Revolt of 1832

This rebellion led to the downfall of the government of Mexico. Late in 1831, following a pattern established during the independence period (1810–1821), a group of congressmen and prominent Mexico City individuals formed a secret committee to oppose the oppressive regime of Anastasio Bustamante. They convinced the Veracruz garrison to initiate a revolt in January 1832 and obtained the participation of General Antonio López de Santa Anna. The committee subsequently convinced leaders in other states to rebel. Although the revolt drove Bustamante from power in December 1832 and resulted in the election of a liberal government, it also contributed to the fall of the federal system in 1834–1835.

Cast as a hero by the committee, Santa Anna won the presidency for the first time in several attempts, thus initiating his career as a broker among contending political groups. The national army, which supported Bustamante, destroyed or so severely weakened the militias of the major states that they were unable to defend federalism effectively in 1834–1835.

The fratricidal conflict of 1832, which not only divided the nation but also obstructed national efforts to control the emigrants to Texas, so depressed General Manuel Mier y Terán, the most prominent candidate for the 1833 presidential elections and the leading figure in the north, that he committed suicide. His death ended the possibility of a peaceful solution to either the national conflict or the Anglo-American problems in the north, particularly in Texas.

See alsoBustamante, Anastasio; Santa Anna, Antonio López de.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jaime E. Rodríguez O., ed., Patterns of Contention in Mexican History (1992), pp. 145-205.

Additional Bibliography

Gonzalez, Michael J. The Mexican Revolution, 1910–1940. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2002.

Tutino, John. From Insurrection to Revolution in Mexico: The Social Bases of Agrarian Violence, 1750–1940. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987.

Vaughan, Mary Kay, and Stephen E. Lewis., eds. The Eagle and the Virgin: National and Cultural Revolution in Mexico, 1920–1940. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006.

                          Jaime E. RodrÍguez O.