It’s not quite common knowledge that what
is now part of the United States, was once
part of Mexico, and Mexico, part of Spain.
Of course the Spanairds conquered it from
the Aztecs, who took it from the Toltecs,
who took it from the Mayans, who took it from
the Olmecs, etc.
But what we’re concerned about in this video
is how Texas, once a territory in Mexico – became
its own country.
It all started when Mexico gained its independence
from Spain which occurred around 50 years
after the U.S. gained its independence from
Great Britain.
In 1821 Mexico concluded its war of independence
and became a its own country, which was founded
on a federalist system of government, that
gave control to both Mexico’s states and
federal government.
Texas was one of these states and was given
a lot of autonomy in its ability to control
itself.
Because of its tiny population and distance
from Mexico City, Mexico’s government started
a settlement program in the hopes that Texas
would become more developed and be able to
integrate with the more populous regions of
Mexico.
Part of this settlement program was allowing
foreigners to purchase land in Texas for little
money.
The only conditions that they were given were
that they had to live in Texas for 10 years,
they had to be loyal to the Mexican government,
and they had to accept Catholicism as their
own religion.
One American, named Stephen Austin, from Virginia
accepted this deal and was given a lot of
land on the condition that he would bring
more settlers into Texas.
By 1830, Austin was able to bring over 10,000
white Americans who came to Texas and lived
alongside the Mexican Tejano population of
4,000.
The Mexican government was happy with how
its settlement program was going, but was
also becoming very cautious at this stage.
After all the Mexican population of Texas
was less than half that of the white Anglo
population.
Many Americans settling in Texas were also
protestant, patriots of the U.S. and from
slave states – which is important to note
because Mexico had made it illegal to practice
slavery in its country.
In 1833 Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana was elected
president and began to centralize the power
of the Mexican government back to the capital
in Mexico City.
The federal system weakened and states like
Texas were now being controlled from the capital.
Because of this, Austin went to the capital
in protest, requesting that Texas get its
autonomy back.
Unfortunately for Austin, he was jailed.
However, when he was released and back in
Texas, serious rebellion began to occur and
the Mexican soldiers stationed in Texas were
pushed back to Mexico City.
Santa Ana became furious and took command
of the army.
By February, 1836, his troops had passed the
Nueces River, which was the traditional border
of Texas and made his way to the Alamo in
San Antonio where the Texan Rebels were holed
up.
Most of the rebels in the Alamo, however,
were not Texans.
In fact of the 180 rebel soldiers, only 29
were Texas, 28 were European, and the remainders
were Americans.
This makes me wonder, what incentive did any
Americans or Europeans have for fighting on
the side of the Texan rebels?
It was here in 1836 that Texas became independent
of Mexico.
However, in several years, after war with
Mexico, the U.S. would claim Texas for its
own.
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