Agustin de Iturbide was one of the primary figures in winning the Mexican War for Independence, despite the fact that he initially began fighting against the rebellion. Why did he switch sides? In order to answer the question, it's important to understand what was happening in Spain during the war.
The two centuries of colonial rule by the royalty of Spain, were what the liberals and rebels of Mexico fought against; they sought to overturn the crown's control and make the country into a democratic republic. For the first few years of the war, Iturbide had resisted that force and fought to protect the crown's influence. However, the Spanish monarchy was in serious trouble; the power of King Ferdinand VII became very limited, after the 1812 Cadiz Constitution established a constitutional monarchy in the country. There was a danger that Ferdinand might be forced out the the country, and the Mexican nobility were very concerned at that prospect.
This spelled trouble for the wealthy elite in the colonies; their power was based almost entirely on royal decree. The colonial system had been in place for centuries; however, if the king's power was eradicated, there was a serious chance that the system would collapse, and there would be no royal support system to stop it. The viceregal government system of Mexico City--the monarchy's representatives in the colony--dissolved shortly after the Spanish constitutional announcement. There was a power vacuum in Mexico and a huge rebellion underway. The nobility--also called the criollo--sought to kill two birds with one stone; allow Mexico to become autonomous, and bring the deposed King Ferdinand over to rule it.
Augustin de Iturbide became convinced that simply squashing the rebellion would not work. He was still violently opposed to a free republican Mexico, but he agreed with the other nobles that a free Mexico could still be an empire. Iturbide's tactical planning skills told him that he'd need a lot of help from the rebel side, so in 1820 he reached out to Vincente Guerrero, the insurgency leader. Agustin offered a truce, demonstrating that the two sides now had the same goal: an independent Mexico. Guerrero cautiously agreed to form an unlikely coalition with Iturbide, and the two men worked out a strategy called the Plan of Iguala. In March 1821, Iturbide was named the leader of the coalition army.
The plan was a cunning (and vague) document that promised exactly what all parties wanted. It declared that the center of New Spain would move to Mexico City, and offered three guarantees. At the forefront, that Mexico would have its independence; this satisfied the insurgents. The second guarantee, that Roman Catholicism would be the official religion, got the church to agree to participate. The third guarantee stated that all nobles--whether they were born in Spain or in Mexico to Spanish parents--would be equal. By late 1821, the plan was in motion, and Iturbide was now at the forefront of the fight for Mexican independence.
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