Santa Anna
Mexican military dictator
Antonio López de Santa Anna was a Mexican general and politician who dominated his country's politics for much of the 19th century, serving as president eleven times.
He is best remembered in the United States for commanding Mexican forces at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836, where his troops defeated Texan defenders.
His later defeat at San Jacinto secured Texas independence.
Santa Anna remains a complex figure—reviled in Texas as a tyrant, viewed more ambivalently in Mexico as both patriot and opportunist.
- caudilloHispanic authoritarian leader
- generalWidespread, not specialized
- dictatorRuler with total control
- Texas RevolutionWar creating a republic
- siege warfareSurrounding fortifications to force capitulation
Mexican-American War · Texas independence · exile · Chapultepec · historical figure · political leader · Alamo · wooden leg · chewing gum · nationalist · Buena Vista · prisoner exchange · statesman · Napoleon · independence · defeat · leg · military
- Mexican HistoryMexican Revolution, Mexican Independence, Mexican-American War, Texas Revolution, Aztec Empire
- 19th Century LeadersLincoln, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, Napoleon III, Victoria
- Famous MexicansBenito Juarez, Frida Kahlo, Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, Diego Rivera
- Latin LeadersFidel Castro, Bolivar, Pinochet, Batista, Chavez
- Mexican WarZachary Taylor, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, James K. Polk, generals
- Mexican-American WarZachary Taylor, James K. Polk, Polk, Buena Vista, Chapultepec
Santa AnnaSam Houston
liberator · Stephen F. Austin · freedom fighter · Davy Crockett · James Bowie
Santa AnnaBenito Juárez
federalist · constitutionalist · democrat · reformer · republican
Santa AnnaZachary Taylor
Twelfth American chief executive
Sam Houston · George Washington · Simón Bolívar · national hero