page_title: Agustín de Iturbide
section_title: Iturbide's role in history
hierarchical_section_title: Agustín de Iturbide / Iturbide's role in history
caption_attribution_description: Español: Retrato de Agustín de Iturbide (1783-1824)
context_page_description: Agustín de Iturbide, in full Agustín Cosme Damián de Iturbide y Arámburu, also known as Augustine of Mexico, was a Mexican army general and politician. During the Mexican War of Independence, he built a successful political and military coalition that took control in Mexico City on 27 September 1821, decisively gaining independence for Mexico. After the secession of Mexico was secured, he was proclaimed President of the Regency in 1821. A year later, he was announced as the Constitutional Emperor of Mexico, reigning briefly from 19 May 1822 to 19 March 1823. In May 1823 he went into exile in Europe. He returned to Mexico in July 1824, when he was arrested and executed. He is credited as the original designer of the first Mexican flag.
context_section_description: While Iturbide's reign lasted less than a year, it was the result of and further defined the struggle between republican and traditional ideals, not only in Mexico, but also in Europe. For a number of Mexican autonomists, a constitutionally sanctioned monarchy seemed a logical solution to the problem of creating a new state as it seemed to be a compromise between those who pushed for a representative form of government and those who wished to keep Mexico's monarchist traditions. One must keep in mind that a Republican, Federalist government was virtually unheard of, and that for 300 years New Spain had lived in a monarchy. When things are viewed in this light, historian Eric Van Young states that Iturbide's seizure of the crown "seems less cynical and idiosyncratic when it comes along at the end of the independence struggle." However, the rest of the 19th century would be marked by oscillation between the two political extremes, with each side gaining the upper hand at one point or another. The old Mexican nobility kept their titles and coats-of-arms close at hand, ready for a return. Members of the Iturbide family intrigued against the Mexican government in Madrid, New York City, Paris, and Rome as late as the 1890s.
  Liberal or republican ideas were and would continue to be embraced by creoles outside the Mexico City elite. These came out of Bourbon reforms in Europe that were based on the Enlightenment. Attacks on the Church by liberals in Spain and elsewhere in Europe would be repeated in Mexico during the La Reforma period. Ideals of the Constitution of Cadiz would find expression in the 1824 Constitution of Mexico.  This constitution would influence political thought on both sides of the Mexican political spectrum, with even Iturbide bending to it when he created the first congress of an independent Mexico. After Iturbide, there was wide general consensus, even among the landed elite, that some form of representative government was needed. The question was how much power would be in legislative hands and how much in an executive.
  Iturbide's empire was replaced with the First Republic. Guadalupe Victoria was elected as the first president, but in subsequent years, Vicente Guerrero became the first in a long line of Presidents to gain the Presidency through a military revolt after losing an election. Guerrero was betrayed and assassinated, and Santa Anna would rise to avenge him, beginning the era of Mexican History that Santa Anna so clearly dominated. This regime would oscillate and finally be overcome by the Plan of Ayutla. The new Government would struggle between anti-clerical, reformist views and conservative views during the Reform War. During the French Intervention the country would face Civil War amongst conservative, Catholic, Europe-adherent monarchists led by the ironically liberal Maximilian I of México,  and liberal, masonic, anti-clerical, reformist and United States-adherent liberals led by the American-backed Benito Juárez. Having prevailed, Juárez died after 15 years of forcefully remaining as president. Porfirio Díaz in the late 19th century would install a one-man rule which imposed upon México its first true period of relative peace, in exchange for freedom, and Díaz remaining for the next 30 years in power. He would be overthrown with the Mexican Revolution.
caption: Agustín de Iturbide (1783-1824).
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