Antonio López de Santa Anna

Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón, usually known as Antonio López de Santa Anna (Spanish pronunciation: [anˈtonjo ˈlopes ðe sanˈtana]; 21 February 1794 – 21 June 1876), or just Santa Anna, was a Mexican soldier, politician, and caudillo who served as the 8th president of Mexico multiple times between 1833 and 1855. He also served as Vice President of Mexico from 1837 to 1839. He was a controversial and pivotal figure in Mexican politics during the 19th century, to the point that he has been called an "uncrowned monarch", and historians often refer to the three decades after Mexican independence as the "Age of Santa Anna".

Santa Anna was in charge of the garrison at Veracruz at the time Mexico won independence in 1821. He would go on to play a notable role in the fall of the First Mexican Empire, the fall of the First Mexican Republic, the promulgation of the Constitution of 1835, the establishment of the Centralist Republic of Mexico, the Texas Revolution, the Pastry War, the promulgation of the Constitution of 1843, and the Mexican–American War. He became well known in the United States due to his role in the Texas Revolution and in the Mexican–American War.

Throughout his political career, Santa Anna was known for switching sides in the recurring conflict between the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party. He managed to play a prominent role in both discarding the liberal Constitution of 1824 in 1835 and in restoring it in 1847. He came to power as a liberal twice in 1832 and in 1847 respectively, both times sharing power with the liberal statesman Valentín Gómez Farías, and both times Santa Anna overthrew Gómez Farías after switching sides to the conservatives. Santa Anna was also known for his ostentatious and dictatorial style of rule, making use of the military to dissolve Congress multiple times and referring to himself by the honorific title of His Most Serene Highness.

His intermittent periods of rule, which lasted from 1832 to 1853, witnessed the loss of Texas, a series of military failures during the Mexican–American War, and the ensuing Mexican Cession. His leadership in the war and his willingness to fight to the bitter end prolonged that conflict: "more than any other single person it was Santa Anna who denied Polk's dream of a short war." Even after the war was over, Santa Anna continued to cede national territory to the Americans through the Gadsden Purchase in 1853.

After he was overthrown and exiled in 1855 through the liberal Plan of Ayutla, Santa Anna began to fade into the background in Mexican politics even as the nation entered the decisive period of the Reform War, the Second French Intervention in Mexico, and the establishment of the Second Mexican Empire. An elderly Santa Anna was allowed to return to the nation by President Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada in 1874, and he died in relative obscurity in 1876.

Historians debate the exact number of his presidencies, as he would often share power and make use of puppet rulers; biographer Will Fowler gives the figure of six terms while the Texas State Historical Association claims five. Historian of Latin America, Alexander Dawson counts eleven times that Santa Anna assumed the presidency, often for short periods. The University of Texas Libraries cites the same figure of eleven times, but adds Santa Anna was only president for six years due to short terms.

Santa Anna's legacy has subsequently come to be viewed as profoundly negative, with historians and many Mexicans ranking him as "the principal inhabitant even today of Mexico's black pantheon of those who failed the nation". He is considered one of the most unpopular and controversial Mexican presidents of the 19th century.