First Mexican Republic
The First Mexican Republic, known also as the First Federal Republic (Spanish: Primera República Federal), existed from 1824 to 1835. It was a federated republic, established by the Constitution of 1824, the first constitution of independent Mexico, and officially designated the United Mexican States (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos, ⓘ). It ended in 1835, when conservatives under Antonio López de Santa Anna transformed it into a unitary state, the Centralist Republic of Mexico.
Mexican Republic República Mexicana | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1823–1835 | |||||||||
| Motto: Religión, Independencia, Unión Religion, Independence, Union | |||||||||
Mexico in 1830 | |||||||||
| Capital | Mexico City | ||||||||
| Common languages | Spanish (official), Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya, Mixtecan languages, Zapotec languages | ||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism (official religion) | ||||||||
| Government | Federal presidential republic | ||||||||
| President | |||||||||
• 1824–1829 | Guadalupe Victoria (first) | ||||||||
• 1835 | Miguel Barragán (last) | ||||||||
| Vice President | |||||||||
• 1824–1827 | Nicolás Bravo | ||||||||
• 1829–1832 | Anastasio Bustamante | ||||||||
• 1833–1835 | Valentín Gómez Farías | ||||||||
| Legislature | Congress | ||||||||
• Upper house | Senate | ||||||||
• Lower house | Chamber of Deputies | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Republic established | 1 November 1823 | ||||||||
| 4 October 1824 | |||||||||
| 23 October 1835 | |||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1824 | 6,500,000 | ||||||||
• 1834 | 7,734,292 | ||||||||
| Currency | Mexican real | ||||||||
| ISO 3166 code | MX | ||||||||
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| Today part of | Mexico United States | ||||||||
The republic was proclaimed on November 1, 1823 by the Supreme Executive Power, months after the fall of the Mexican Empire ruled emperor Agustin I, a former royalist military officer-turned-insurgent for independence. The federation was formally and legally established on October 4, 1824, when the Federal Constitution of the United Mexican States came into force.
The First Republic was plagued through its entire twelve-year existence by severe financial and political instability. Political controversies, ever since the drafting of the constitution tended to center around whether Mexico should be a federal or a centralist state, with wider liberal and conservative causes attaching themselves to each faction respectively. With the exception of the inaugural office holder, Guadalupe Victoria, every single administration during the First Republic was overthrown by military coup d'état.
The First Republic would finally collapse after the overthrow of the liberal president Valentín Gómez Farías, through a rebellion led by his former vice-president, General Antonio López de Santa Anna who had switched sides. Once in power, the conservatives, who had long been critical of the federal system and blamed it for the nation's instability, repealed the Constitution of 1824 on October 23, 1835, and the Federal Republic became a unitary state, the Centralist Republic. The unitary regime was formally established on December 30, 1836, with the enactment of the seven constitutional laws.