Santa Anna was born in 1794 in Jalapa, Mexico, and grew up in the nearby coastal city of Veracruz. His parents, Antonio Lafey de Santa Anna and Manuela Perez de Labron, were both of Spanish descent. His father, a well-to-do mortgage broker, had estates in Jalapa. His formal education was limited, and he appears to have been an uninterested student. He left school at an early age, longing for a military career, and his father reluctantly facilitated an appointment in the Army of New Spain. At that time, the business of the Army of New Spain consisted largely of squelching Indian uprisings, including Hidaalgo’s revolt. Royal army officers (and, later, Mexican officers) were exempt from civilian law. Only fellow officers could punish them for crimes. Officers protected one another not only on the battlefield but also against other "enemies"--civilians and common soldiers (usually poor peons dragooned into military service). When Santa Anna lost large sums while gambling in Texas and stole money from his unit's coffers, the military quietly chastised him, ordered him to restore the money, and, in 1814, reassigned him to Veracruz. By 1821, he had achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Initially, Santa Anna's loyalty to Spanish rule was unquestioning. But when the rebel leaders Vicente Guerrero and Agustin de Iturbide announced their plans to fight for Mexico's independence in 1821, Santa Anna--possibly partially influenced by their offer of the rank of full colonel--joined them. In the chaotic conditions that followed independence, Iturbide seized power and had himself declared Emperor of Mexico. Santa Anna initially supported this move, believing that charismatic leadership was needed. However, as Iturbide's methods grew more repressive, relations between the two cooled. Finally Iturbide, wary of Santa Anna's personal ambition, stripped him of his command and attempted to reassign him to a remote frontier posting. This act hardened Santa Anna's resolve against Iturbide. From his stronghold at Veracruz, Santa Anna announced his plan to oppose the empire. He declared Mexico a republic in December of 1822. With the support of insurgent leaders Guerrero, Guadalupe Victoria, and Nicolas Bravo, Santa Anna succeeded in overthrowing the Iturbide regime. In 1823 Santa Anna endorsed a republic but later admitted that a Jalapa lawyer had only briefly explained to him all that he knew about republicanism. He remained a political illiterate all his life, one year a rabid liberal, the next a monarchist.

In 1829, Spain made a last attempt to reconquer Mexico, landing a formidable army at Tampico. Santa Anna singlehandedly raised an army and rushed to the republic's defense. The Spanish forces were superior in numbers, equipment, and training; however, with fierce persistence, he fought the Spaniards all summer, keeping them bottled up in Tampico. In September, the Spanish commander--his ranks ravaged by yellow fever--formally recognized the independence of Mexico and withdrew his troops to Cuba. Santa Anna was hailed as a hero. At about this time, he began referring to himself as the "Napoleon of the West."

The republic continued to face problems. The vice president, General Anastasio Bustamante, led a successful uprising against President Guerrero, and become Mexico's third president. The Bustamante administration evolved into a harsh dictatorship, which gave rise to revolt. In anticipation of Santa Anna's opposition, Bustamante sent troops to Veracruz, but Santa Anna fought his way past them and advanced on the capital. With Santa Anna's army looming, Bustamante capitulated. He went into exile in December of 1832, clearing the way for the nearly unanimous election of Santa Anna as president three months later. He had no intention, however, of risking his political future by implementing the controversial Liberal program. The excitement was in getting there, not being there. For the first time in his life, he could not devote himself to the strenuous life, flitting around the country on his white charger and making or unmaking presidents. Upon election, he again pleaded illness and went home to Jalapa. The vice president began implementing policies to eliminate special privileges traditionally accorded to wealthy landowners, the church, and the military. When complaints from these influential groups reached the conservative Santa Anna, he seized absolute power. Not embarrassed by lack of consistency, the embattled champion of all liberal causes since 1821 suddenly began denouncing anticlerical atheists, naive federalists, subversive anarchists, Jacobins, the vice president, and his liberal cohorts. He dissolved the congress, suspended the programs of the exiled vice president, exiled the leading liberals. and instituted policies aimed toward the establishment of a strong central government and protection of the privileged classes. Only those with a high annual income could hold political office. Dissent would not be tolerated, for it threatened to destroy the nation.

For some years, Mexico had encouraged the settlement of the northern province of Texas by North Americans as well as Mexicans. The cotton boom in the U.S. meant that U.S. citizens were infiltrating the unguarded border to acquire cheap land. In an effort to forestall the "Americanization" of Texas, the Mexican government granted land to 300 families, led by the Austin family, on condition that the members become Mexican and Roman Catholic. (Land there cost 10 cents an acre, as compared to $1.25 an acre for worse land in the US, and the emigrants did not have to pay Mexican taxes for seven years.) The effort failed, for both legal and illegal immigrants violated the law. By 1827, there were 12,000 US citizens in Texas, as compared to 7000 Mexican citizens. By 1830, former United States citizens outnumbered Mexicans in Texas by four to one (30,000 to about 78000), and conflict began between the two groups. Anglo settlers, under the leadership of Stephen F. Austin, began to demand a measure of political autonomy. The Mexican government attempted to enforce control by abolishing slavery in 1829(which was aimed at Texas, since slavery was unimportant elsewhere in Mexico), closing the border to further colonization from the United States in 1830, and restricting trade. When Santa Anna revoked the 1824 constitution, denying Texans a vote, they declared independence. Santa Anna responded personally, marching an army of 6,000 men north in the winter of 1835-36. In February, accompanied by half of his army, he clashed with 180 Texans who had taken up a defensive position in an abandoned Franciscan mission known as the Alamo. (See Alamo readings.) After a prolonged siege, in March Santa Anna attacked the mission with a policy of "no quarter," winning the battle and killing all the Alamo's occupants. This action earned him the undying enmity of Texans. Three weeks later, he ordered his troops to execute 365 prisoners after the battle of Goliad, an incident that became notorious and that inspired inflows of men, weapons, and money from the US. Just six weeks later, events changed dramatically. An army under the command of General Sam Houston dealt Santa Anna's forces a stunning blow at the San Jacinto River. The Mexican Army suffered devastating losses and Santa Anna was taken prisoner. In May, Santa Anna signed two treaties with the Texans. One guaranteed that Mexican troops would be permanently withdrawn. The other--not made public at the time--specified that Santa Anna would work for Mexican recognition of the Republic of Texas in exchange for safe transport back to Veracruz. These activities were deeply unpopular in Mexico; the episode was the most serious setback of his career. Upon his release, he resigned as president and retired to Manga de Clavo in disgrace. In Mexico, Santa Anna was widely considered a traitor.

Santa Anna's reputation was rehabilitated in 1838, when France demanded monetary reparations (it was called the "Pastry War,” since a French baker was one of the creditors) from Mexico, resulting in war between the two countries. Santa Anna was considered the only man who could successfully defend his country against this invasion. Initially surprised by the French invasion, Santa Anna rallied his troops, routed the French, and pursued them to the harbor. There the French fired a cannon loaded with shrapnel, shattering his lower left leg, which was amputated below the knee. (See the readings about Santa Anna’s leg, which was treated as a national hero.)

Santa Anna's convalescence was interrupted by a call to serve as interim president while President Bustamante attended to ongoing revolts. When Bustamante's efforts faltered, Santa Anna himself returned to the battlefield, directing operations from a litter. In the victory that followed, Santa Anna's popularity eclipsed that of Bustamante, and in October 1841, he was once again elected president. This time his government lasted until 1842. He raised revenue by taxation but spent lavishly on festivals and a private army. In March 1843 he again resumed the executive and ruled until July 1844. He apparently began to see the possibilities of a monarchy as the solution to Mexico's problems. The President had simply been called "His Excellency," but Santa Anna changed that title to "His Most Serene Highness." According to Santa Anna's account, it was a time marked by peace, reform, and progress. Mexico's first railroad was built during these years, the country's currency was revamped, and harmonious foreign relations were maintained. But Santa Anna's administration was a dictatorship. He developed a new constitution that concentrated power in his own hands and insured the ascendancy of the wealthiest. He strengthened the army and the central bureaucracy, filled political positions with corrupt friends and financed it all through forced domestic loans and foreign borrowing. In keeping with his propensity for self-aggrandizement, he filled Mexico City with statues of himself; the 350,000-peso theater in Mexico City was called the Gran Teatro de Santa Anna. The small presidential bodyguard was expanded to 1200 people. His saint's day was declared a national holiday, and he signed his letters, "Santa Anna, Savior of the Fatherland. General of Division, Knight of the Great Cross of the Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III, President of the Mexican Republic, Grand Master of the National and Distinguished Order of Guadelupe." He quickly became a millionaire; his landholdings in 1845 totaled 483,000 acres, and over 40,000 head of cattle bore the ALSA brand. Local officials studied his model and also enriched themselves. Often clever but never wise, he set an example of dishonesty, deception, and complete failure to adhere to any set of principles.

In 1844, Santa Anna's wife, Ines--whom he had long neglected in favor of a succession of young mistresses--died of pneumonia. A few months later, the 50-year-old Santa Anna shocked the nation by announcing his intention to marry 15-year-old Maria Dolores de Tosta. His unpopular marriage was the last straw. When his former ally led an army to the capital in December of 1844, Santa Anna was unable to raise troops adequate to his needs, and he fled. He was captured and imprisoned by Indians who, in an attempt at macabre humor, asked the new government if it would like him delivered as a tamale, cooked and wrapped in banana leaves. His enemies decided not to put him on trial, and he was exiled to Havana, Cuba.

The year following Santa Anna's exile was a chaotic one in Mexico. Among other problems, the United States--having earned Mexico's enmity by annexing Texas--declared war. Armies of invasion challenged Mexican defenses. This military emergency brought Santa Anna to the forefront of Mexican political affairs once again. In order to accept command of Mexico's military forces, Santa Anna needed to cross the U.S. blockade of Veracruz. Negotiating with emissaries sent to Havana by U.S. President James Polk, he agreed to make every effort to conclude the war on terms favorable to the United States in return for his safe passage across the blockade. Once on Mexican soil, he forgot his promises. In the war, Santa Anna's army suffered defeat repeatedly--owing in part to Santa Anna's incompetence and in part to internal quarrels—at the hands of General Winfield Scott, who advanced on Mexico City. Santa Anna attempted to negotiate for peace, but was blocked by his Congress, which declared that treating with the enemy constituted treason. Scott captured Mexico City on September 14, 1847. The Mexican Congress stripped Santa Anna of his command and his presidency, and he fled the city. To escape an official inquiry into his conduct during the war, Santa Anna once again went into exile, this time in Jamaica, where he lived for the next two years.

There were five liberal presidential administrations during Santa Anna's exile, with no appreciable improvement in conditions. By the time conservatives returned to power in 1853, ill feeling toward Santa Anna had dissipated. Conservative leader Lucas Alaman conceived a plan to create stability, which included the appointment of Santa Anna as interim president for a period of one year, after which a monarch would be installed. Santa Anna accepted the proposal, returned to Mexico, and began his fifth and final term as president on April 20, 1853. In December of 1853, Santa Anna engineered an offer from the military to appoint him emperor, which he declined. Instead, he accepted the title of His Most Serene Highness, which carried with it an indefinite extension of his term and the right to name his successor.

To raise money to support the lavish spending that was always his hallmark, Santa Anna arranged to sell yet more Mexican territory. The Gadsden Purchase, completed in December, 1853, transferred the Mesilla Valley to the U.S. for the sum of $10 million. Santa Anna defended his action by pointing out that the United States would have taken the territory by force in any event, but his critics knew that the money from the purchase was needed to finance Santa Anna's extravagant spending and corrupt political practices. When Santa Anna instituted a huge tax increase the following year, dissent turned to revolt. Liberal rivals planned to oust Santa Anna and write a new constitution. Santa Anna managed to remain in power for several months, but in the face of his increasing inability to quell opposition, he appointed a triumvirate to take charge. He went, yet again, into exile.

This moment marked the end of Santa Anna's serious political influence in Mexico, but not the end of his ambitions. A decade later he attempted to stage yet another comeback during the European intervention, but he no longer had any following. The old man made one last bid for power in an ill-advised foray against the United States-backed liberal government of Benito Juarez. Santa Anna was tried for treason and exiled to the Bahamas. There, he wrote his memoirs and corresponded with old friends. He was excluded from a general amnesty issued by Juarez in 1870, and it was only after Juarez's death of Juarez that he at last returned to his own country. He was eighty years old when he arrived in Mexico City in 1874, in poor health, nearly blind and deaf. His return was ignored by his countrymen, and he lived his remaining two years in obscurity, dying on June 21, 1876.

Sources:
"Antonio López de Santa Anna." Dictionary of Hispanic Biography.
"Antonio López de Santa Anna." Encyclopedia of World Biography.
"Antonio López de Santa Anna." Historic World Leaders.
The Course of Mexican History, Michael Meyer, William Sherman, and Susan Deeds