One of his ancestors, Martín de Iturbide, was designated as Royal Merino in the High Valley of Baztan in the 1430s, and thereafter many in the family held political or administrative positions in the Basque Country from the 15th century.

[11][12] Agustín studied at the Catholic seminary called Colegio de San Nicolás in Valladolid, enrolled in the program for secular officials, though he was not a distinguished student.

[8] In 1805, when he was twenty-two, Iturbide married Doña Ana María Josefa Ramona de Huarte y Muñiz, member of the House of Tagle of the family of the Marquises of Altamira.

With her dowry of 100,000 pesos, the couple bought the Hacienda of San José de Apeo in the small town of Maravatío,[8] not far from property owned by Father Miguel Hidalgo, who became leader of the insurgency for independence in 1810.

He demonstrated his tactical skill and horsemanship by breaking Morelos's siege of the town with a well-executed cavalry charge that caused the insurgent forces to withdraw into the forest.

[24] As for corruption, the Count of Pérez Galvez extensively testified that profiteering by many royalist officers, of whom Iturbide was the most visible, was draining the effectiveness of the royal army.

[17][25] That led to the disintegration of viceregal authority in Mexico City, and a political vacuum developed that the Mexican nobility sought to fill, seeking limited representation and autonomy for themselves within the empire.

[5] In the "Embrace of Acatempán", named after the locale, they agreed to implement the plan,[2][3] which was made public on 24 February 1821 by Iturbide, Guerrero, and another insurgent leader, Guadalupe Victoria.

[26] The hastily negotiated Treaty of Córdoba[20] was similar in terms of its outcomes to the Plan de Iguala—the document tried to guarantee an independent monarchy for New Spain under the Bourbon dynasty.

To show the military might of the alliance, Iturbide co-ordinated with associated royalist and insurgent commanders in the provinces, opting for a replay of the strategy of closing in on Mexico City from the periphery, which Morelos had attempted in 1811–14.

What remained of the royalist army retreated to Veracruz and was cornered in the fortress of San Juan de Ulúa,[23] and O'Donoju, who had been assured an important position in the government of the new empire, died shortly afterwards, dishonored by his Spaniard compatriots.

The latter accounts stress that Iturbide initially rejected the offer, in favor of persuading Ferdinand VII to change his mind about ruling Mexico, but then reluctantly accepted.

The US government appointed Joel Roberts Poinsett as a special envoy to independent Mexico when Iturbide was declared emperor since James Monroe was concerned about how popular and long-lasting the regime might be.

"[29] Timothy E. Anna points out that in the months between the achievement of Independence and his crowning as Emperor, Iturbide already practically ruled the nation, as he was president of the Regency, and the junta had granted him command over all land and sea forces.

Central America only briefly was part of the Mexican Empire of Iturbide (from 1821 to 1823),[31] because by 1823 the local patriots, both liberal and conservative, made a move for total and absolute independence from Mexico and Spain.

[2][3][17] A number of prominent politicians and military leaders, many of whom had supported Agustín as emperor, turned against him for having "made a mockery of national representation" in the new Congress's composition.

[3] Leaders such as Valentín Gómez Farías and Antonio López de Santa Anna began to conspire against the imperial concept altogether and became convinced that a republican model was needed to combat despotism.

Recognizing the danger of such an invitation, Santa Anna responded with his Plan de Veracruz, which called for the reinstatement of the old Constituent Congress, which would then have the right to decide the form of government of the new nation.

Iturbide's enemy-turned-ally, Vicente Guerrero, turned back to enemy when he and General Nicolás Bravo escaped México City and allied themselves with the rebels.

Santa Anna, joined by republicans Guerrero, and Bravo, and imperial generals Echávarri, Cortázar y Rábago, and Lobato, proclaimed the Plan of Casa Mata, which called for the installation of a new Congress and declared the election of the emperor null and void.

In 1823, authorities in what are now Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Honduras convened a Congress to declare themselves independent from Mexico and Spain as the United Provinces of Central America.

[citation needed] On 11 May 1823, the ex-emperor boarded the British ship Rawlins en route to Livorno, Italy (then part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany),[5] accompanied by his wife, children, and some servants.

His ashes were received in Mexico City with much pomp and ceremony, and the same Congress that had been against him for so many years gave him honor as a hero of the War of Independence, if not the short imperial reign after.

"[7] Iturbide's reign as emperor lasted less than a year, but as leader of the coalition that brought about Mexican independence and then as its first ruler in the post-independence era, he remains an important figure not only in Mexico, but also in Europe [citation needed].

For a number of Mexican autonomists, a constitutionally sanctioned monarchy was a logical solution to the problem of creating a new state as it seemed to be a compromise between those who pushed for a representative form of government and those who wished to keep Mexico's monarchist traditions.

In their view, a republican, federalist government was virtually unheard of; for 300 years New Spain had lived in a monarchy, so a continuation of some form would have aided national stability [citation needed].

"[20] Iturbide is often described as a reactionary rather than a revolutionary [citation needed], a view supported by his initial refusal to join Miguel Hidalgo’s independence movement until it aligned with his own interests.

[33] In modern Mexico, the liberal tendency has dominated, such that much writing about Iturbide is often hostile, seeing him as a fallen hero, who betrayed the nation by grasping for personal power after independence.

He can be considered Mexico's first "caudillo," or charismatic military leader, using a combination of widespread popularity and threat of violence toward opposition to rule and would be followed by army generals Antonio López de Santa Anna and Porfirio Díaz, who came to dominate their respective eras.

[37] Given that Obregón himself was a military strong man, his 1921 commemoration of Mexican independence and Iturbide was an opportunity for him to assert his own state-building vision by appropriating a piece of Mexico's history.