Agustín de Iturbide

Agustín de Iturbide
Primitivo Miranda · Public domain · source
Name	Agustín de Iturbide
Birth date	27 September 1783
Birth place	Valladolid, New Spain
Death date	19 July 1824
Death place	Padilla, Tamaulipas, Mexico
Nationality	Spanish, Mexican
Occupation	Soldier, politician
Known for	Proclamation of the Plan of Iguala, Emperor of Mexico

Agustín de Iturbide was a Mexican army officer and politician who played a central role in the final phase of the Mexican War of Independence and briefly became Emperor of Mexico. A conservative Creole landowner and veteran of the Spanish colonial forces, he negotiated a coalition that included royalist troops and insurgent leaders, proclaimed the Plan of Iguala, and secured independence with the signing of the Treaty of Córdoba. His short-lived imperial rule provoked intense rivalries involving leading figures of the independence era and left a contested legacy shaping early Mexicoan state formation.

Early life and military career

Born in Valladolid, Michoacán within New Spain, he was member of a Creole family tied to local elites and to institutions such as the Spanish Army and parish networks of Roman Catholicism. He served in the provincial militia and saw action against criminal bands as well as during the War of the Pyrenees era geopolitics that affected Spanish imperial defense. Assigned to garrisons in Guadalajara, Mexico City, and frontier posts, he participated in operations near Veracruz, Puebla de Zaragoza, and along routes connecting to Oaxaca and Tlaxcala. His early career intersected with figures including Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, José María Morelos, and royalist commanders in the wake of the Napoleonic invasion of Spain and the crisis of the Cortes of Cádiz.

Role in Mexican independence

As strategic opportunities shifted after the 1820 liberal revolution in Spain led by Riego and the restoration of the Constitution of 1812, he maneuvered between royalist loyalty and creole interests in cities like Querétaro and Toluca. In 1821 he negotiated with insurgent leader Vicente Guerrero and with conservative elites to produce the Plan of Iguala, which proposed union under the "three guarantees": independence, Roman Catholicism, and unity. The Plan attracted endorsements from elites, clergy, and military leaders across provinces including Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, and Colima. He then secured recognition from the exiled Spanish viceroyalty via envoys and arranged the entry of the Army of the Three Guarantees into Mexico City alongside delegations from Guerrero, Iturbide's allied royalist generals, and municipal cabildos debating options such as a constitutional monarchy or republicanism. The Treaty of Córdoba, signed by representatives of the former viceroy and the independence coalition, formalized terms that echoed treaties like the Treaty of Paris in procedural form even as Spanish Crown reaction remained hostile in Madrid.

First Mexican Empire and reign as Emperor

Following independence, the newly sovereign entities convened councils and cabildos of leading families, military officers, and clergy who sought legitimacy by offering a European monarch or a domestic ruler. Supported by conservative factions in Veracruz and Mexico City and by political actors influenced by models from France, Spain, and the Holy Alliance, he accepted acclamation as head of state and was crowned in an imperial ceremony invoking Roman Catholicism and monarchical symbolism. His reign attempted to stabilize finances through negotiations with creditors in Londres and fiscal measures touching landowners in Morelos and miners in Guanajuato. Political fractures emerged with lawmakers aligned with Guadalupe Victoria, Vicente Guerrero, Lucas Alamán, and provincial juntas in Chihuahua, Yucatán, and Nuevo León pressing for federal or republican alternatives. Military dissent included officers influenced by revolutionary precedents such as Simón Bolívar and observers from Buenos Aires and Havana.

Abdication, exile, and return

Facing mounting opposition, shortages of revenue, and conspiracies involving proponents of the Constitution of 1824, he abdicated under pressure after uprisings led by figures like Antonio López de Santa Anna and Guadalupe Victoria. He departed into exile headed for Livorno and other ports of the Mediterranean region, seeking asylum and negotiating with European courts including contacts in Rome and London. While abroad he observed political shifts in Madrid and in Latin American states such as Colombia, Peru, and Argentina, and he attempted to maintain influence through correspondents in Puebla and among émigrés in New Orleans. His return to Mexico in 1824, prompted by changing political calculations and assurances he misread from liberal leaders, led to immediate arrest upon landing at Padilla.

Trial, execution, and legacy

Tried by a military tribunal influenced by the Congress of 1824 and Republican hardliners who invoked statutes concerning former heads of state, he was sentenced to death. His execution at Padilla, Tamaulipas in July 1824 reverberated across political networks from Mexico City to provincial capitals, prompting debates among intellectuals, clergy, and diplomats in Havana and Philadelphia. His supporters, including monarchical sympathizers and some clerical authorities, later sought rehabilitation through petitions to successive administrations and through works by historians and journalists in publications in Madrid, Lima, and Mexico City. Long-term assessments link his role to the emergence of Mexicoan institutions such as the Constitution of 1824 and to political actors like Antonio López de Santa Anna, Guadalupe Victoria, and Lucas Alamán who shaped the republic. His image has been commemorated and contested in monuments, biographies, and debates involving historiography in institutions like the National Autonomous University of Mexico and archives in the Archivo General de la Nación.

Category:Mexican heads of state