an uneducated mestizo who had been protected by the rugged mountains around Oaxaca. Both were future presidents.

Conservative and moderates associated republicanism with radicals and the bloodshed of the French Revolution, and they favored a monarch from an internationally recognized royal family. Iturbide invited Spain's deposed king, Ferdinand, to be Mexico's king, or any prince whom Ferdinand would suggest in his place. But Ferdinand was not interested. And no prince came in his stead. So it was Iturbide, considered the father of independent Mexico, who became monarch, on May 21, 1822 -- declared so by a National Constituent Congress that had been created two months before. And Agustín de Iturbide was crowned with Church ritual on July 25, 1822, Iturbide taking the title of Emperor Agustín I.

The liberal government in Spain had signed a treaty recognizing Mexico's independence, on August 24, 1821 -- the Treaty of Cordoba. But unofficially the Spanish did not yet fully accept Mexico as independent.

With Mexico, Central America had been a part of New Spain, and it split from Mexico and acquired independence. Between 1825 and 1838 it formed what was called the United Provinces of Central America. Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras would become sovereign republics in 1838, with British settlers still on the eastern coast of Honduras, at Belize. El Salvador and Guatemala would become independent republics in 1839.

Constitutional Government in Mexico

Mexicans were blissful about independence. They were expecting prosperity. Instead there was a rise in prices and stagnation. In fact, the economy of Mexico (with other Spanish colonies on the American mainland) had been stagnate since the early 1700s. Britain's colonies since 1700 had been growing at a rate of 0.5 percent per year. Mexico in the 1700s had been exporting a lot of silver to Spain, and Spain had been drawing taxes from Mexico to meet its own needs, while Mexicans had little wealth left over to invest in their own growth. By 1800 the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Mexico divided by its population was $40. The per capita GDP in the United States, soon to be a rival power, was twice that and continuing to grow. [note]

Mexico was handicapped by its colonial past, and it was short of fertile land. Much of Mexico was mountainous, and much was desert. What it needed now was development of what agriculture potential it had, and cheaper food for consumers, leaving them with money to buy greater variety -- in other words, an advance in the market economy and more purchasing power for Mexico's hardworking multitude. Mexico also needed peace, stability and confidence that investing in growth would produce benefits. It needed better roads for transporting goods. It needed freedom from the huge debt that the Spaniards had left behind for the government in Mexico City. And Mexico needed more wealth for government in the form of revenues from modest taxation.

Emperor Iturbide's government had too little money, and a convenient way for him to raise money (and to reward followers) was to sell commissions in the army. Congress was also short of money, and it left the army starved for funds.

Iturbide could not get legislation passed as congressmen quibbled over procedural matters. Iturbide quarreled with Congress and he learned of a move within Congress to strip him of his power and to proclaim a republic. Iturbide learned of this and had sixty-six arrested. On October 31, 1822, Iturbide ordered his army to dissolve Congress, and he replaced Congress with a junta packed with his supporters.

Most of those who had been arrested by Emperor Iturbide were free again by December. And it was in December that a young and ambitious Criollo military commander in the province of Vera Cruz, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, led a revolt against Iturbide. Santa Anna had begun his career at age eighteen as a junior officer in Spain's army of occupation. He had continued losing money at gambling and had managed to stave off debt collectors by less than honest means. He had another weakness: an admiration of a man most triumphant in glory and power -- Napoleon Bonaparte. Santa Anna combed his hair as he imagined Bonaparte combed his, and he enjoyed riding a white horse.

Santa Anna had gone over to the side of revolution not out of conviction; he had switched sides when it was opportune to do so. Emperor Iturbide had seen Santa Anna for what he was -- extremely ambitious -- including the courtship of a woman more than thirty years his senior: Iturbide's sister. After Santa Anna was aware that he was out of favor with the emperor, he moved against him. He joined his army with others who wanted a republic, led by Guadalupe Victoria. This was a force that attracted Mexico's other anti-Iturbide military commanders to the extent that they forced Iturbide into exile, to Britain -- Iturbide leaving behind a large government debt piled upon the debt left behind by the Spaniards.

In Mexico City, on December 6, 1822, a republic was proclaimed. Congress was reconvened and worked toward the creation of a federalist constitution modeled after the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution of 1824 proclaimed "The United Mexican States" a federated republic, with federal powers divided between its legislature, executive and judiciary. The executive (president) was to serve a four-year term without succession. Congressmen were to be elected every other year, and states were to establish requirements for voting.

Congress declared Iturbide a traitor and an outlaw and forbade his return to Mexico. Iturbide did not learn of this, and when he sailed back to Mexico in 1824 he was arrested as he landed, and he was shot a few days later -- on July 19.

Santa Anna was living comfortably as a prestigious and popular military commander at the age of thirty-one, and he married a fourteen-year-old Gauchupina with a moderate-sized dowry. Guadalupe Victoria became President of Mexico on October 1824, under the new constitution, which stipulated four-year presidential terms.

President Victoria was on the liberal side of the political spectrum, favoring increases in social justice, freedom of the press and other reforms. For the sake of balance and to appease conservatives a conservative had been made vice president. This was Nicolás Bravo, who, with conservative allies, attempted a coup in December, 1825. The rising was easily crushed, and President Victoria served out his four-year term, the only Mexican president to do so in the coming forty years.