The outbreak of the U. Living in Havana, Cuba, the deposed caudillo devised a plan that would allow him to return to Mexico and reclaim his former position as the illustrious hero of the nation. At the same time, he sent an emissary to Washington to assure the Polk administration that, if granted safe passage through the U. Accordingly, Santa Anna arrived in Vera Cruz in August , whereupon he disavowed the agreement with Washington and promptly set about to organize the war effort against the United States.
As in the Texas campaign a decade earlier, Santa Anna assumed complete control over military operations, commanding Mexican troops against Zachary Taylor's army in the North at Buena Vista Angostura , and then in the South, as Winfield Scott marched toward the capital. After the fall of Mexico City, Santa Anna resigned, and would spend the next five years in exile.
Invited to return in , the caudillo once again used his support among the nation's military elite to impose authoritarian rule upon Mexico's competing political factions. Impoverished, he was allowed to return to Mexico in , and died in Mexico City two years later. Mexican historians, to a large extent, have reviled him as a corrupt, self-aggrandizing leader who deserves much of the blame for the many problems which beset the republic during its early national period.
Moreover, they have accused him of betraying the homeland for surrendering large swaths of territory to the United States. American historians have tended to adopt a similarly negative view, while focusing their attention on his military failures in the Texas campaign and the war against the United States a decade later.
Recent studies, however, have tended to take a more balanced, nuanced interpretation, recognizing both the caudillo's limitations and the manifest challenges--regionalism, factionalism, racial and caste tensions, to name only a few--which Mexico experienced in the years after Spanish imperial rule. Brunk, Samuel, and Ben Fallaw. Heroes and Hero Cults in Latin America.
Austin: University of Texas Press, His banishment following his last stint as dictator brought the former Mexican leader to an unlikely location—the future New York City borough of Staten Island. After Santa Anna met with U.
After spending years on Staten Island, Santa Anna returned to Mexico shortly before his death in During his forced retirement in Staten Island, Santa Anna imported a chewy, rubber-like substance harvested from Mexican sapodilla trees—chicle.
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Live TV. One guaranteed that Mexican troops would be permanently withdrawn. The other--not made public at the time--specified that Santa Anna would work for Mexican recognition of the Republic of Texas in exchange for safe transport back to Veracruz.
These activities were deeply unpopular in Mexico; the episode was the most serious setback of his career. Upon his release, he resigned as president and retired to Manga de Clavo in disgrace. In Mexico, Santa Anna was widely considered a traitor. Santa Anna was considered the only man who could successfully defend his country against this invasion. Initially surprised by the French invasion, Santa Anna rallied his troops, routed the French, and pursued them to the harbor.
There the French fired a cannon loaded with shrapnel, shattering his lower left leg, which was amputated below the knee. Santa Anna's convalescence was interrupted by a call to serve as interim president while President Bustamante attended to ongoing revolts.
When Bustamante's efforts faltered, Santa Anna himself returned to the battlefield, directing operations from a litter. In the victory that followed, Santa Anna's popularity eclipsed that of Bustamante, and in October , he was once again elected president.
This time his government lasted until He raised revenue by taxation but spent lavishly on festivals and a private army.
In March he again resumed the executive and ruled until July He apparently began to see the possibilities of a monarchy as the solution to Mexico's problems. Mexico's first railroad was built during these years, the country's currency was revamped, and harmonious foreign relations were maintained.
But Santa Anna's administration was a dictatorship. He developed a new constitution that concentrated power in his own hands and insured the ascendancy of the wealthiest. He strengthened the army and the central bureaucracy, filled political positions with corrupt friends and financed it all through forced domestic loans and foreign borrowing.
In keeping with his propensity for self-aggrandizement, he filled Mexico City with statues of himself; the ,peso theater in Mexico City was called the Gran Teatro de Santa Anna. The small presidential bodyguard was expanded to people. His saint's day was declared a national holiday, and he signed his letters, "Santa Anna, Savior of the Fatherland.
Local officials studied his model and also enriched themselves. Often clever but never wise, he set an example of dishonesty, deception, and complete failure to adhere to any set of principles. In , Santa Anna's wife, Ines--whom he had long neglected in favor of a succession of young mistresses--died of pneumonia. A few months later, the year-old Santa Anna shocked the nation by announcing his intention to marry year-old Maria Dolores de Tosta.
His unpopular marriage was the last straw. When his former ally led an army to the capital in December of , Santa Anna was unable to raise troops adequate to his needs, and he fled. He was captured and imprisoned by Indians who, in an attempt at macabre humor, asked the new government if it would like him delivered as a tamale, cooked and wrapped in banana leaves.
His enemies decided not to put him on trial, and he was exiled to Havana, Cuba. The year following Santa Anna's exile was a chaotic one in Mexico.
Among other problems, the United States--having earned Mexico's enmity by annexing Texas--declared war. Armies of invasion challenged Mexican defenses. This military emergency brought Santa Anna to the forefront of Mexican political affairs once again. In order to accept command of Mexico's military forces, Santa Anna needed to cross the U.
Negotiating with emissaries sent to Havana by U. President James Polk, he agreed to make every effort to conclude the war on terms favorable to the United States in return for his safe passage across the blockade.
Once on Mexican soil, he forgot his promises. In the war, Santa Anna's army suffered defeat repeatedly--owing in part to Santa Anna's incompetence and in part to internal quarrels—at the hands of General Winfield Scott, who advanced on Mexico City. Santa Anna attempted to negotiate for peace, but was blocked by his Congress, which declared that treating with the enemy constituted treason.
Scott captured Mexico City on September 14,
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