Antonio López de Santa Anna (1794 to 1876) was a general, politician, and six-time president of Mexico. Although he is best-known in the United States for the role he played in the Texas Revolution, the Battle of the Alamo, the Goliad Massacre, and his defeat at the Battle of San Jacinto, he played a much larger role in his nation's history, so much so that the period between 1821 and 1855 is known as the "Age of Santa Anna." Scholar Will Fowler notes:

He was celebrated with more fiestas than any other Mexican hero, living or dead, between 1821 and 1855. His popularity with the masses was indeed great, particularly in the state of Veracruz.

(xxii)

This is so – even though he consistently abandoned the responsibilities of the presidency, slaughtered the citizens of Zacatecas and allowed his army to sack and loot Zacatecas City for two days in 1835, lost Texas to the United States in 1836, and then lost half his country to the US following the Mexican-American War of 1846 to 1848.

His great charisma, courage, audacity, and ability to foresee changes in the political landscape and align himself accordingly seem to have made up for his other shortcomings and helped him to remain a central figure in the early history of Mexico for over 30 years.

Santa Anna remains as controversial a character today as he was in life. Scholar David A. Clary refers to him as "the greatest scalawag in the history of the Western Hemisphere" (20), while Forbes calls for a more balanced approach, characterizing him as an "intelligent and contradictory leader" (xxxvi). It is entirely possible, however, to see him from both perspectives.

Santa Anna was born Antonio de Padua Maria Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón on 21 February 1794 in Xalapa, Veracruz, Nueva España (New Spain), as Mexico was then known. He was the son of a Spanish father, who was a clerk, and a criolla mother. A criollo was a person of Spanish descent born in New Spain, and they were looked down upon by the peninsulares, those born on the Iberian Peninsula – Spain.

When he was young, Santa Anna's paternal uncle was denied upward mobility because he was a criollo, and this probably influenced the young man to reject his father's profession and enlist in the army, where he may have felt his lineage would not matter as much. He enlisted at the age of 16 in 1810 at the start of the Mexican War of Independence (1810 to 1821), fighting on the side of the Royalists, defenders of Spanish rule, against the insurgents of the Republican Army, which consisted of Anglo-Americans, Criollos, Tejanos, and former Republican soldiers who had switched sides.

Santa Anna was promoted quickly and was a first lieutenant by the time he fought at the Battle of Medina, south of San Antonio de Béxar, in 1813. He served under General José Joaquín de Arredondo, who would make a lasting impression on the young officer through his policy of taking no prisoners, which proved effective in putting down the 1813 revolt.

Arredondo had approximately 1,800 men against the 1,400 Republican troops, which scattered at his advance. Any of them caught were immediately executed, and casualties from the battle are calculated at 1,300 Republican dead to 55 Royalists. Santa Anna would follow this same policy in 1836 when he returned to San Antonio during the Texas Revolution and stormed the Alamo, though the strategy would have a vastly different effect on the Texian/Tejano rebels.

In 1821, Royalist officer Augustín de Iturbide joined with the insurgents, and Santa Anna followed his lead. The rebels won, and Iturbide proclaimed himself Emperor Augustín I, rewarding Santa Anna for his loyalty by handing him command of the port at Veracruz. Santa Anna had two great advantages at Veracruz: it was his home region, and he had acquired an immunity to yellow fever at a young age – whereas anyone sent against him had not – and he was able to raise troops easily as the proverbial "local boy who had made good."

Iturbide did not especially like Santa Anna, and so, in 1822, relieved him of command of the port, and Santa Anna responded by rebelling. His revolt encouraged others who had also dropped their support for Iturbide, and he was forced to abdicate in 1823. The first President of the Mexican Republic was Guadalupe Victoria, who served without incident 1824 to 1828 and established the Constitution of 1824.

In 1825, Santa Anna married the much younger and quite wealthy Inés García, whose dowry helped pay for his hacienda in Veracruz. The couple would have four children. When Inés died in 1844, Santa Anna married again, to another teenage bride, and, according to some sources, also tricked a young girl into "marriage" during the siege of the Alamo by having one of his officers pretend to be a priest so that he could sleep with her.

In 1828, Santa Anna supported the former insurgent leader Vicente Guerrero as a candidate for president, but the votes went to Manuel Gómez Pedraza. Santa Anna refused to recognize the results, raised an army, and revolted, driving Pedraza into exile and making Guerrero president.

The next year, in 1829, he defeated the Spanish attempt to retake Mexico at the Battle of Tampico and became a national hero. His victory was due in large part to an outbreak of yellow fever among the Spanish forces, but, as he had defeated a large force with a much smaller one, he declared himself the "Napoleon of the West" – an epithet he would continue to use for the next few decades.

In 1829, Anastasio Bustamante ousted Guerrero and took the presidency, and Santa Anna then revolted against Bustamante, forcing his resignation and calling for new elections in 1833, which, as the Hero of Tampico, he won, becoming president that year.

Santa Anna was now the most powerful man in Mexico, but he was not really interested in governing. Clary notes:

Santa Anna wanted to be a leader, or at least be acclaimed as one, but he lacked the patience, tenacity, purpose, even the will to rule that leadership requires. His energies went into gambling, womanizing, cockfighting, making speeches, and even forging commercial documents.

(20)

He handed the responsibilities of leadership over to his vice president, Valentín Gómez Farías, and retired to his hacienda, Manga de Clavo, in Veracruz. Since winning independence, Mexico had established itself as a federalist republic in which each district (region) had a voice in politics. The Mexican government had also opened its northern frontier to Anglo-American settlers in the hope that they would not only generate more income through taxation but serve as a buffer between Mexican citizens and Native Americans, specifically the Apache and Comanche, who often raided settlements in the region of Coahuila y Tejas (Texas).

Many of these Anglo-Americans had arrived with slaves and had flourished in Texas, but, in 1829, Mexico abolished slavery, and, in 1830, Bustamante had issued the Laws of April 6, rescinding concessions to the Anglo-Americans concerning slavery, raising taxes in Texas, and banning further immigration from the US. Farías reversed these policies once he came to power and instituted other reforms, which conservative politicians objected to. Farías was forced to resign, and Santa Anna – aligning himself with the Federalist cause – assumed the responsibilities of president in 1834, and then abandoned Federalism, abolished the Constitution of 1824, and established the Centralist Republic of Mexico.

In 1835, the country erupted in rebellions against what many saw as a violation of their civil rights, unfair taxation, and a loss of political autonomy. Although these were valid points, the country was in turmoil, and order needed to be restored. Santa Anna saw a Centralist government as the best means to that end, ordering the revolts put down and making an example of the district of Zacatecas, defeating the militia and allowing his troops to sack Zacatecas City for two days. He sent his brother-in-law, General Martín Perfecto Cos, to Coahuila y Tejas to deal with the rebellion there.

Although conflict between Anglo-Americans and Mexican officials actually began in 1832 with the Anahuac Disturbances, the Texas Revolution started on 2 October 1835 with the Battle of Gonzales. The Texians and Tejano rebels won every engagement against Cos' forces from October through December, finally forcing him to surrender his position at the Alamo and leave the region with his troops on 11 December 1835.

The Anglo-Americans had been invited to Texas by the Mexican government with only two requirements: that they learn Spanish and convert to Catholicism, becoming Mexican citizens. The immigrants did neither, nor did they recognize Mexican authority concerning the abolition of slavery in 1829. The armed insurrection of the fall of 1835 and defeat of General Cos was the proverbial last straw.

Santa Anna marched on the region, personally leading the troops, and arriving in San Antonio de Béxar on 23 February 1836, initiating the siege of the Alamo. On 6 March 1836, he ordered the fort taken by force – even though his senior staff made it clear that he only had to wait a few more days for the arrival of 12-pound cannons that would reduce the fort without any Mexican casualties. Santa Anna refused to listen, claiming a bloodless victory would have no honor, and he needed to avenge the insult of Cos' surrender. He ordered no prisoners taken, invoking the Tornel Decree of 1835, which defined rebels as "land pirates," as well as drawing on the example of Arredondo years before, and all the Alamo's defenders were killed in battle or executed afterwards. Mexican casualties are given at 400 to 600 to the Texian casualties of 185 or 187 to 250.

On 27 March 1836, again invoking the Tornel Decree, he ordered the execution of 350 to 400 Texian prisoners in what became known as the Goliad Massacre. The brutal tactics that had served Arredondo so well failed Santa Anna spectacularly as General Sam Houston's army quickly doubled in numbers of men wanting to avenge those fallen at the Alamo and Goliad. Santa Anna pursued Houston's Texian/Tejano Army until they met at the Battle of San Jacinto, where Santa Anna was defeated in 18 minutes by Texian and Tejano soldiers shouting "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!" Afterwards, he was forced to sign the Treaties of Velasco, withdrawing Mexican troops from Texas, and Texian independence was won.

Santa Anna had been deposed while in Texas, and Bustamante had again seized power. The Mexican government refused to recognize the Texas Republic, and Santa Anna, though he still had some supporters, was disgraced, retiring to his hacienda in Veracruz. He redeemed himself by leading Mexican forces to victory over the French in the so-called Pastry War of 1838 to 1839, when France tried to invade through the Port of Veracruz.

During the battle, Santa Anna was severely wounded in the left leg, requiring amputation, and insisted the leg be buried with full military honors. He was, again, a national hero. Bustamante was ousted, and Santa Anna became president. Not everyone was pleased by this development, and districts again revolted. General José de Urrea, who had been consistently victorious during the Texas Revolution, joined the revolt, as he felt Santa Anna, in losing at San Jacinto through his own arrogance, had forfeited Texas needlessly.

Santa Anna crushed these revolts and then instituted harsher policies, jailing dissidents and forbidding criticism of his administration. This led to widespread revolt, including a mob that dug up his leg and dragged it through the streets, and Santa Anna fled Mexico City, was captured, and exiled to Cuba in 1845.

In 1846, the Mexican-American War broke out, and US President James K. Polk believed Santa Anna could be of use. He brokered a deal in which the United States would support his return to the presidency in return for him agreeing to end the war quickly and selling Mexican lands abutting the United States. Santa Anna agreed to these terms and then, once back in Mexico, took control of the army and led it against the United States.

Santa Anna's victories during the Mexican-American War are as uninspiring as those of the Texas Revolution. At the Battle of Buena Vista, he could have defeated General Winfield Scott but instead chose to retreat and claim a victory, and, at the Battle of Cerro Gordo, he lost over 1000 men and, again, retreated. As in the Texas Revolution, his generals were far more effective than he was.

Following the Battle of Cerro Gordo, in which US forces overran his camp, forcing him to flee, Santa Anna's prosthetic leg was captured and brought back to the United States as a war trophy, where it remains, in Illinois, to this day. The Mexican Army lost the war in 1848, and Santa Anna was exiled to Jamaica. In 1853, he was invited back, however, by a conservative government and became president for the last time.

In 1853 to 1854, Santa Anna approved the Gadsden Purchase, forfeiting more Mexican territory to the United States for $10 million, for which he was and continues to be harshly criticized. The Mexican government was broke, however, and it seems he felt the wisest choice was to take the money instead of renewing conflict with the US. Many – including Benito Juárez – did not see it that way, however, and Santa Anna was ousted and again went into exile in Cuba in 1855, ending the "Age of Santa Anna" in Mexico.

The rest of Santa Anna's life is a series of ill-fated ventures. He was a life-long fan of cockfighting and tried to "win big" gambling on fights in the hopes of financing an army to retake the presidency – but this was a vain hope. In another bid to "get rich quick," he agreed to a business deal that brought him to Staten Island, New York, with a quantity of chicle, the sap of the sapodilla tree, which his partners claimed would launch a lucrative business in the manufacture of rubber. This also failed, although a local businessman, Thomas Adams, saw the potential in chicle and turned it into chewing gum; and so a little-known bit of Santa Anna trivia is that he, indirectly, brought chewing gum to the USA.

In 1874, almost penniless and nearly blind from cataracts, Santa Anna returned to Mexico, dying on 21 June 1876 at the age of 82. He was buried with full military honors, and many mourned his passing. Many others, however, did not – and this has remained Santa Anna's legacy ever since. He has generally been regarded, since the 19th century, as an ineffective general and corrupt politician driven by his own desires, ego, and arrogance. In the modern era, though, the position advanced by Will Fowler has gained more ground. Fowler notes:

What becomes apparent is that there was obviously more to the Santa Anna phenomenon than has been generally acknowledged…If Santa Anna was nothing other than a despicable traitor, turncoat, and tyrant, how can we understand his repeated rise to power, the popularity and influence he enjoyed?

(xxiii)

This is a valid argument but so are the claims that align with Clary, who writes:

Santa Anna was loved and hated, sometimes by the same people at the same time, welcomed back into Mexico as often as he was exiled. He cast a shadow over his country's history that still darkens the landscape. He was alternately a liberal and a conservative, a federalist and a centralist, a liberator and a dictator – switches that ought to have alienated everyone. Yet Santa Anna dominated Mexico for more than a generation, because one side or another found his energy useful.

(21 to 22)

This is not to say there is a black-white dichotomy to the argument represented by Clary and Fowler; only that their observations tend to serve one side, respectively, better than the other. No doubt the debate over who Santa Anna was and the value of what he accomplished will continue, and, as in life, he will be exiled and welcomed back many times before the matter is settled. Actually, the controversy surrounding Santa Anna is arguing the same point from different perspectives needlessly, because both are correct, and it is entirely possible to understand him as both a scalawag and a great leader.