That the character of the Latin leadership did not improve is shown by the fact that within less than two years after Mexico became independent, the leader who had contributed most to that result, General Iturbide, attempted to destroy all elements of democracy in the government and, for a short period, made himself emperor. Upon his removal by a revolutionary movement, still headed by the Latin element, General Victoria was made President. Of the administration of the first regularly installed head of the Mexican government as a democracy, the historian says:
We have seen how one revolutionary leader after another achieved power and was in his turn displaced by a succeeding revolution, so that a historian writing of the condition of the country a few years after it had achieved its independence said:
- ↑ Mexico and Her Military Chieftains;" Robinson, page 144.