Agustin de Iturbide, the first Emperor of Mexico, had a fascinating trip to the throne. He was instrumental in winning the War of Independence from Spain. By uniting two opposing sides into a coalition army, it seemed that he could please everyone. With a truce signed in 1820, he began his march on the new enemy: the puppet viceregal government in Mexico City.
The truce-building Plan of Iguala proved to be a crowd-pleaser, and Iturbide soon found himself leading a massive coalition army. He was joined in the march on Mexico City with forces on all sides; soldiers and villagers, royalist nobles, and peasant insurgents. The men and women who had been bitter enemies for nearly a decade found that they were now the most unlikely allies. On September 27 1821, Iturbide led his Army of the Three Guarantees through the streets of Mexico City, cheered by the local populace. Left with no choice, viceroy Juan de O'Donoju quickly negotiated the Treaty of Cordoba. The document declared that Mexico was an autonomous empire, free from Spanish rule. Iturbide had gotten exactly what he wanted, but then the plan started to unravel.
The Treaty of Cordoba, like the Plan of Iguala, extended an invitation to King Ferdinand VII of Spain to come rule Mexico; if he declined, his brother or another member of the royal House of Bourbon would take the throne. While they looked for a king, Iturbide declared himself president of the provisional government, which would temporarily look after the fledgling country. However, King Ferdinand had regained power back in Spain, and no longer faced the threat of exile. He even made plans to reconquer the colony; with the possibility of igniting a political firestorm, no European noble would dare attempt to don the crown of Mexico.
Mexico had no monarch, and the hastily assembled interim government was quickly becoming the only legitimate form of leadership in the nation. Its members were all overwhelmingly loyal to Iturbide, and his selfish motivations were quickly becoming clear to everyone. Obsessed with keeping the power in the hands of the elite class, Iturbide had purposefully left the insurgents and progressives out of the loop. As the leaders tried to figure out a stable congressional model, their ideological differences eventually came to a head in early 1822. Faced with intense political destabilization, Iturbide took a bold step and declared himself the Emperor of Mexico.
The motivations behind this decision have been the subject of intense debate. Many people saw Iturbide's actions as a deliberate coup, claiming that his supporters orchestrated a false wave of public support. Others claim that the public sincerely offered him the crown, to demonstrate their gratitude for his role in liberating Mexico. Iturbide initially rejected the offer, hoping to convince King Ferdinand to change his mind. But knowing his skill for public manipulation and clever planning, it seems equally likely that Iturbide could have staged the scene and cast himself in the role of reluctant Emperor.
Either way, Iturbide's coronation took place in July 1822, when he and his wife Ana Maria were crowned Emperor and Empress. They moved into the huge Palace of Iturbide, where Agustin quickly awarded himself an impressive royal salary. In theory, the bold move should have settled Mexico; after all, the provisions of the Treaty of Cordoba were now fully met. It was an achievement that the country was ruled by a monarch, and the country was now independent from Spain, but the arrangement was to be short-lived.
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