Augustin de iturbide biography of alberta california

After enjoying a better education than was then usual in Mexico, Iturbide entered the military service, and in held the post of lieutenant in the provincial regiment of his native city. In that year the insurrection under Hidalgo broke out, and Iturbide, more from policy, it would seem, than from principle, served in the royal army.

Possessed of splendid courage and brilliant military talents, which fitted him especially for guerilla warfare, the young creole did signal service, and rapidly rose in military rank.

Why did the natives of new mexico revolt against spanish settlers

In December Colonel Iturbide, along with General Llano, dealt a crushing blow to the revolt by defeating Morelos, the successor of Hidalgo, in the battle of Valladolid; and the former followed it up by another decisive victory at Puruaran in January Next year Don Augustin was appointed to the command of the army of the north and to the governorship of the provinces of Valladolid and Guanajuato, but in grave charges of extortion and violence were brought against him, which led to his recall.

Although the general was acquitted, or at least although the inquiry was dropped, he did not resume his commands, but retired into private life for four years, which, we are told, he spent in a rigid course of penance for his former excesses. In Apodaca, viceroy of Mexico, received instructions from the Spanish cortes to proclaim the constitution promulgated in Spain in , but although obliged at first to submit to an order by which his power was much curtailed, he secretly cherished the design of reviving the absolute power for Ferdinand VII.

Under pretext of putting down the lingering remains of revolt, he levied troops, and, placing Iturbide at their head, instructed him to proclaim the absolute power of the king. Four years of reflection, however, had modified the general's views, and now, led both by personal ambition and by patriotic regard for his country, Iturbide resolved to espouse the cause of national independence.

His subsequent proceedings - how he issued the Plan of Iguala, on the 24th of February , how by the refusal of the Spanish cortes to ratify the treaty of Cordova, which he had signed with O'Donoju, he was transformed from a mere champion of monarchy into a candidate for the crown, and how, hailed by the soldiers as Emperor Augustin I. But Iturbide resolved to make one more bid for power; and in , passing from Leghorn to London, he published a Statement, and on the 11th of May set sail for Mexico.