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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Historians are familiar with the short-lived alliance between General Antonio López de Santa Anna and the Mexican Federalists that was formed in July 1832 and lasted until April 1834. After achieving its goal of overthrowing the centralist regime of Anastasio Bustamante, the alliance led to the exercise of power by Santa Anna's Federalist vice president, Valentín Gómez Farías, in April 1833, and it disintegrated a year later when Santa Anna returned to Mexico City from his hacienda to seize personal control of the government. By April 1834 the army officer corps and the ecclesiastical hierarchy had become incensed at the Federalists' anti-military and anti-clerical reform program and were demanding the ouster of Gómez Farías and the dissolution of Congress. Members of the proprietary class of central Mexico and a considerable portion of the masses, who had been incited by the clergy, also joined the clamor against the Federalists. One of the factors that contributed to Santa Anna's extraordinary success as a politician was his shrewd sense of timing. In this case, it is well known that he turned against the Federalists when opposition to them from important sectors of the population became widespread and heated. What is not so well known is that, in the absence of such broad opposition, he chose to suppress an anti-Federalist revolt of senior army officers that broke out in May 1833. He did so even though the rebels offered to make him “supreme chief of the nation” if he adhered to their movement. Just as an understanding of Santa Anna's decision to break openly with the Federalists in April 1834 provides important insights regarding his political methods and goals, an assessment of his decision not to do so eleven months earlier in May 1833 can shed additional light on the tactics and objectives that helped to make him the most formidable political figure in Mexico during the post-independence period. Accordingly, this article will analyze the reasons for Santa Anna's decision not to support the anti-Federalist revolt of 1833.
1 For a discussion of the major political developments in Mexico in the period from July 1832 to April 1834 see Dos años en México, ó memorias críticas sobre los principales sucesos de la República de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos, escritas por un Español (Valencia, 1838), in Biblioteca Nacional de México, Colección Lafragua, Vol. 338 (cited hereafter as Dos años en México, BN-LAF, Vol. 338); Rodríguez O, Jaime F., “Oposición a Bustamante” Historia Mexicana, 20(oct.-dic. 1970), 199–234 Google Scholar; Green, Stanley C., “Lucas Alamán: Domestic Activities, 1823–1835” (Ph.D. Diss., Texas Christian University, 1970)Google Scholar; Hale, Charles A., Mexican Liberalism in the Age of Mora, 1821–1853 (New Haven, 1968)Google Scholar; Heroles, Jesús Reyes, El liberalismo mexicano (3 vols.; México, 1961)Google Scholar; Callcott, Wilfred Hardy, Church and State in Mexico, 1822–1857 (Durham, 1926)Google Scholar; Costeloe, Michael P., “Santa Anna and the Gómez Farías Regime in Mexico, 1833–1834,” TAm, 31 (July 1974), 18–50 Google Scholar; Costeloe, Michael P., La primera república federal de México (1824–1835) (México), 1975).Google Scholar
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3 See El Fénix de la Libertad, Jan. 1, 1833-Mar. 31, 1833, passim. Valentín Gómez Pedraza became president of Mexico following the ouster of Bustamente in December 1832 and remained in office until the inauguration of Gómez Farías on April 1, 1833. The Gómez Pedraza regime was purely caretaker in nature and undertook no important policy initiatives.
4 See Olavarría, y Ferrari, , México independiente, pp. 321, 325–326Google Scholar; Arista, Mariano, Reseña histórica de la revolución que desde 6 de junio hasta 8 de octubre tuvo lugar en la República el año de 1833 a favor del sistema central (México, 1835), BN-LAF, Vol. 321.Google Scholar
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6 See El Telégrafo, Apr. 2, 1833.
7 El Fénix de la Libertad, Apr. 13, 1833, Apr. 15, 1833.
8 México, de Guerra, Ministerio y Marina, , Memoria presentada al soberno Congreso mexicano …(México, Apr. 26, 1833), pp. 2–4, 9.Google Scholar
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14 EI Telégrafo, May 17, 1833.
15 Ibid. May 22, 1833.
16 Pronouncement of the garrison of Morelia, Morella, May 26, 1833, Archivo General de la Nación, México, Archivo de Guerra, Tomo 1015 bis.
17 El Telégrafo, May 29, 1833. Santa Anna refused to sanction publication of the legislation declaring that the right of patronage belonged to the nation. As a result, the controversial measure did not become law. Since the full Congress had still not considered the proposals for military reform, the president’s assertion that no legislation threatening the Church or the army had been enacted was correct. See Costeloe, , Church and Stale in Independent Mexico, p. 130.Google Scholar
18 Archivo Histórico Militar de México, Exp. ΧΙ/481.3/968, foja 5.
19 El Telégrafo, June 2, 1833.
20 Dublán, Manuel and Lozano, José María, eds., Legislación mexicana ó colección completa de las disposiciones legislativas expedidas desde la independencia de la república (34 vols.; México, 1876–1904), II, p. 528.Google Scholar
21 de Santa Anna, Antonio López, El Presidente de la República al ejército (México, June 1, 1833), BN-LAF, Vol. 393.Google Scholar
22 El Fénix de la Libertad, June 2, 1833.
23 Dublán, and Lozano, , eds., Legislación mexicana, 2, p. 530.Google Scholar
24 Olavarría, y Ferrari, , México independiente, p. 325.Google Scholar
25 Pakenham to Palmerston, Mexico City, June 11, 1833, GB, PRO MSS, FO 50, Vol. 79.
26 El Telégrafo, June 8, 1833.
27 de Zamacois, Niceto, Historia de México desde sus tiempos más remotos hasta nuestros días (22 vols, in 25; México, 1878–1902), XI, p. 32.Google Scholar
28 Pakenham to Palmerston, Mexico City, June 11, 1833, GB, PRO MSS, FO 50, Vol. 79.
29 Dublán, and Lozano, , eds., Legislación mexicana, 2, p. 533.Google Scholar
30 Arista, Mariano, Reseña histórica de la revolución, BN-LAF, Vol. 321.Google Scholar
31 In his own self-apologetic account of the rebellion that he and Durán led, Arista admitted that their uprising failed to win widespread support from prominent military chiefs. See Arista, , Reseña histórica de la revolución, BN-LAF, Vol. 321.Google Scholar
32 Santa Anna to Valentin Gómez Farías, Puebla, June 13, 1833, Archivo Histórico Militar de México, Exp. ΧΙ/481.3/968, foja 96.
33 Santa Anna to Mariano Arista, Puebla, June 13, 1833, in Arista, , Reseña histórica de la revolución, BN-LAF, Vol. 321.Google Scholar
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35 Olavarría, y Ferrari, , México independiente, p. 327.Google Scholar
36 Pakenham to Palmerston, Mexico City, June 29, 1833, GB, PRO MSS, FO 50, Vol. 79.
37 See Ibid.
38 Ibid.
39 Olavarría, y Ferrari, , México independiente, p. 328.Google Scholar
40 Dublán, and Lozano, , eds., Legislación mexicana, 2, p. 536 Google Scholar; El Telégrafo, July 6, 1833.
41 See Arista to Santa Anna, Guanajuato, Oct. 6,1833, Archivo Histórico Militar de México, Exp. ΧΙ/481.3/1000, foja 139.
42 Convention between Santa Anna and Arista, Oct. 8, 1833, Archivo Histórico Militar de México, Exp. XI/481.3/1000, foja 10.
43 Pakenham to Palmerston, Mexico City, Nov. 11, 1833, GB, PRO MSS, FO 50, Vol. 80A.
44 Arista states categorically that Santa Anna knew in advance of the plan for the revolt and applauded its aims. See Arista, Reseña histórica de la revolutión, BN-LAF, Vol. 321.
45 See Plan por el que se ha pronunciado la villa de Cuernavaca (Cuernavaca, May 25,1834), BNLAF, Vol. 393.