Transcript Manifest Destiny – Independence For Texas

Independence For Texas
 In 1819, in the Adams-Onis
Treaty with Spain, the United
States had agreed to drop any
claim to Texas.
 At the time, few people lived in
Texas, only about 3,000.
 Because Spain wanted to
promote the growth of Texas,
they offered vast tracts of land to
people who agreed to bring their
families to settle on the land.
 The people who obtained these
grants from the government and
recruited the settlers were called
empresarios.
 One of the last to receive one of
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these grants before Mexico gained
its independence from Spain on
September 27, 1821, was Stephen F.
Austin.
Texas, of course, was part of Mexico.
Austin recruited 300 American
families, known as the Old Three
Hundred, to settle on large ranches.
Austin’s success made him a leader
among the American settlers in
Texas.
From 1823-1825, Mexico continued to
offer new settlers large tracts of land
at extremely low prices, and in
return the colonists agreed to learn
Spanish, become Mexican citizens,
convert to Catholicism, and obey
Mexican law.
 By 1830 Americans in Texas far
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outnumbered Mexicans, and very
few adopted Mexican ways.
In the meantime the United States
had twice offered to buy Texas from
Mexico.
In 1830, the Mexican government
issued a decree, or official order, that
stopped all immigration from the
United States.
Trade between Texas and the United
States was discouraged by placing a
tax on goods imported from the
United States.
These new policies angered the
Texans, especially since there was
talk about the Mexican
government’s plans to end slavery.
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In 1833 General Antonio Lopez de
Santa Anna became president of
Mexico.
Stephen Austin traveled to Mexico City
with the Texans’ demands, which were to
remove the ban on American settlers and
to make Texas a separate state.
Santa Anna agreed to the 1st request but
refused the 2nd.
Austin sent a letter back to Texas
suggesting that plans for independence
get underway.
The Mexican government intercepted the
letter and arrested Austin.
Then Santa Anna named himself dictator
and overthrew Mexico’s constitution.
He reorganized the government of Texas,
taking away almost all of their local
power.
 Unrest in Texas grew, and in 1835
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Santa Anna sent an army into Texas
to punish the settlers who were
against him.
After a brief struggle at Gonzales,
Texans drove back the Mexican
troops.
The Texans called on volunteers to
join their fight.
In December 1835, the Texans scored
an important victory when they
liberated San Antonio from the
control of a larger Mexican force.
With the Mexican withdraw,
though, many Texans left San
Antonio thinking the war was won.
No one was preparing to face Santa
Anna again.
 Davy Crockett was a
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backwoodsman from Tennessee.
He won notice for his frontier
skills, his sense of humor, and
the shrewd common sense he
often displayed in politics.
These skills helped get him
elected to 3 terms in Congress.
When he lost his seat in
Congress in 1835, he did not
return to Tennessee, but instead
went southwest to Texas to help
with the struggle for
independence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=BAhAarI1Zig
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Furious at the loss of San Antonio, Santa
Anna marched north.
When his army reached San Antonio in
late February 1836, it found a small Texas
force barricaded inside a nearby mission
called the Alamo.
Although the Texans had cannons, they
lacked gunpowder, and worse, they only
had about 180 soldiers to face Santa
Anna’s army of several thousand.
They did, however, have some brave
leaders like Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie,
and Commander William B. Travis.
For 12 long days, the defenders of the
Alamo kept Santa Anna’s army at bay
with rifle fire.
During the siege, 32 volunteers from
Gonzales slipped through the Mexican
lines to join the Alamo’s defenders.
 On March 6, 1836, Mexican cannon
fire smashed the Alamo’s walls, and
the Mexicans launched an all-out
attack.
 The Alamo defenders killed many
Mexican soldiers as they crossed
open land and tried to mount the
Alamo’s walls, but they were too
numerous.
 In the end, every defender was
killed, and only a few women,
children, and servants survived to
tell the tale.
 They had, however, bought Texans
some much needed time while
Texan leaders drew up a new
constitution and firmly declared
independence from Mexico and
established the Republic of Texas.
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Because it was not possible to hold a
general election, Texas leaders set up a
temporary government and selected
officers to serve.
Sam Houston was named commander in
chief of the Texas forces.
Raised among the Cherokee people,
Houston had fought with Andrew
Jackson against the Creek people and
had also served in Congress and as
governor of Tennessee.
Houston ordered troops at Goliad to
abandon their position to defend other
forts, but they came face to face with
Mexican troops.
Although several hundred Texans
surrendered, on Santa Anna’s orders they
were executed a few days later.
This action outraged Texans, who called
it the “Goliad Massacre.”
 Houston moved his small army
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eastward about 100 miles, watching
the movements of Santa Anna and
waiting for a chance to strike.
Finally, he gathered his army of
about 900 at San Jacinto, near
present-day Houston, where Santa
Anna was camped nearby with an
army of more than 1,300.
On April 21 the Texans launched a
surprise attack on the Mexican camp
shouting, “Remember the Alamo!
Remember the Goliad!”
They killed more than 600 soldiers
and captured 700 more, including
Santa Anna.
On May 14, 1836, Santa Anna signed
a treaty that recognized the
independence of Texas.
 Texans elected Sam Houston as their
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president in September 1836.
He promptly sent a delegation to
Washington D.C. asking the United
States to annex, or take control of,
Texas.
President Andrew Jackson refused,
however, because the addition of
another slave state would upset the
balance of slave and free states in
Congress.
Furthermore, the Mexican
government refused to honor Santa
Anna’s recognition of independence,
so fighting continued between Texas
and Mexico.
Texas also had an enormous debt
and no money to repay it.
 President John Tyler supported
adding Texas to the union and
persuaded Texas to reapply for
annexation, however the divided
Senate failed to ratify the
annexation treaty.
 By 1844, things had changed as the
feeling of Manifest Destiny was
growing throughout the country.
 After James K. Polk’s victory,
supporters of annexation pressed
the issue in Congress.
 They proposed and passed a
resolution to annex Texas, and on
December 29, 1845, Texas officially
became a state of the United States.