CHAPTER 15
COLLAPSE OF NEW SPAIN AND RISE THE MEXICAN EMPIRE
As the Caribbean became a theater of war and Spain collapsed into the dustbin of history, Mexico was in the midst of a civil war. By the dawn of 1828, however, it stood united under a single man who held Napoleon up as his role-model.
In late 1827, the Mexicans finally overthrew the skeleton crew Spanish army holding the colony down. Ferdinand had been dead for several months, and news had reached New Spain long ago that the young King of Rome was preparing to seize the Spanish Throne. This was the opportune moment for a new independent government to rule in Mexico and join the North American circle of nations. The Mexican Napoleon crushed all of his enemies and prepared to take absolute power. Radicals were moving in from Gran Colombia, and they had already established the "Mexican Republic of Panama" with the expressed purpose of having it being the cornerstone for a new Mexican democratic nation. Georgian and French troops were moving in from New Orleans and establishing camps in Texas. The militarists in Georgia still held high the name of Archibald Bulloch, their first Prime Minister, and Mexico's fear was growing that they seemed to be pondering an all-out French-backed invasion to add more territory to their own little "empire." The Mexicans urged Texas to resist peacefully, and it left the Georgians in no position to "give aide" or "militarily assist" the "very independent" Mexico. In other words, Georgia couldn't pull the same trick Virginia had in Cuba. Instead, once the newly forming Mexico City government told the easterners to get out, they had no choice but to do so or look like total aggressors. This entire Mexican conflict was why Georgia stayed neutral during the Cuba conflict, as trying to fight the Carolinas while also dealing with an unstable expansionist Mexico was a recipe for disaster. Georgia had expanded industry and was far more self-sufficient than the colonial Old South, of course, but a two-front war was exactly what was dragging Virginia down at this same time period.
The leader of the Mexican revolutionaries was Agustín Cosme Damián de Iturbide y Arámburu, better known simply as Iturbide, and he possessed the mind of an absolute genius. He rallied the ad-hoc army he had assembled, acquired uniforms for the elites, and marched them north to the Louisiana border and held a formal ceremony at the departure of the French and Georgian "allies," to send a message they were not welcome to return.
Iturbide then proceeded to systematically purge his government of all who opposed him, which he cheerfully called "starting out on the right foot." The next move after that was to formally absorb Panama into the "Confederated Empire of Mexico." In mid-1828, he sent troops to fight with the Gran Colombians in South America, in an attempt to finally rid the two continents of Spanish rule forever. It would become a bloody affair, lasting till 1831. The Spanish in South America were being reinforced by the fleeing Spanish loyalists in Europe who desperately wanted to continue Bourbon rule in exile, and they made the going much tougher for the liberators. France at first helped in Peru against their common Spanish enemy, striking out from French-held Brazil, but soon after ceased doing so, becoming increasingly wary of Iturbide's intentions and were growing wary of some sort of domino-effect revolution breaking out in Brazil.
In late 1828, Iturbide finally made it known that he was now the Emperor, absolute in power, of all Mexico. He proclaimed that his empire stretched from Texas in the east, to Panama in the south, to southern California to the west. France was horrified, and immediately officially annexed more western territory onto Louisiana, hoping to eventually head off the Mexican Napoleon on the route to the Pacific.
Flag of the Confederated Empire of Mexico
Iturbide faced a civil war in Texas in 1830, led by a local militia leader known simply by the commoners as "Santa Anna." Several violent confrontations occurred, with many Santa Anna supporters being killed by government troops. Iturbide "crossed the aisle" in a gesture of "good will and patriotic camaraderie" and offered to give Texas more local authority and jurisdiction, as well as officially renaming the country as "the Confederated Empire of Mexico and Texas." Texas refused, and in a bloody last stand at an abandoned Catholic mission, Santa Anna's largest force was brutally overwhelmed and massacred by Iturbide's forces. The rebel leader barely escaped with his life.
Georgia finally intervened and sent troops into Texas once again, followed by a declaration of war on the Mexican Empire. France followed this lead, and declared Iturbide a problem that had to be solved. Santa Anna rallied his men once more under his Bloody Arm banner and Allied and Texan troops liberated Texas from Mexican rule on November 14, 1830. Santa Anna was installed as President of the Democratic Republic of Texas.
Flag of the Democratic Republic of Texas
President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna of Texas in full dress uniform
Mexico was furious, and Iturbide demanded vengeance. His army attacked once more, torching towns along the Texas-Mexico border. Next, skirmishers and Native Americans who had signed up under his cause went north into Louisiana, pillaging and burning frontier towns and taking the scalps of French settlers. It was then that France noticed a disturbing fact: many of the settlers in the Louisiana colony were Union citizens, there illegally staking claims and homesteading. In fact, in the northern areas, Yankees outnumbered French 3-to-1. This was very, very upsetting to Napoleon and he wanted to remove them, but the war with Mexico simply needed more attention. But the insult to French sovereignty would not be forgotten. Interestingly enough, American settlers created militias and went to war as well with Mexico. Perhaps the Papist they knew was better than the Papist they didn't know (and that was talking scalps; that probably didn't help either). These American settlers, known by most as the "Yankee Cowboys" had built entire towns right under the French Empire's nose. In fact, the first AFC Church built outside of Union land went up in Praise, North Dakota. A town France didn't even know existed until troops from Canada were passing through and thought they had crossed into Michigania by accident.
Down in war-torn South America, Peru had declared independence in its capital of Lima. Though a general named Antonio Jose Estevez had tried to initially declare himself prince (as well as an ally of Iturbide), the people rejected and exiled him and drew up a republican system of government, based largely on Georgia. It welcomed Georgian legal advisers to come in and help write the new constitution. The young republic then looked inward and forward to a hopefully peaceful future. Chile declared itself independent in 1831, a year after Peru, and based itself on similar ideas and beliefs. However, once a series of Mexican-backed dictators rose and were overthrown in a series of brutal revolts, the smoldering ash-heap of a country lost its independence to Peru, who finally brought in rule of law and stable leadership. The last Mexican troops withdrew as the most recent government was imprisoned, thus ending Iturbide's "Wars of Liberation."
In Argentina, the French had taken over in 1828-1829, and all attempts at independence were quashed utterly, ending in the execution by guillotine of rebel leader José de San Martín. The French then made Argentina a colonial administration, and turned it into just another disparate part of the monstrously bloated French Empire.
The Georgian Army was stretched thin, as they kept a large amount of troops home in case hostilities broke out with the Carolinas. Napoleon was still dealing with revolts in India that were consuming all his best resources, as well as struggling to kill nascent Mexican-backed marauders in the frontiers of Louisiana. Also at this time, the Plains Indians declared a war upon European settlers, starting up the last big phase of the Conquering of the West. Occupying the massive backwater of Mexico permanently was about the last thing Napoleon wanted to do, and he just wanted Iturbide gone. For now, however, Iturbide remained,
constantly harassing Louisiana and Texas and
constantly eating up man-power. Peace would not come for years.