Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón was born in Xalapa, Veracruz, Nueva España (New Spain), on 21 February 1794. He was from a respected Spanish family. He was named for his father, Licenciado Antonio López de Santa Anna (b. 1761), a university graduate and a lawyer; his mother was Manuela Pérez de Lebrón (d. 1814). The family belonged to the racially elite criollo group of American-born Spaniards, although the family was not wealthy but rather middle-class. The men held second-rank royal and clerical positions. The family did prosper in Veracruz, where the merchant class dominated politics. Santa Anna’s paternal uncle Ángel López de Santa Anna was a public clerk (escribano) in Veracruz and became aggrieved when the town council of Veracruz prevented him from moving to Mexico City to advance his career. Since the late 18th-century Bourbon Reforms, the crown had favored peninsular-born Spaniards over American-born, so that young Santa Anna’s family was affected by the growing disgruntlement of creoles whose upward mobility was thwarted. Santa Anna’s other paternal uncle, José, was a priest, notorious for his corrupt practices and sexual appetite, who fell afoul of the Mexican Inquisition. His mother favored her son’s choice of a military career over his father’s choice for him, supporting his desire to join the royal army, rather than be a shopkeeper. His mother’s friendly relationship with the intendant (governor) of Veracruz secured Santa Anna’s military appointment although he was underage. His parents’ marriage produced seven children, four sisters and two brothers, and Santa Anna was close to his sister Francisca and brother Manuel, who also joined the royal army.

Santa Anna’s early military career fighting the insurgency for independence and then joining the insurgency against the Spanish crown presaged his many changes of position in his lifetime. In June 1810, the 16-year-old Santa Anna joined the Fijo de Veracruz infantry regiment In September, secular cleric Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla denounced bad government, sparking a spontaneous mass uprising in Mexico’s rich agricultural area, the Bajío. Although some creole elites had chafed as their upward mobility had been thwarted by crown policies favoring peninsular-born Spaniards, the Hidalgo Revolt saw most creoles favoring continued crown rule. In particular, the Santa Anna family “saw themselves as aligned to the peninsular elite, whom they served, and were in turn recognized as belonging,” The Mexican War of Independence lasted until 1821, and Santa Anna, like most creole military officers, fought for the crown against the mixed-raced insurgents for independence. Santa Anna’s commanding officer was José Joaquín de Arredondo, who taught him much about dealing with Mexican rebels. In 1811, Santa Anna was wounded in the left hand by an arrow during the campaign under Colonel Arredondo in the town of Amoladeras, in the intendancy (administrative district) of San Luis Potosí. In 1813, Santa Anna served in Texas against the Gutiérrez–Magee Expedition and at the Battle of Medina, in which he was cited for bravery. He was promoted quickly; he became a second lieutenant in February 1812 and first lieutenant before the end of that year. During the initial rebellion, the young officer witnessed Arredondo’s fierce counter-insurgency policy of mass executions. The early fighting against the insurgent massed forces gave way to guerrilla warfare and a military stalemate.

When royalist officer Agustín de Iturbide changed sides in 1821 and allied with insurgent Vicente Guerrero, fighting for independence under the Plan of Iguala, Santa Anna also joined the fight for independence. The changed circumstances in Spain, where liberals had ousted Ferdinand VII and began implementing the Spanish liberal constitution of 1812, made many elites in Mexico reconsider their options.

Iturbide rewarded Santa Anna with the command of the vital port of Veracruz, the gateway from the Gulf of Mexico to the rest of the nation and site of the customs house. However, Iturbide subsequently removed Santa Anna from the post, prompting Santa Anna to rise in rebellion in December 1822 against Iturbide. Santa Anna already had significant power in his home region of Veracruz, and “he was well along the path to becoming the regional caudillo.” Santa Anna claimed in his Plan of Veracruz that he rebelled because Iturbide had dissolved the Constituent Congress. He also promised to support free trade with Spain, an important principle for his home region of Veracruz.

In May 1823, following Iturbide’s March abdication as emperor, Santa Anna was sent to command in Yucatán. At the time, Yucatán’s capital of Mérida and the port city of Campeche were in conflict. Yucatán’s closest trade partner was Cuba, a Spanish colony. Santa Anna took it upon himself to plan a landing force from Yucatán in Cuba, which he envisioned would result in Cuban colonists welcoming their liberators and most especially Santa Anna. A thousand Mexicans were already on ships to sail to Cuba when word came that the Spanish were reinforcing their colony, so the invasion was called off.

Former insurgent general Guadalupe Victoria, a liberal federalist, became the first president of the Mexican republic in 1824, following the creation of the Federalist Mexican Constitution of 1824. He came to the presidency with little factional conflict, and he served out his entire four-year term. However, the election of 1828 was quite different, with considerable political conflict in which Santa Anna became involved. Even before the election, there was unrest in Mexico, with some conservatives affiliated with the Scottish Rite Masons plotting rebellion. The so-called Montaño rebellion in December 1827 called for the prohibition of secret societies, implicitly meaning liberal York Rite Masons, and the expulsion of the U.S. minister in Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett, a promoter of federal republicanism in Mexico. Although Santa Anna was believed to be a supporter of the Scottish Rite conservatives, in the Montaño rebellion eventually he threw his support to the liberals. In his home state of Veracruz, the governor had thrown his support to the rebels, and in the aftermath of the rebellion’s failure, Santa Anna as vice-governor stepped into the governorship.

Texas President David G. Burnet and Santa Anna signed the Treaties of Velasco, the latter under duress, stating that “in his official character as chief of the Mexican nation, he acknowledged the full, entire, and perfect Independence of the Republic of Texas.” In exchange, Burnet and the Texas government guaranteed Santa Anna’s safety and transport to Veracruz. Meanwhile, in Mexico City a new government declared that Santa Anna was no longer president and that the treaty he had made with Texas was null and void. The Mexican Congress also rejected the treaty. While Santa Anna was captive in Texas, Joel Roberts Poinsett, U.S. minister to Mexico in 1824, offered a harsh assessment of General Santa Anna’s situation: “Say to General Santa Anna that when I remember how ardent an advocate he was of liberty ten years ago, I have no sympathy for him now, that he has gotten what he deserves.” Santa Anna replied: “Say to Mr. Poinsett that it is very true that I threw up my cap for liberty with great ardor, and perfect sincerity, but very soon found the folly of it. A hundred years to come my people will not be fit for liberty. They do not know what it is, unenlightened as they are, and under the influence of Catholic clergy, a despotism is a proper government for them, but there is no reason why it should not be a wise and virtuous one.”

In 1825, he married Inés García, the daughter of wealthy Spanish parents in Veracruz, and the couple had four children: María de Guadalupe, María del Carmen, Manuel, and Antonio López de Santa Anna y García. By 1825, Santa Anna had distinguished himself as a military man, joining the movement for independence when other criollos were also seeing Mexican autonomy as the way forward under royalist turned insurgent Agustín de Iturbide and the Army of Three Guarantees. When Iturbide as Mexican emperor lost support, Santa Anna had been in the forefront of leaders seeking to oust him. Although Santa Anna’s family was of modest means, he was of good criollo lineage; the García family may well have seen a match between their young daughter and the up-and-coming Santa Anna as advantageous. María Inés’s dowry allowed Santa Anna to purchase the first of his haciendas, Manga de Clavo, in Veracruz state.

In 1828, Santa Anna supported the hero of the insurgency, Vicente Guerrero, who was a candidate for the presidency. Another important liberal, Lorenzo de Zavala, also supported Guerrero. Manuel Gómez Pedraza won the indirect elections for the presidency, with Guerrero coming in second. Even before all the votes had been counted in September 1828, Santa Anna rebelled against the election results in support of Guerrero. Santa Anna issued a plan at Perote that called for the nullification of the election results, as well for a new law expelling Spanish nationals from Mexico, believed to be in league with Mexican conservatives. Santa Anna’s rebellion initially had few supporters, southern Mexican leader Juan Álvarez joined Santa Anna’s rebellion, and Lorenzo de Zavala, governor of the state of Mexico, under threat of arrest by the conservative Senate, fled to the mountains and organized his own rebellion against the federal government. Zavala brought the fighting into the capital, with his supporters seizing an armory, the Acordada. In these circumstances, president-elect Gómez Pedraza resigned and soon after left the country. This cleared the way for Guerrero to become president of Mexico. Santa Anna gained prominence as a national leader in his role to oust Gómez Pedraza and as a defender of federalism and democracy. An explanation for Santa Anna’s support of Guerrero is that Gómez Pedraza had been in favor of Santa Anna’s proposed invasion of Cuba, if successful, and if not, “Mexico might rid himself of an undesirable pest, namely Santa Anna.”

In 1829, Santa Anna made his mark in the early republic by leading forces that defeated a Spanish invasion to reconquer Mexico. Spain made a final attempt to retake Mexico, invading Tampico with a force of 2,600 soldiers. Santa Anna marched against the Barradas Expedition with a much smaller force and defeated the Spaniards, many of whom were suffering from yellow fever. The defeat of the Spanish army not only increased Santa Anna’s popularity but also consolidated the independence of the new Mexican republic. Santa Anna was declared a hero. From then on, he styled himself “The Victor of Tampico” and “The Savior of the Patria.” His main act of self-promotion was to call himself “The Napoleon of the West.”

In a December 1829 coup, Vice-President Anastasio Bustamante, a conservative, rebelled against President Guerrero, who left the capital to lead a rebellion in southern Mexico. The capture of Guerrero and his summary trial and execution in 1831 was a shocking event to the nation. The conservatives in power were tainted by the execution of a hero of independence and former president. On 1 January 1830, Bustamante took over the presidency. Bustamante had promised an effective administration, and customs revenues (import and export taxes) increased spectacularly, but the revenues were spent on administrative expenses and the military, to win its support with preferential payments, new equipment, increased recruitment. The policy aimed at buying the army’s loyalty and collect revenue. On top of customs revenues, Bustamante’s government borrowed funds from moneylenders. His government jailed dissenters. In 1832, Santa Anna seized the customs revenues from Veracruz and declared himself in rebellion against Bustamante. The bloody conflict ended with Santa Anna forcing the resignation of Bustamante’s cabinet, and an agreement was brokered for new elections in 1833. Santa Anna won handily.

Santa Anna was elected president on 1 April 1833, but while he desired the title, he was not interested in governing. According to Mexican historian Enrique Krauze, “It annoyed him and bored him, and perhaps frightened him.” A biographer of Santa Anna describes him in this period as the “absentee president.” Vice President Valentín Gómez Farías took over the responsibility of governing the nation. Santa Anna retired to his Veracruz hacienda, Manga de Clavo. Gómez Farías was a moderate, but he had a radical liberal congress with which to contend, perhaps a reason that Santa Anna left executive power to his vice president. The nation was faced with an empty treasury and an 11 million peso debt incurred by the Bustamante government. He could not cut back on the bloated expenditures on the army and sought other revenues. Taking a chapter out of the late colonial Spanish reforms, the government targeted the Roman Catholic Church. Anticlericalism was a tenet of Mexican liberalism, and the church had supported Bustamante’s government, so targeting that institution was a logical move. Tithing (a 10% tax on agricultural production) was abolished as a legal obligation, and church property and finances were seized. The church’s role in education was reduced and the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico closed. All this caused concern among Mexican conservatives.

Gómez Farías sought to extend these reforms to the frontier province of Alta California, promoting legislation to secularize the Franciscan missions there. In 1833 he organized the Híjar-Padrés colony to bolster non-mission civilian settlement. A secondary goal of the colony was to help defend Alta California against perceived Russian colonial ambitions from the trading post at Fort Ross. However, for liberal intellectual and Catholic priest José María Luis Mora, selling church property was the key to “transforming Mexico into a liberal, progressive nation of small landowners.” Sale of nonessential church property would bring in much-needed revenue to the treasury. The army was also targeted for reform, since it was the largest single expenditure in the national budget. On Santa Anna’s suggestion, the number of battalions was to be reduced as well as the number of generals and brigadiers.

Santa Anna was pushed into action. In May 1834, Santa Anna ordered the disarmament of the civic militia. He urged Congress to abolish the controversial Ley del Caso, under which the liberals’ opponents had been sent into exile. The Plan of Cuernavaca, published on 25 May 1834, called for repeal of the liberal reforms. On 12 June, Santa Anna dissolved Congress and announced his decision to adopt the plan. Santa Anna formed a new Catholic, centralist, conservative government. During this period, Santa Anna brokered an agreement with the Catholic Church, which had signed on to the plan. In exchange for preserving the Church’s and the army’s privileges, and the Church promised a monthly donation to the government of 30,000–40,000 pesos. “The santanistas [supporters of Santa Anna] succeeded in achieving what the radicals had failed to do: forcing the Church to assist the republic’s daily fiscal needs with its funds and properties.” On 4 January 1835, Santa Anna returned to his hacienda, placing Miguel Barragán as acting president. In 1835, Santa Anna replaced the 1824 constitution with the new constitutional document known as the “Siete Leyes” (“The Seven Laws”). Santa Anna did not involve himself with the conservative centralists as they moved to replace the federal constitution that dispersed power to the states with a unitary power in the hands of the central government, seemingly uneasy with their political path. “Although he has been blamed for the change to centralism, he was not actually present during any of the deliberations that led to the abolition of the federalist charter or the elaboration of the 1836 Constitution.”

The Zacatecas militia, the largest and best supplied of the Mexican states, led by Francisco García Salinas, was well armed with .753 caliber British ‘Brown Bess’ muskets and Baker .61 rifles. But, after two hours of combat on 12 May 1835, Santa Anna’s “Army of Operations” defeated the Zacatecan militia and took almost 3,000 prisoners. Santa Anna allowed his army to loot Zacatecas for forty-eight hours. After defeating Zacatecas, he planned to move on to Coahuila y Tejas to quell the rebellion there, which was being supported by settlers from the United States.

In 1835, Santa Anna repealed the Mexican Constitution, which ultimately led to the beginning of the Texas Revolution. Santa Anna’s reasoning for the repeal was that American settlers in Texas were not paying taxes or tariffs, claiming they were not recipients of any services provided by the Mexican Government. As a result, new settlers were not allowed there. The new policy was a response to the U.S. attempts to purchase Texas from Mexico. Like other states discontented with the central Mexican government, the Texas Department of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas rebelled in late 1835 and declared itself independent on 2 March 1836. The northeastern part of the state had been settled by numerous Anglo-American immigrants. Stephen Austin and his party had been welcomed by earlier Mexican governments.

At the Battle of the Alamo, Santa Anna’s forces killed 189 Texan insurgents on 6 March 1836 and executed more than 342 Texan prisoners at the Goliad Massacre on 27 March 1836. These executions were conducted in a manner similar to the executions he witnessed of Mexican rebels in the 1810s as a young soldier. However, Santa Anna’s forces suffered unexpectedly heavy casualties in the battle. In 1874, Santa Anna asserted in a letter that killing the Alamo insurgents was his only option. The letter stressed that Alamo garrison commander William B. Travis was to blame for the degree of violence at the Alamo. Santa Anna believed that Travis was rude and disrespectful towards him, and had that not happened, he would have allowed Sam Houston to establish a dominant presence there. In his letter, he stated that the disrespect of Travis led to the demise of all of his followers, which he claimed only took a couple of hours.

The Mexican army victory at the Alamo bought time for General Houston and his Texas forces. During the siege of the Alamo, the Texas Navy had more time to plunder ports along the Gulf of Mexico, and the Texian Army gained more weapons and ammunition. Despite Houston’s lack of ability to maintain strict control of the Texian Army, they completely routed Santa Anna’s much larger army at the Battle of San Jacinto on 21 April 1836. The Texans shouted, “Remember Goliad, Remember the Alamo!” The day after the battle, a small Texan force led by James Austin Sylvester captured Santa Anna. They found the general dressed in a dragoon private’s uniform and hiding in a marsh.

After some time in exile in the U.S., and after meeting U.S. President Andrew Jackson in 1837, Santa Anna was allowed to return to Mexico. He was transported aboard the USS Pioneer to retire to his hacienda in Veracruz. Wile in Veracruz, Santa Anna wrote a manifesto in which he reflected on his Texas experiences as well as his surrender. His great impact on Mexico was that by age 35, he had built such a strong reputation as a military leader that he obtained high ranking. He acknowledged that by 1835, he considered Texas to be the biggest threat to Mexico, and he acted upon those threats.

In 1838, Santa Anna had a chance for redemption from the loss of Texas. After Mexico rejected French demands for financial compensation for losses suffered by French citizens, France sent forces that landed in Veracruz in the Pastry War. The Mexican government gave Santa Anna control of the army and ordered him to defend the nation by any means necessary. He engaged the French at Veracruz. During the Mexican retreat after a failed assault, Santa Anna was hit in the left leg and hand by cannon fire. His shattered ankle required amputation of much of his leg, which he ordered buried with full military honors. Despite Mexico’s final capitulation to French demands, Santa Anna used his war service and visible sacrifice to the nation to re-enter Mexican politics.

Santa Anna ruled in a more dictatorial way than during his first administration. His government banned anti-Santanista newspapers and jailed dissidents to suppress opposition. In 1842, he directed a military expedition into Texas. It inflicted numerous casualties with no political gain, but Texans began to be persuaded of the potential benefits of annexation by the more powerful United States. Santa Anna was unable to control the Mexican congressional elections of 1842. The new Congress was composed of men of principles who vigorously opposed the autocratic leader.

Trying to restore the treasury, Santa Anna raised taxes, but this aroused resistance. Several Mexican states stopped dealing with the central government, and Yucatán and Laredo declared themselves independent republics. With resentment growing, Santa Anna stepped down from power and fled in December 1844. The buried leg he left behind in the capital was dug up by a mob and dragged through the streets until nothing was left of it. Fearing for his life, he tried to elude capture, but in January 1845 he was apprehended by a group of Native Americans near Xico, Veracruz. They turned him over to authorities, and Santa Anna was imprisoned. His life was spared, but he was exiled to Cuba.

Two months after the death of his wife Inés García in 1844, the 50-year-old Santa Anna married 16-year-old María de Los Dolores de Tosta. The couple rarely lived together; de Tosta resided primarily in Mexico City, and Santa Anna’s political and military activities took him around the country. They had no children, leading biographer Will Fowler to speculate that the marriage was either primarily platonic or that de Tosta was infertile.

In 1846, when Mexican and American troops moved towards the Rio Grande into the disputed Nueces Strip, Santa Anna was in exile in Cuba. The Mexican army rapidly lost two major battles at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. The return of Santa Anna became more palatable. A coalition including Juan Alvarez forced out President Mariano Paredes and sought a return to a federal republic under the Constitution of 1824 with Santa Anna as president. Paredes was overthrown on 4 August 1846, and Santa Anna returned to Mexico from exile two days later. Santa Anna wrote to the government in Mexico City saying he had no aspirations to the presidency but would eagerly use his military experience in the new conflict. U.S. President James K. Polk had hoped to acquire territory in north by purchase or force, but the Mexican government was not willing to yield. In a gambit to change the dynamic, Polk sent agents to secretly meet with the exiled Santa Anna. They thought they had extracted a promise from him that they would lift the blockade of the Mexican coast to allow him to return and that he would broker a deal. Once back in Mexico at the head of an army, Santa Anna reneged on the deal, which had been a ruse to return to Mexico and lead the fight against the U.S. invasion. It had only been a year since he was forced out of the republic, and Santa Anna was still popular among the Mexican people. Although he had a history of double-dealing and corruption, many Mexicans acknowledged that Santa Anna was the most reliable person to help Mexico get through the many obstacles and threats that the country would often face. Santa Anna had no intention of getting involved in politics again, intending to solely focus on aiding the military in its war against the United States.

With no path now for a quick resolution to the conflict in the north, Polk authorized an invasion of central Mexico to take the capital and force Mexico to the negotiating table, redirecting the bulk of General Zachary Taylor’s troops to General Winfield Scott’s army. Santa Anna mobilized troops and artillery and rapidly marched north. Santa Anna’s forces outnumbered Taylor’s, but his troops were exhausted, ill-clothed, hungry, and equipped with inferior weapons when the two armies met at La Angostura in the Battle of Buena Vista on 22–23 February 1847. Hard fighting over two days brought an inconclusive result, with Santa Anna withdrawing from the field of battle overnight just as complete victory was at hand, taking war trophies such as cannons and battle flags as evidence of his victory. With Scott’s army landing at Veracruz, Santa Anna’s home ground, he rapidly moved southward to engage with the invaders and protect the capital. For the Mexicans it would have been better if Scott could have been prevented from leaving the Gulf Coast, but they could not prevent Scott’s march on Xalapa. Santa Anna set defenses at set defenses at Cerro Gordo. U.S. forces outflanked him and against strong odds defeated Santa Anna’s army. With that battle, the way was clear for Scott’s forces to advance further onto the capital. Santa Anna’s aim was to protect it at all costs and waged defensive warfare, placing strong defenses on the most direct road to the capital at El Peñon, which Scott then avoided. Battles at Contreras, Churubusco, and Molino del Rey were lost. At Contreras, Mexican General Gabriel Valencia, an old political and military rival of Santa Anna’s, did not recognize Santa Anna’s authority as supreme commander and disobeyed his orders as to where his troops should be placed. Valencia’s Army of the North was routed. The Battle for Mexico City and the Battle of Chapultepec, like the others, were hard fought losses, and the U.S. forces took the capital. “Despite his many faults as a tactician and his overbearing political ambition, Santa Anna was committed to fighting to the bitter end. His actions would prolong the war for at least a year, and more than any other single person it was Santa Anna who denied Polk’s dream of a short war.”

Following defeat in the Mexican–American War in 1848, Santa Anna went into exile in Kingston, Jamaica. Two years later, he moved to Turbaco, Colombia. In April 1853, he was invited back by conservatives who had overthrown a weak liberal government, initiated under the Plan de Hospicio in 1852, drawn up by the clerics in the cathedral chapter of Guadalajara. Usually, revolts were fomented by military officers; this one was created by churchmen. Santa Anna was elected president on 17 March 1853. Santa Anna honored his promises to the Church, revoking a decree denying protection for the fulfillment of monastic vows, a reform promulgated twenty years earlier during the era of Valentín Gómez Farías. The Jesuits, who had been expelled from Spanish realms by the crown in 1767, were allowed to return to Mexico ostensibly to educate poorer classes, and much of their property, which the crown had confiscated and sold, was restored to them.

A group of Liberals including Juan Alvarez, Benito Juárez, and Ignacio Comonfort overthrew Santa Anna under the Plan of Ayutla, which called for his removal from office. He went into exile yet again in 1855.

From 1855 to 1874, Santa Anna lived in exile in Cuba, the United States, Colombia, and Saint Thomas. He had left Mexico because of his unpopularity with the Mexican people after his defeat in 1848 and traveled to and from Cuba, the United States, and Europe. He participated in gambling and businesses with the hopes that he would become rich. During his many years in exile, Santa Anna was a passionate fan of the sport of cockfighting. He had many roosters that he entered into competitions and would have his roosters compete with cocks from all over the world.

In 1865, he attempted to return to Mexico and offer his services during the French invasion seeking once again to play the role as the country’s defender and savior, only to be refused by Juárez. Later that year a schooner owned by Gilbert Thompson, son-in-law of Daniel Tompkins, brought Santa Anna to his home in Staten Island, New York, where he tried to raise money for an army to return and take over Mexico City.

In 1874, he took advantage of a general amnesty issued by President Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada and returned to Mexico, by then crippled and almost blind from cataracts. Santa Anna died at his home in Mexico City on 21 June 1876 at age 82. He was buried with full military honors in a glass coffin in Panteón del Tepeyac Cemetery.

Perhaps Santa Anna’s most personal and ignominious incident in the war was the capture of his prosthetic cork leg during the Battle of Cerro Gordo, which remains as a war trophy in the U.S. held by the Illinois State Military Museum but no longer on display. Images of it remain accessible on the web. A second leg, a peg, was also captured by the 4th Illinois and was reportedly used by the soldiers as a baseball bat; it is displayed at the home of Illinois Governor Richard J. Oglesby (who served in the regiment) in Decatur. Santa Anna had a replacement leg made which is displayed at the Museo Nacional de Historia in Mexico City. The prosthetic played a role in international politics. As relations between the U.S. and Mexico warmed during the run-up to World War II, Illinois was rumored to be ready to return it to Mexico and, in 1942, a bill was introduced in the state legislature. The Association of Limb Manufacturers wanted to be part of the repatriation ceremonies. The state passed a non-binding resolution to return it, but the National Guard denied the transfer.