Annie Zhu

4/23/16

TX History 7
Period 8
Santa Anna Bio

Antonio Lpez de Santa Anna was born on February 21, 1794 in the state of Vera Cruz.
He was raised there by his parents, Manuela Prez de Lebrn and Antonio Lpez de Santa Anna,
who was a minor colonial official. His fathers position in the military pushed him to join the
army. As the only son, he wanted to please his father so he applied. At the age 16, he was one of
the youngest man who fought during the Mexican War of Independence. Though he later pledged
himself to the Mexican side, originally he took his part in the Spanish army. After this first
experience he found that he possessed a talent as a soldier, and that it was a good fit for him.
Although he had received some formal education and attempted a short career as a merchant, his
passion lie in the army.
Slowly but surely he began to rise to power. While severing the Spanish army, Santa
Anna started off as a mere cadet, a young trainee. Then in 1821 Santa Anna switched sides. In
hopes of installing Augustin de Iturbide as the president of an independent Mexico, he led other
rebels to the Mexican side. This was a critical decision. Only because of his faith to Mexico, was
he ever able to reach the top of the status levels, for after the Mexicans had won their
independence, which he contributed to, he would pry into the citizens fears and angers to
represent himself as the only viable leader that could achieve their dreams.
This journey to success began with building a strong reputation with impressive
achievements to reinforce it. He took advantage of the chaos resulting to the newly independent
Mexico. The government was in a state of confusion and Santa Anna used his control in the army
to establish Guadalupe Victoria as the first president. This work earned him the post as the
highest-ranking general. With this new power, Santa Anna lead his army in 1829 against the
Spanish who were attempting to reconquer their former colony, but they were defeated by Santa
Anna who then earned the grand title of Hero of the Tampico. Using this new victory as a
demonstration of his talent and hard work, he was soon promoted to governor.
Santa Anna declared that he would dedicate his life in the noble act of protecting and
strengthening the great country which he was born in, Mexico. With those promising
declarations and brave deeds in battle, he was able to win the spot as President of Mexico in
1833. Santa Anna was backed with overwhelming support from the citizens who voted for him
through a democratic election. However, he preferred the dictatorial way of ruling, which he
implemented on his people and afterwards he came to love the taste of power. Santa Anna
became president five times and directly ruled about eleven times. Each time he ruled in the form
of autocratic centralism with his army to assist him and he denounced the 1824 constitution to
replace it with one where he held more power. Sadly no real benefit or major accomplishments
came from his rulings. Soon, the citizens began to rebel.
Most of the rebellions occurred in the colony made up of mostly U.S. settlers located in
what is now Texas. They felt that there was nothing to be gained by the Mexican government and
many were displeased with the way the laws and rights were treated. On the other side, Santa
Anna and the Mexican government found the Anglo colony to be more and more of a nuisance
that challenged and posed a threat to the government.

In 1833 the Texas revolution started. Santa Anna decided to prove his faith to his country
by personally leading and directing the Mexican military although being the president meant that
he could have just stayed at the capital. He directed the Mexican army which outnumbered the
Texas army with General Juan Almonte. It was under his orders, that the Mexicans surrounded
the Alamo, killed all the Texans, and took no prisoners. Santa Anna had one flaw though; he was
overconfident and too proud. In his opinion, the Mexican said had already won but just to make a
grand sweep around Texas, they stayed a little longer. Believing everything was under firm
control, Santa Anna and his army decided to take a nice long siesta, nap, on April 21, 1836.
He woke up to find himself being attacked by the Texas army lead by Sam Houston. This
battle now known as the Battle of San Jacinto, famously lasted a mere 18 minutes, compared to
the 13 days of the Alamo. The element of surprise left the Mexicans with no time to get prepared
or organized. This was a crushing defeat for Santa Anna, while the Texans got their revenge for
what had happened during the Alamo. Even worse, Santa was taken captive, forced to sign a
peace treaty, and taken to Washington D.C.
Back at his home, he had lost most of his power from the losing the Texas revolution.
Luckily, he was able to fight off the French invasion force in 1838 and gained some support
again. Determined to stay in power, he emphasized his bravery and talent showed in many of his
battles. He even took the step to find half of his leg he had lost in battle to be showcased around
Mexico all in hopes of staying the supreme commander of the army and, in the long run, he
hoped to be remembered as a great, powerful leader.
Yet, that was not what he got. The United States of America gave more trouble to Santa
Anna. They had already unofficially helped the Texas army defeat him during the Texas
Revolution, and then they waged war against him during the Mexican-American War. The U.S.
took advantage of the internal conflict that Mexico was facing, which made Mexico much more
unprepared and unorganized. When the Americans won the war with a crushing victory, the
Mexican government and citizens turned to Santa Anna for blame. He tried to hold on to power
but in 1853 it was all lost.
Santa Anna was never nearly as good with money than he was with battle. Unsure of
what to do, he decided in the end to sell millions of acres in what is now Arizona and New
Mexico to the United States. This sparked a united opposition against he formed by the citizens
living there. It was the final straw that lead Santa Anna to be desposed. He never returned to
politics again.
Throughout his life, Santa Anna fought many battles from the Mexican War of
Independence to the Texas Revolution, to the Mexican- American War. In the end his biggest
battle was fighting to keep himself in power. He was always in and out of the limelightsometimes even being exiled from his country. However, he will always be remembered as one
of the most influential leaders Mexico has ever faced.