Santa Anna, Antonio López de, 1794-1876

Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón (21 February 1794 – 21 June 1876), often known as Santa Anna, was a Mexican general, politician, and caudillo who served as the eighth president of Mexico on multiple occasions between 1833 and 1855. A controversial and pivotal figure in Mexican politics during the 19th century, he has been called an "uncrowned monarch" by some historians who refer to the 30 years after Mexico's independence as the "Age of Santa Anna." Santa Anna is often remembered in Mexico as a vendepatria due to the loss of Mexican territory to the United States during his rule. During the Mexican War of Independence (1810-1821), Santa Anna fought as a royalist officer for over a decade before switching sides to join the insurgency in 1821. He then led a garrison in Veracruz until the final insurgent victory on September 27, 1821. He played a major role in the rise and fall of both the First Mexican Empire and the First Mexican Republic. His long career spanned the Texas Revolution, Pastry War, and the Mexican–American War, as well as the creation of the Centralist Republic of Mexico through the Siete Leyes in 1835 and later, the Bases Orgánicas, which came into effect in 1843. Throughout his career, Santa Anna frequently switched sides, a pattern that began in the War of Independence and continuously in political conflicts between liberal and conservative factions within Mexico's government. He was instrumental in discarding the liberal Constitution of 1824 in 1835, and in restoring it in 1847. Santa Anna was elected President as a liberal in 1833 and again in 1847, sharing power with the liberal Vice President, Valentín Gómez Farías. In both instances, once in power, Santa Anna switched sides in favor of conservatives and overthrew Farías. Santa Anna was known for his ostentatious and dictatorial style of rule and use of the military to dissolve Mexico's Congress on several occasions. Later in his career, he referred to himself by the honorific title, His Most Serene Highness. Santa Anna's intermittent periods of rule lasted from 1832 to 1855 in which Mexico experienced the loss of Texas, a series of military conflicts during the Mexican–American War, and the Mexican Cession. Santa Anna's leadership during the Mexican-American war and his willingness to fight to the bitter end, prolonged the conflict with historians noting that "more than any other single person it was Santa Anna who denied Polk's dream of a short war." Six years after the war ended, Santa Anna ceded Mexican territory to the United States through the Gadsden Purchase in 1854. In 1855 while serving as President of Mexico, Santa Anna, removed from office by the Plan of Ayutla, went into exile. In 1874, an elderly Santa Anna was allowed to return to Mexico by then President Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada. In 1876, Santa Anna died in Mexico City.