Agustín de Iturbide

Agustín Cosme Damián de Iturbide y Arámburu (; 27 September 178319 July 1824), commonly known as Agustín de Iturbide and later by his regnal name Agustín I, was the first Emperor of Mexico from 1822 until his abdication in 1823.

A criollo from a family of Valladoid's landed gentry, Iturbide entered the royal Spanish army in 1805 and became one of the most important commanders in the Mexican War of Independence, repeatedly defeating the insurgent forces from 1810 to 1815, culminating in the capture and execution of José María Morelos in 1815. He was dismissed from command in 1816 for corruption and cruelty towards the insurgent forces, but was reinstated in 1820 to defeat Vicente Guerrero. However, fearing the onset of republicanism following Spain's restoration of the liberal constitution of 1812, Iturbide allied with the insurgents under the plan of Iguala of 1821, which aimed to turn Mexico in a monarchy, with Roman Catholicism as its official religion and the abolition of the racial caste system and slavery. The new Army of the Three Guarantees quickly defeated the Spanish forces, and on 27 September 1821 Iturbide marched into Mexico City; the next day, Mexico was proclaimed an independent empire.

Iturbide was proclaimed president of the Regency in 1821. The refusal by Ferdinand VII of Spain to accept the Mexican crown paved the way for Iturbide to assume the mantle of emperor on 21 July 1822. His reign was turbulent, characterized by the political conflict with former insurgents, progressives and loyalists to Ferdinand VII, economic troubles and fears of a Spanish invasion. His dissolution of Congress on 31 October 1822 precipitated a military revolt in December led by Antonio López de Santa Anna, Guadalupe Victoria and Guerrero. With his forces defecting to the rebels, Iturbide decided to abdicate on 19 March 1823. In May 1823 he went into exile in Europe. When he returned to Mexico in July 1824, he was arrested and executed.

Family and early life

Agustín Cosme Damián de Iturbide y Arámburu was born in what was then called Valladolid, now Morelia, the provincial capital of Michoacán, on 27 September 1783. He was baptized with the names of Saints Augustine, Cosmas, and Damian at the cathedral. The fifth child born to his parents, he was the only male to survive and eventually became head of the family. Iturbide's parents were part of the privileged landed class of Valladolid, owning agricultural land In the Spanish colonial era, racial caste was important to advancement, including military rank, and having some indigenous ancestry was often regarded as a disadvantage. Iturbide insisted throughout his life that he was criollo (native born of Spanish descent).

Agustín studied at the Catholic seminary called Colegio de San Nicolás in Valladolid, enrolled in the program for secular officials, though he was not a distinguished student. In 1806, he was promoted to full lieutenant. Iturbide had a longstanding friendship and had business dealings with the wealthy Mexico City beauty María Ignacia Rodríguez, known as La Güera Rodríguez ("Rodríguez the Fair"), who supported the insurgency for independence.

Military career

In the early 19th century, there was political unrest in New Spain. One of Iturbide's first military campaigns was to help put down a mutiny, headed by Gabriel J. de Yermo.

He quickly grew in popularity amongst the royalists, whilst becoming a feared foe for the Insurgents. A peerless horseman and a valiant dragoon who acquired a reputation for achieving victory against numerical odds, his prowess in the field gained him the nom de guerre of "El Dragón de Hierro" or "The Iron Dragon", in reference to his skill and position in the army. He was given an important charge in the army. However, he was accused by locals of using his authority for financial gain although he was recognized as valiant in combat. It is known by his and Hidalgo's documents that he was a distant relative of Miguel Hidalgo, the initial leader of the Insurgent Army. Hidalgo wrote to Iturbide, offering him a higher rank in his army. Iturbide writes in his memoirs that he considered the offer, but that ultimately turned it down because he considered Hidalgo's uprising ill-executed and his methods barbaric.

Combating insurgency

1810–1816

thumb|left|250px|Iturbide

After the outbreak of the War of Independence in 1810, leader of the insurgency, Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, offered Iturbide the rank of lieutenant general in the insurgent forces, which Iturbide rejected, remaining firmly a royal army officer at the outbreak of the war. From the start, Iturbide was ambitious and compiled a brilliant record of victories against the insurgents, often against far larger numbers. He was also well known by contemporaries of all factions for his cruelty against his opponents, the insurgents themselves as well as their families, including women and children.

One of Agustín's first encounters with the rebel army was in the Toluca Valley in 1810 as it advanced toward Mexico City from Valladolid. Royalist and rebel forces engaged on the east bank of the Lerma River at the end of October in what is now known as the Battle of Monte de las Cruces. Royalist forces, under the command of Colonel Torcuato Trujillo, withdrew from the area, allowing rebels to take Toluca. Despite the loss by his side, Iturbide distinguished himself in this battle for valor and tenacity.

As a captain, he pursued rebel forces in the area, managing to capture Albino Licéaga y Rayón, leading to another promotion. Iturbide and other Spanish commanders relentlessly pursued Morelos, capturing and executing him in late 1815. Iturbide was also criticized for his arbitrariness and his treatment of civilians, in particular his jailing of the mothers, wives, and children of known insurgents. As for corruption, the Count of Pérez Galvez extensively testified that profiteering by many royalist officers, of whom Iturbide was the most visible, was draining the effectiveness of the royal army. Iturbide acquired a large personal fortune before 1816 by questionable dealings. That led to the disintegration of viceregal authority in Mexico City, and a political vacuum developed that the Mexican nobility sought to fill, seeking limited representation and autonomy for themselves within the empire. The hastily negotiated Treaty of Córdoba

Iturbide began to live extravagantly. He demanded preference for his army and also personally chose ministers. Poinsett also took advantage of the opportunity to proposition Iturbide's government on the issue of the US wish of acquiring Mexico's northern territories but was soundly refused.

Famed Mexican author José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi, El Pensador ("the Mexican Thinker"), the author of El Periquillo Sarniento, wrote about the subject at the time: "If your excellency be not the Emperor, then our Independence be damned. We do not wish to be free if your excellency will not be at the lead of his countrymen." Timothy E. Anna points out that in the months between the achievement of Independence and his crowning as Emperor, Iturbide already practically ruled the nation, as he was president of the Regency, and the junta had granted him command over all land and sea forces. He was appointed protector of commerce, navigation, local order and ports and was given the right to expedite passports and navigation licenses even after the Emperor had been instated (and according to the Emperor's wishes). Iturbide had what he could have possibly wanted before becoming Emperor, Anna notes, and so it is not probable that Iturbide conspired to appoint himself Emperor. Iturbide himself notes in his memoirs written in exile: "I had the condescension–or, call it weakness—of allowing myself to be seated in a throne I had created for others."

Historians point out that Iturbide had quite possibly all the power, influence, and support he needed before redacting the Plan of Iguala, to crown himself Emperor, and he still wrote the Plan with the clear intention of creating a throne meant for a European noble.

thumb|left|250px|Lithography of the Oath of Iturbide Constitutional Emperor of Mexico (1822).

Most historical accounts mention the crowd that gathered outside what is now the Palace of Iturbide in Mexico City shouting "Viva Iturbide!" and insist for him to take the throne of Mexico in May 1822. The crowd included Iturbide's old regiment from Celaya. Some detractors of Iturbide insist that this demonstration was staged by Iturbide himself or his loyalists. From a balcony of the palace, Iturbide repeatedly denied his desire for the throne. One interesting twist to the story is reported by Mexico City daily La Jornada, which states that Iturbide held the first popular referendum in Mexico. According to the article, Iturbide sent out a questionnaire to military and civilian leaders as to whether the people preferred a republic or a monarchy. The answer came back in favor of a monarchy. Iturbide asked the demonstrators that night to give him the night to think it over, and to respect the wishes of the government. The Congress convened the next day to discuss the matter of Iturbide's election as Emperor. Iturbide's supporters filled the balconies overlooking the chamber. The Congress confirmed him and his title of Agustín I, Constitutional Emperor of Mexico, by a vast majority. because by 1823 the local patriots, both liberal and conservative, made a move for total and absolute independence from Mexico and Spain.

Downfall

Dissolution of Congress

The republicans were not happy with Iturbide as emperor. While the Catholic clergy supported him, As a response to this claimed threat to his life and to combat the resistance, Iturbide dismissed the Congress on 31 October 1822 and two days later created a new junta, the National Institutional Junta, to legislate in its place, answering only to himself.

Liberal or republican ideas would continue to be embraced by people outside the Mexico City elite. These came out of Bourbon Reforms in Europe that were based on the Enlightenment. Attacks on the Catholic Church by liberals in Spain and elsewhere in Europe were conducted also in Mexico during the Liberal Reform period in the mid-nineteenth century. 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. about Iturbide's aristocratic friend, Doña María Ignacia Rodríguez de Velasco, Iturbide was cast in the novel as her paramour, having an illicit affair with her. Although the portrayal of her was as a libertine, the notion was based on uncorroborated rumors and innuendo, with nothing ever proven, and then exaggerated in fiction. As her posthumous reputation as a "heroine of Mexican independence" has risen beginning in the late twentieth century, Iturbide's has continued to be something much less than that of Mexico's Liberator. A two-volume work on Mexican independence contrasts Hidalgo and Iturbide, with the subtitle "the glory and the oblivion".

Iturbide's strategy of defining a plan and using the military to back it began a tradition in Mexican politics that would dominate the country' history. He can be considered Mexico's first "caudillo", or charismatic military leader, using a combination of widespread popularity and threat of violence toward opposition to rule and would be followed by army generals Antonio López de Santa Anna and Porfirio Díaz, who came to dominate their respective eras. Given that Obregón himself was a military strong man, his 1921 commemoration of Mexican independence and Iturbide was an opportunity for him to assert his own state-building vision by appropriating a piece of Mexico's history. By overseeing the ceremonies, Obregón could shape and consolidate his own position in power, which was then relatively weak. The Mexican Army benefited from the celebrations with new uniforms and equipment, and there was even a re-enactment of Iturbide's triumphal entry into Mexico City.

Mexico's flag is also attributed to Iturbide – its three colors of red, white, and green originally represented the three guarantees of the Plan of Iguala: Freedom, Religion, and Union. In the place of the Spanish emblem for Mexico, Iturbide resurrected the old Tenochtitlán symbol for Mexico City, an eagle perched on a nopal cactus holding a snake in its beak. With it, he hoped to link the Mexican Empire with the Aztec one.

Gallery

File:Escudo de Armas de S.M.I. Agustín.svg|Coat of Arms of Agustín de Iturbide as Emperor of Mexico

File:ThroneIturbideChurubuscoDF.JPG|Throne of Agustín de Iturbide in the Museo Nacional de las Intervenciones

File:Emperador_Agustin_de_Iturbide.JPG|Iturbide in a 19th-century painting

File:Emperor Agustin I of Mexico.jpg|Copy of a portrait of Agustín I, Constitutional Emperor of Mexico, made for the Iturbide Gallery (current Ambassador's Hall) at the National Palace.

File:Manifiesto al mundo de Agustin de Iturbide.jpg|Declaration to the World (Manifiesto de Liorna) by Agustín de Iturbide or rather Notes for History, a manuscript tinged with his blood and found between his sash and shirt after his execution.

File:Funeral_de_Iturbide.JPG|Transfer of the remains of Iturbide to the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City. Lithography from Ignacio complement of 1849, published in the book "Description of the funeral solemnity funeral with which the remains of the hero of Iguala were honored."

File:Alvaro Obregón.jpg|President Álvaro Obregón, who staged elaborate centennial commemorations of Iturbide in 1921.

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References

External links

Imperial House of Mexico
Manifiesto o Memoria, handwritten document by Agustín de Iturbide, hosted by the Portal to Texas History.