The life of General Don Manuel de Mier y Terán as it affected Texas-Mexican relations, 1821-1832

The period of Mexican history, and incidentally, Texas history, to which General Manuel de Mier y Teran belongs, 1821-1832, was one of unrelieved turbulence in national politics. Mexico threw off the heavy yoke of Spanish domination in 1821. It began its independent career, after eleven years of revolution, under a regency, which lasted only a few months. In 1822, Iturbide was proclaimed Emperor, but before the end of the year he had dissolved the constituent congress and established a virtual dictatorship, with a congress, or junta, of hand-picked delegates. In December, 1822, Santa Anna took the lead in a revolution which resulted in the fall of the empire, the exile of Iturbide, and the establishment of a republic under a plural executive, the poder ejecutivo. In 1824, a federal constitution was adopted and Guadalupe Victoria was elected first president of the Republic of Mexico. In 1825, the Spaniards gave up their last military stronghold in New Spain, San Juan de Ulloa. In 1827, the Mexican government arbitrarily provided for the expulsion of all Spaniards from Mexico. These events were accompanied by plots to reconquer Mexico, and the exile of many important government officials for alleged participation in the conspiracies. Then came civil war in December, 1827, and January, 1828, resulting from the proclamation of the Plan of Montano, a program calculated to expel the remaining Spaniards by force; to expel Poinsett, United States Minister to Mexico; to abolish Masonic parties in Mexico; and to remove Gomez Pedraza from the war ministry. Pedraza was elected president that same year, but General Vicente Guerrero, supported by Santa Anna, contested the election and another revolution was launched. The Guerrero party won, and Guerrero became the second president of the republic, with Anastasio Bustamante duly elected and uncontested vice-president. During the summer of 1829, Spanish forces landed at Tampico with the avowed object of reconquering Mexico, but they were soon defeated by forces under Santa Anna and Mier y Teran. In December, 1829, the vice-president, Bustamante, in the Plan of Jalapa, pronounced against the government. President Guerrero took to the field and Jose Maria de Bocanegra assumed the executive power for a few days as president ad interim. In January, 1830, Bustamante was seated as vice-president, but with full executive powers. Guerrero fled to the South and continued fighting against the forces which he believed had usurped his rights (which many believed he had usurped from Pedraza). The execution of Guerrero, in February, 1831, ended for a time the civil strife, but less than a year later, January, 1832, Santa Anna emerged from retirement and pronounced against the Bustamante government. During the revolution which followed, Mier y Teran, who supported the government, in a spell of despondency, committed suicide. The dates selected for the sub-title of this thesis, 1821-1832, mark the beginning of the history of Texas as a part of independent Mexico, and the end of the interesting career of Mier y Teran. The last date, incidentally, marks also the eve of the Texas Revolution and virtually the end of the history of Texas as a part of MexicoGovernmen