His lavish expenditures, furthermore, and his arbitrary replacement of the Congress by a docile body which would authorize forced loans at his command, steadily undermined his position.
Apart from the faults of Iturbide himself, the popular sentiment of a country bordering immediately upon the United States could not fail to be colored by the ideas and institutions of its great neighbor.

So, too, the example of what had been accomplished, in form at least, by their kinsmen elsewhere in America was bound to wield a potent influence on the minds of the Mexicans.

As a result, their desire for a republic grew stronger from day to day.
Iturbide, in fact, had not enjoyed his exalted rank five months when Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, a young officer destined later to become a conspicuous figure in Mexican history, started a revolt to replace the "Empire" by a republic.

Though he failed in his object, two of Iturbide's generals joined the insurgents in demanding a restoration of the Congress--an act which, as the hapless "Emperor" perceived, would amount to his dethronement.

Realizing his impotence, Iturbide summoned the Congress and announced his abdication.