Discontent with the emperor's national government grew, Brigadier Antonio López de Santa Anna initiated an insurrection. Generals issued the Plan of Casa Mata on 1 February 1823, which called for the removal of the emperor, but did not specify the form of government to follow. The plan won the support of the provinces because it included a provision granting local authority to the provincial deputations. The election of a new legislature constituted the plan’s principal demand, because provincial leaders considered the composition of the first congress following independence to be flawed. Following the precedent of the Spanish Cortes (parliament), Mexican political leaders considered the executive to be subservient to the legislature. Thus, a new congress, which did not possess the liabilities of the old, could restore confidence even if the executive remained in place. Mexican politicians expected the new body to keep the emperor in check. Agustin abdicated in March 1823.
The failure of Iturbide’s short-lived empire ended any further talk of a monarchy, although Conservatives such as Lucas Alamán harbored dreams of one, fulfilled in the 1860s to disastrous results of the Second Mexican Empire. The reconvened Mexican Cortes appointed a triumvirate called the Supreme Executive Power, which would alternate the presidency among its members on a monthly basis. But the question of how the nation was to be organized remained unresolved. The Mexican Cortes, following the Cádiz model, maintained that it was sovereign since it represented the nation. The provinces, however, believed that they possessed sovereignty, a portion of which they collectively ceded to form a national government. The Cortes insisted on writing the nation's constitution, but the provinces maintained that it could only convene a new constituent congress based on the electoral regulations of the Constitution of Cádiz. Neither side was willing to cede to the other. In the months that followed, the provinces assumed control of their governments through their provincial deputations. Four provinces, Oaxaca, Yucatán, Guadalajara, and Zacatecas, converted themselves into states. To avoid civil war, the Cortes acquiesced and elected a new constituent congress. Elections for a second constituent assembly, based on a convocatoria issued 26 June 1821 by the Cortes, were held throughout the nation in August and September. The executive branch was not restructured, because both the provinces and the new constituent congress considered it subservient to the legislature.The Mexican War of Independence (1810–1821) severed control that Spain had exercised on its North American territories, and the First Mexican Empire was formed from much of the individual territory that had comprised New Spain.[2] The victorious rebels issued a provisional governing document, the Plan de Iguala. This plan reaffirmed many of the ideals of the Spanish Constitution of 1812 and granted equal citizenship rights to all races.[2] In the early days of the country, there was much disagreement over whether Mexico should be a federal republic or a constitutional monarchy.[3] AgustĂn de Iturbide, who had drafted the Plan of Iguala, became the first monarch, Agustin I after no European royal blood sought to be emperor.
Discontent with the emperor's national government grew, Brigadier Antonio López de Santa Anna initiated an insurrection. Generals issued the Plan of Casa Mata on 1 February 1823, which called for the removal of the emperor, but did not specify the form of government to follow. The plan won the support of the provinces because it included a provision granting local authority to the provincial deputations. The election of a new legislature constituted the plan’s principal demand, because provincial leaders considered the composition of the first congress following independence to be flawed. Following the precedent of the Spanish Cortes (parliament), Mexican political leaders considered the executive to be subservient to the legislature. Thus, a new congress, which did not possess the liabilities of the old, could restore confidence even if the executive remained in place. Mexican politicians expected the new body to keep the emperor in check. Agustin abdicated in March 1823.
The failure of Iturbide’s short-lived empire ended any further talk of a monarchy, although Conservatives such as Lucas Alamán harbored dreams of one, fulfilled in the 1860s to disastrous results of the Second Mexican Empire. The reconvened Mexican Cortes appointed a triumvirate called the Supreme Executive Power, which would alternate the presidency among its members on a monthly basis. But the question of how the nation was to be organized remained unresolved.
