ruled as a dictator, suppressing opposition
newspapers and menacing political oppo-
nents with military force. Numerous
uprisings were launched against him,
until forces led by General Antonio
López de Santa Anna (1794–1876) com-
pelled him to flee into exile in 1832.
Santa Anna was an amazing figure of
Mexico’s early history—amazing for the
ease with which he switched sides to gain
advantage, and even more so for his
resilience in coming back time and again
as Mexico’s leader no matter how thor-
oughly he had been rejected before. On
11 different occasions from 1833 to 1855,
he was Mexico’s chief executive. He was a
talented military leader who had fought at
various times for royalists, independence
forces, federalists, and centralists. He
dominated Mexican politics in the era in
which Mexico lost the Far North.
Santa Anna came to national promi-
nence in Mexico in 1829 by orchestrating
the defeat of Spanish invaders at the
Battle of Tampico, halting a short-lived
Spanish attempt to retake Mexico in the
wake of Bustamante’s exile. Elected to the
presidency of Mexico in 1833 in the wake
of this victory, the vain Santa Anna
became quickly dissatisfied with the lim-
its of the office when his vice president
led a wave of liberal reform through the
national and state legislatures. Backed by
the centralists, Santa Anna assumedabsolute power as dictator in 1834 and
revoked the new reforms. Two years later,
in 1836, a new conservative Congress
formally replaced the federalist
Constitution of 1824 with the centralist
Constitution of 1836. By this time Texas
was in revolt and moving swiftly toward
independence. As will be discussed, Santa
Anna’s turbulent rule would would speed
the process.Turmoil in
Hispanic AmericaMexico’s experience of bloody political
turmoil was all too common in Hispanic
America, not only in the years right after
independence but throughout the nearly
two centuries since. Revolutions, coups,
uprisings, civil wars, factional fighting,
periods of rule by a dictator or junta (a
small group of military officers), persistent
wars with neighbors—all have been
perennial features of Latin American his-
tory. Recent decades have seen stable
democratic rule established in most Latin
American countries, but the danger of
renewed violence remains present in
many places.
In the early years of Hispanic
America, this violence was accompanied
by the disintegration of several large
states. Gran Colombia, founded by82 ATLAS OF HISPANIC-AMERICAN HISTORY
Nicolas Bravo (Library of Congress) Antonio López de Santa Anna (Library of
Congress)